Quick change system for blast cabinet media?

I have a small home-built blast cabinet that works well and that I'm generally satisfied with. My biggest dissatisfaction is changing the medium*. It's a PITA job getting the current medium out of all the corners and edges, to avoid it getting mixed with its replacement. I'd like to retrofit something to make it easier & faster. Especially to make it faster.

Does anybody have a "system" for this?

An idea that I'm toying with is a liner that could just be lifted out with all the medium inside. Just using a trash bag would be great, but it needs to conform to the cabinet better than a bag would (specifically, in the sump, so as to let the medium drop in). 6 mil polyethylene sheet would be my first choice. This site uses a soldering iron to make seams in it:

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hesitation would be over such a seam's strength. Anybody ever done it?

Also, the cabinet has a dust collector which keeps the cabinet at negative air pressure. Meaning that any leak behind the liner would tend to collapse it into the cabinet.

And, any holes in the liner would be a nuisance.

Maybe the liner isn't such a great idea.

Maybe I should just vacuum the medium out & collect it from the vac.

Ideas? Bob

  • - "media", "medium". The industry uses "media" whether they're talking single or multiple. I was buying some locally and we were talking about the different ones. I referred to a particular one, as in "... this medium ..." and he corrected me: "it's 'media'". He's in the media business, but he didn't know that the word is plural and that there is a singular version. I let it go.
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Bob Engelhardt
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I had to try it - it works great! His "secret" is using a strip of masking tape between the soldering iron and the poly. Avoiding direct contact makes control of the penetration much easier & the iron doesn't get melted poly all over it. My tests were short enough to just use a piece of paper, long seams would need to use the tape.

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This shows the front (hot) side, the back side, and the opened seam. It was easy enough to tear if I started at one end, but with evenly distributed force it was very strong (the 5" seam did tear, but only with one side in a vise and both hands on the other side). This was 6 mil poly, thinner would be harder to control.

Bob

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Bob Engelhardt

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