Blower/filter on a sandblaster

Does the blower output go thru any kind of separator ? They often use a "cyclone" to separate the sand , it's heavier and will be thrown outwards by the whirling air . I'm not familiar with design details , just the theory ...

The Guyson blasting cabinet I use has a extractor fan to suck out dust and does pick up some grit but there is a flap on the outlet vent which control the strength of the suction to prevent to muck grit being taken out, does yours have any way of controlling the flow.

I've run glass beads in my cabinet without losing them to the filter. These are fine enough to be like powder to the touch. I think that their density is too high to remain air borne long enough to be sucked out.

"Sand", on the other hand probably has much more dust that would be lost, but that's no loss, if you know what I mean.

When I built my cabinet, I used a vac to clear the air inside. Using a blower puts positive pressure in the cabinet, which would exploit the tiniest crack to drive dust into the shop. Is this the way that it's usually done?

Bob

I'm assuming the blower actually produces a vacuum, not pressure? If set u p correctly it will maintain negative pressure in the cabinet. Any dust it pulls out will be too fine to be useful in cleaning. However, it will be ve ry bad for you if it's in your breathing air. Mine is a cheap HF cabinet, but it has a mesh filter over the air inlet i n the back of the cabinet. On the other end is a hole for a vacuum hose. I use a shop vac with a good filter. Before it gets to the vac, the hose runs into a closed bucket half full of water. The inlet hoe from the cabinet en ds up underwater, and the out hose is in the top of the bucket, running to the vac. The vac is always started before the blasting, and the exhausted air bubbles through the water before going through the vac filter and then out into the air. I also have the vac exhaust as far away from me as possib le. When I am ready to open the cabinet, I let the vac run a few minutes be fore I crack the seal.

The blower that I have sucks air from the cabinet and pushes that air into a filter bag outside.

The "sand" I have is not silica sand, but some sort of a proper sand blasting media. It is of fine composition and does feel like powder to the touch, like you said.

Yes, vacuum.

OK, got it, thanks, makes sense

Does the water become disgusting after a few hours?

OK, thanks. Yes, it feels like extremely fine sand, the grains are so tiny.

General rust and paint removal only.

Very nice, I have a 24" Trinco cabinet, that I will be soon selling due to putting the big one in service.

OK, what size?

I hope that you use proper breathing equipment!

I've recently discovered a wet sandblaster mod for a pressure washer on eBay for $95. It's very, very interesting.

It looks a helluva lot faster than the cheapie handheld blaster I have or the bigger cabinet I once used at Gunner's.

For rust and paint removal on HEAVY steel/iron, where surface finish isn't a major concern, medium grit coal slag (aka 40-50 grit)

If you want a "better" finish switch to aluminum oxide at 80-90 grit.

Installing a centrifugal separator in the system can make a big difference and don't skimp on hose size. High CFM at lower velocity is much better for dust removal.

I've been looking at a dust free system myself, uses water mixed into the blast stream to control the dust. If it works as well as I've seen videos and demos it could make serious money.

I remember discovering that and thinking it was a neat idea. But when I "researched" it on the net, I found its deficiencies too great. Unfortunately, I can't remember the details, but I did want to give a heads up.

Bob