so, I picked up a small bead blast cabinet (made of wood, lined with
rubber) - it's about 2 feet by three feet - the hole to which one applies
vacuum is small - 1 inch in diameter - to test the unit, I just duck taped
my shop vac's hose near the hole - didn't try and seal it well or anything -
then I bead blasted some brake calipers - worked great, the air inside
stayed clear, etc - so the 1 inch hole is adequate with my shop vac sucking
on it. After a bit of flailing around in the internet, I found equations
for the flow through a sharp orofice, which suggests that if my shop vac
pulls 5 inches of mercury (about 2.5 psi), then i would be seeing between
350 and 530 CFM of air flow - of course my shop vac has no specs (dirt devil
wet/dry) so there is no easy way to see if that is reasonable.
I'm trying to avoid running a really really loud shop vac when I'm using the
bead blaster, hence my search for info - I can't find anything on the
scalability of a cyclone type separator - anyone know if I can make a small
one with a 1 inch entry hose using a 1 or two gallon can or do these things
not scale down well? Any ideas whether a 1/3 HP heater blower will do the
trick for evacuating the dust? Since the unit is outside, all I need to do
is blow the dust into my garden, I think, though providing a collection bag
might improve the aesthetics - a smaller blower, like found in shower
ventilators might work, I suppose I could just experiment, but sometimes
using collective knowlege is a good idea....
seeking thoughts - anyone?
- posted 15 years ago