I am considering whether to buy a bead blasting cabinet. Any of you have any experience with these? Any recommendations? Any warnings of things to avoid? Should I consider one of the type that sits on a cabinet, or only the kind that are free standing? How much capacity is enough for home workshop use. I envision using it for cleaning small parts mostly. All comments will be welcome. Thanks in advance.

 

Generally the price difference between a small one and one that's big enough to do a wheel or an intake isn't that significant. If you have the space for it, I'd say get one big enough to do a wheel.

That raises the question of whether your air compressor is up to it though.... you can make do with a smaller compressor if you put a large air tank in, that way you get good pressure for a while then you can let the pressure build back up while you do something else.

 

I have a nice one I got from my snap-on dealer. Like Dave says if you get one big enough for a wheel of a motor block (like mine) get a huge twin head compressor. I have a good sized single head compressor and it can only keep up the the bead blaster for 5 min then I lose so much air the blaster wont suck the bead up anymore. Second is to make shure you have a great line dryer in place. Wet air is no fun in a blaster.

Think I paid 1300.00 for my unit and after 2 years several 928 intakes and other parts, more then a few Chev. and dodge parts , it still works like new. The gloves are still in one piece and the glass window it still clear.

I have seen cheap units blast them selves to nothing.

Just food for thought.

 

Also, something else that just occurred to me... if you get a larger unit, you can always put a smaller nozzle on it to do fine work. But if you get a small one, you'll kick yourself some day when you have a part that's just 1/2" bigger than the cabinet....

Thurston makes an excellent point about dryers too. You'll want a dryer and oil separator between the compressor and the tank, and a dryer adjacent to the blaster or on the tank outlet.

 

Let's see...

$1300 will buy you one Snap-On blast cabinet, four large floor-model Harbor Freight blast cabinets, or eighteen bench-top Harbor Freight blast cabinets. How many do you think that you can wear out?

"Speed costs money, boy. How fast do you want to go?"

 

Unless you plan on doing a TON of bead blasting (media blasting) they are really not worth the investment.

Bead blasters are like boats, the best ones in the world are someone else's!

Now if you know anyone that needs a big compressor for a big blast cabnet, let me know! I run across a few real nice ones every now and than( see pic below).
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If you’re looking to clean a few small to medium car parts, why not use a chem. Tank?

I have one large free standing bead blaster, three chem. washers, one large free standing custom made SS (30-50 gal.), one med size free standing (20 gal.), one small table top (10 gal.). The chemical washers see 99.9% of the work. In fact the small Chemical Washer I keep in the garage at the house is really handy, ease to clean and small enough to have in a home garage.

Here’s a picture of the little one I have and use at home, plus a few pics of a twin cylinder, 10hp, 3 phase, 120 gal. air comressor that will drive a BIG BEAD PLASTER, plus almost anything else you can throw at it! (the below air compressor is for sale and comes with a SS stand. $2,500.00 + shipping)

 

Thanks for all the input guys. Wally, you sure have a way of getting to the point. I guess I have to find out how much air I have available before I can move forward. My compressor is so old all the pertinent info is no longer legible. It is a two stage with a 2 hp elecrtic motor. It might not be big enough to even run one of the bench top blasters. I will call Grainger and get the specs on it Monday and get back with you then.

FWIW, I am going to get a small chem tank as well. Tmax, I noticed yours seems to have a safetykleen logo on it. Do they still rent those out, or did you buy it? I used to rent one of those, but thought I would buy my own.

Thanks again for the info.

Cheers

 

Haha True to a point Wally. My father has one of the large cabinets for harbor freight. He uses he about the same as I do. he goes through 3 pairs ofr those gloves and atleast 1 window each year.

Air pressure about the same for both of us. And my snappy cabinet has a beautifull eagel paintied on it and came with a matching gas BBQ. What a deal... Well may have something to do with that fact I spend 5000.00 + dollars with him every year.

 

Joe, You might be able to get the spec on-line from Grangers. I do'nt know who safetykleen is nor did I know they rented them. I bought mine at an auction (hope they don't want it back ). I think I gave a whole 10 bucks for it and a few other things that were on the plalet (lot).

I'm sure they don't make them, I have seen other like them for sale in the cheap tool rags (magazines), they work great and would recommend this type for a home garage.

Thurston, have you ever thought about putting some thin cheap plexi over the window on the inside of the glass?

My media blast cabnet is from like the 30's-40's holds like 3 or 4 bags of glass or 2-3 bags of walnut shells or plastic pelets. I replaced the gloves, glass and hoses once in 10 years.

5000.00 + dollars with him every year. holy radiator man, that be a ton of duckies on tools!

 

There are those who buy a tool to use once in a while, there are those who buy tools because their job requires it, and there are the Tool Addicts who buy them to enrich their collections.

I'm in the third group! Proto, Mac and Snap-away with an occasional Crapsmen.

 

Hi Guys.

Don't waste your money on the Harbor Freight junk. We have a number of blast cabinets. Five at last count. There is only one name in blasting and that is Emprire Abrasives. They make the finest cabinets bar none. Wally, you spout a lot of wisdom, but I have to disagree. A blast cabinet is worth owning if you go a fair amount of work yourself. Don't go cheap. Snap-on doesn't make their own cabinets they are contracted out. Be assured that if you buy one from Harbor freight, you will be picking up media from all over. Get a good one and then when your friends want to use it, just tell them it wasn't free and you need a couple of bucks to cover your expenses. Hell if they won't pay it, they probably wouldn't take care of your tools anyway. Emprire abrasives makes a few econoline cabinets that are fantastic. The snap-on unit will cost a little more and be a little less in quality for the same size cabinet. There is a lot more to a cabinet than just size as well. Like how well does it siphon and how long do the nozzles last? Also how well does it collect the dust or is it like seeing through a sand storm? Yes we are a distributor for Empire, but only because they make the finest in blasting systems. Let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks!

 

No one has commented about what to look for in the feed system. There are 2 kinds, direct pressure or suction feed. Direct pressure blasters are much better than the suction feed systems. Also instead of buying a new compressor,sometimes you can put a larger holding tank inline and still keep the same compressor. For the windows, a thin sheet of plexiglass or a piece of screen usually keeps the glass from getting ruined. Lastly there are all sorts of media to choose from, aluminium oxside works real great but you shouldn't use it in engine blocks. Glass beads or even plastic should be used.

 

Curt,
There's a HAZMAT team on the way...
Christ!
Even out here in the armpit of Texas if someone smells barbeque the street gets clogged up
with Fire Dept, Waste and City Services, County Fast /First Responder vehicles.
Chemically speaking, even the - now useless - carb. cleaner solvents , which are environmentally friendly attract so much attention (it's like those lawfirm ads re: Vioxx/Celebrex) ambulance chasers get the Government folks to inspect which opens the door for FOI paper work and free-hand inspection of the whole yard. Some of the big yards are in excess of 20 acres with hundreds of pieces of equipment and if the legal beagles find a dripping tranny or radiator you either settle or face a nusiance law suit. Those butt holes drill test wells, start looking for kids with learning difficiencies, and employee's who died of cancer...
Then again, when Odessa had three chrome shops they dumped so much of their used chemical baths that there are at least two expanding chromium/nickle plumes creeping into the surface/ground water well systems.
Just about everyone has gone to OrangeSol, spray or bath system.
That being said, I do like the idea of a homebased media blaster, Curts looks like pretty good system
with sufficient work room and compressor capacity. Bought at discount was a good touch.
You can shield the window with tear offs if that becomes an issue.
But $5000.00 ?????
That's the cost of a healthy 81' sHARk if you are patient.
Around here we have two outfits that will come to your location to strip fences, old car bodies, clean brick, etc... or you can take items to their shop for striping/burnishing. An option you might want to consider before laying out a bunch of Franklins'.
Me? I freely admit, I'm a cheapo, pennypinching, tightwad -brought up on a 150 acre farm, you see-.
It helps that I have access to a towed Ingersol/Rand commercial compressor capable of running three 115 lb jack-hammers at once, a 5 bag capacity cutting sand hopper, hoses, a variety of nozzles, hood with total head to mid chest leathers, interlocking leather jacket, and welders gloves.
I'm not sure if it ever becomes an issue with enclosed media blasters but the various oxides of alumnium, or, what-have-you in addition to dust from your media silicas' being particulaly (no pun)
hazardous. So I'd recommend a good particulate mask, perhaps a full face. Another consideration -if you buy a leaker or store cutting sands in your garage would be to watch out when you open up an engine or tranny. Storing in 5 gallon buckets with lids would be a good idea.
I suppose I don't have to caution you on the use of cleaning the garage or parts for that matter with compressed air and never spin a bearing with compressed air.
I think this is a matter of value derived from need/use, availability, convienence.
I have seen garage sales where thousands of dollars worth of wood working tools and machinery went for pennies per pound.
Like everyone else, I too, have a shelf and corner in the garage where the 'White Elephants' live. Think about it.

 

We have one of the Emprire Abrasives units in the school shop. It is expensive, but there are many advantages over the cheap units others have written about herein.

1. This system is expensive -- did I mention that? But that translates to well-made American Engineering like it used to be before China stuff hit the markets.

2. It takes any kind of media you would want to use -- pecan shells if you want them

3. It is safe to use -- think about breathing aluminum oxide dust .... enviro0nazi's invading your garage, etc.

4. It has turntables with enough strength to hold just about anything including blocks

5. You can use the parts baskets to hold little stuff

6. It has a media recovery system -- intead of making up the lost $50 media every two or three jobs

7. It can be a profit center for you. Meaning that once you get the hang of it you can put a small advertisement out in the local car trader, send a flyer around by mail to the auto repair places (you can get a preprinted set of labels from the local post office for a fee) and you can pay back the cost of your machine in a few months of doing jobs for other people. You pick and choose the job, of course. The machine and all accoutrements then become tax deductable with all those advantages.

8. You will become the media blaster of your community. Neighbors will bring their barbeque grills to you at $10 a pop.

9. Form your own LLC, call it "MasterBlaster of {your town}" and watch the money roll in. Spend the money on Porsches and Babes/Babes and Porsches.

Two of our very enterprising students three years ago did exactly that. They started using the blaster after school for a couple of hours and were raking in big bucks for themselves (with a donation to our vocational learning outreach program) until the administrators found out about it and decided that it was bad for the kids to be learning to be entreprenuers.

The guys graduated in 2002, bought their own machine plus a mobile sand blasting system and are making more money now than the moron principal whose claim to fame was putting a flashlight in one ear and reading the newspaper out of her other ear.

I am using them on a big restoration job starting in January, they will be doing a large wrought iron stair case and balcony dated back to the 1880's. They ain't cheap either. Their older brother, who graduated in 2001, started his own "Cuttin' Business" doing lawns; He now drives a customized F350 Diesel, has 10 seasonal employees, bought his own farm wth house and barns at age 21, and is generally livin' large. And did I mention the Babes? Something about those rich young Bubba Guys down here in the south.

Oh -- one more soap box item: most of the kids whom I had in class were ones that the administrators and the regular teachers would say "well, he dropped through the cracks" .. meaning they weren't going to college and would probably be cooking meth in their double wide vinyl clad before they could legally drink. We fooled 'em.

Goes to show that young men and women when given the opportunity will take the reins and ride a good horse to win. = to our young people, the future of our country!



YMMV

Cheers,

Dave

 

John, I have the hazmat under control. I have a few old school chums that work for a local emergency clean up com. I have three BIG YELLOW approved hazardous waste drums that I dump my waste into. When they have a run to the approved dump and my drums are in need of exchange, they pick them up.

The spent oil and dirty mineral spirits get picked up by a guy who intern sells it to be burnt by refineries.

When I was just a tad pole, a friends dad had a home made blast cabinet out of wood, fiberglass and a little steel.

He used a small 110-115 VAC 10-20 gal air compressor with 20-30 gal. pig (reservoir), a small shop vacuum connected to a 15 gal steel drum (separator) to keep the dust down inside the cabinet.

You couldn’t run it for more than 5-10 min. before you had to let the little compressor catch up, but it worked, did a nice job and was cheap to build and use.