Rob Edwards

As a confirmed tool junkie, I spend waayyyy too much time on garagejournal.com, which I recommend to everyone as a high-level time waster. Recently I decided that what I really need is a blast cabinet for cleaning parts. The folks at GJ spoke highly of tptools.com, which makes a number of different cabinets. I wanted something big enough to fit a rim, but small enough that I can move it around when necessary.

Voila- the SkatBlast 770 minicab. $219 on sale. It's a Chinese cabinet that tptools kindly adds a bunch of upgrades to in order to make it serviceable. It took a good 4-6 hours to put together, and then one of the Chicom gloves was DOA right out of the box- had a big split in the seam. Tptools sent me a new pair of their upgraded gloves for free in 2 days. Big thumbs up on their customer service.

You have to assemble with a million bolts, and then caulk the thing to seal it. It uses any shopvac with a 2.5" hose for vacuum:



Inside:



So today was the maiden voyage to give it a try. I have a small 25 gallon compressor that is only rated at 5.1 cfm @ 90 psi. I have a bunch of parts from the 91 GT engine I'm refurbing, so I used them as test dummies with about 20 lbs of glass bead (80 mesh) in the cabinet:

Before:






And after (the quadrant took ~3 minutes, the diverter valve downpipe took maybe 5):



There's a place in Anaheim that can do yellow chromate plating, so I'm going to get all the shiny bits shiny again.

The temp sensor from the top of the intake:



Now I know how you get raw aluminum castings clean again:



I have read that you need to be REALLY careful about washing internal engine pieces glass beading, which in my 2 hours of experience is true. I washed the throttle body in soapy water and hosed the hell out of it. The beads get EVERYWHERE (they're also pretty slippery if you spill them on the floor.



(These need a little more work: )


The exhaust manifolds clean up but it'll take a while to get them totally done- this is about 2 minutes of blasting but my back was getting tired:





It turns out that this setup does NOT have the horsepower to strip the original coating from the valve covers (at least not with glass beads at 80 psi), but I'm not complaining.

SoCal guys that need stuff cleaned: you're more than welcome to come help yourself- I need to amortize the cost of this thing.

Chris

Congrats, I bought a smaller one just after xmas but it is nice to be able to clean stuff for sure.

Change the filters on your shopvac often and wire brush off as much debris on rusted painted parts as possible before sandblasting.

$200 is a steal.

Chris

dr bob

Rob--

Talk to the local powderpainter and get a few bags of the silicone plugs they use to block places they don't want to paint/you don't want to blast. Looks like it does a pretty nice job.

Hint: find a barstool or something like that so you can sit instead of stand in front of it, or raise it up so you don't have to stoop to get your hands in the gloves. That will save your back a bit.

I'm interested in seeing the results from your plater too. New zinc with a yellow chromate wash would do a lot for a lot of the hardware bits under my hood. Cam cover bolts and the cup washers under them. Crossbrace and radiator bolts. There's no limit...

devilinblack

Ooooh! Very nice, Rob.

When I get around to doing my intake I'll be contacting you to see if I can rent some quality time with that nice new toy.

Rob Edwards

Well, the $219 is a little disingenuous, it was $50 to ship (from Ohio), then $9 for an inner filter for the shopvac (to prevent the motor from eating itsef), $5 for acrylic caulk, $70 for a good drier for my air line, $30 for two short whip 3/8" hoses (2.5 feet and 10 feet) and some couplers, and $35 for 50 lbs of glass bead. So honestly I'm in for $400 or so. Like I said, come use it!

Bob- Great suggestions! I actually have a few bags of the plugs but couldn't find them- I need them to clean up the diverter valve and some other bits.

I also did all the intake and exhaust valves, being sure to cover the steel stems - they came out beautifully- the combustion surfaces look brand new.

Rob Edwards

Stephen-

You're more than welcome to give it a go- It should be great for the OB intake spiders. I did toss one of the S4 valve covers in and the glass bead wouldn't touch it- maybe a more aggressive media might work for them. We'll see.

RyanPerrella

Awesome Rob, I was just thinking i would get one of these too. $219 is great too. HF has some which are probably similar quality before the upgrades and no shipping. But $219 from TP tools is good.

I noticed the exhaust manifold, was this purchase made because of my mention of using walnut shells to blast the manifolds clean from last week? Probably not as you must have ordered it before then.....



Me too. I was considering using on of the kits to do this, but i am maybe interested in having that stuff plated too. Actually i would prefer something silverish, like nickel. I know it wont be stock but.......


I may take you up on that. Ill come by with a bucket load of parts! Ill be restoring the engine on the GT also and have wanted to do this media blasting for ages.

Will your cabinet fit the rear suspension cross member?

This would be great for all the aluminum suspension pieces that we see much more often then the back sides of the timing belt covers lol

I NEED ONE OF THESE! Ive wanted one for a long long time

Thanks for noting all the other additional costs though, i wasnt aware there was so much other stuff needed honestly but its good to know the all in cost.

Oh and for the manifolds, start with something more agressive, I think the TP tools catalog has a chart for media suggestions.

FWIW i wouldnt ever try to paint the stock manifolds again, the paint wont last, so doing this is the best way to detail those.

cold_beer839

That is one of the tools on my list to buy as my shop nears completion.

SeanR

Got the exact (it was red) from Harbor Freight a couple of weeks ago and it's a life saver. Cost was less than $200.00 with the 20% off sale and a coupon. Glad to see I'm not the only tool nut.

I used crushed walnuts as the media on the intake and will use glass for the other stuff.

chrly924s

That's on my list; bought a powder coating outfit from www.eastwoodco.com last year.
Wish I hadn't clicked on this link this morning; more financial prioritizing, rationalizing purchases, shifting priorities, put off house work, braces for the kid, etc etc etc

dr bob

Sean--

Picked up from the H-F store already asembled? Will be interesting to compare the nozzles and the gloves. These are the parts that make or break the available performabce. As Rob notes, getting the torn gloves replaced was a snap with TP. H-F has been pretty good on many things, falls asleep on others.

Do the walnut hulls get the paint off the late intakes? I'll need to stoke Rob's blast media inventory later this winter when I get the intake and cam covers off. Also need to check with the powder painter guys to see if doing the cleaning ourselves really saves many $$. I like the idea of being able to do any needed fills and surface repairs between blasting and painting though.

Rob Edwards

Bob-

It so happens I'm enjoying the tptools catalog with breakfast this morning. They have a table of the various media and walnut shells have the lowest abrasive cutting power. I have ~10 lbs of walnut shells from my vibratory shaker but I'm not sure it would work on intakes. Looks like speed bead (glass + aluminum oxide mix) or 'first choice' (whatever it is) might be a better choice. I cranked the air up to 90 psi and held the nozzle about an inch from one of the valve covers for a good 30 seconds, and the glass bead didn't touch the coating.

When OC Plating can blast, outgas, AND powder coat (clear over silver) the intake AND valve covers for $200, it's hard to rationalize your own blast cabinet. But I've gotten pretty good at rationalizing.

Ryan-

The chamber is 33" wide, not enough for the rear crossmember. But darn you for mentioning suspension bits- now I'm gonna have to remove the lower A-arms.....

The other issue, honestly, is that with my puny girlyman compressor I can only blast for about 6-7 minutes at a time before the pressure drops below 60 psi- 5cfm @ 90 psi isn't enough to keep up. I could try a smaller nozzle, but the slippery slope here is that it's going to make me want a bigger compressor, which would require running 220V to the garage. You can see where this is going......

SeanR

Rob is correct, the walnut shells have the lowest abrasive/stripping power and I chose those for the intake, just in case something did get stuck in there it would have the least effect on ingestion. They do take the thinner intake stuff off, just takes more time. As for the cam covers, when I did Richard K's car the walnut shells didn't work worth a damn, so glass beads or something else for those is the route I'm taking.

As for assembly, no, it came in a box but took only an hour to get to together. Well worth the $$. I had no issues with the gloves and it came with 4 different tips, varying is size for what media is being used. Overall quality seems pretty good on everything.

Compressor wise, I've got the 150psi 33 gallon Craftsman one, and it would not keep up. I need an industrial sized one.

Oh, one thing if you go the HF route, they have the dust collector that attaches to the cabinet for $119.00, I need to get one of those so I don't burn out my wall hanging vac.

WallyP

I can assure you from experience that your shop vac WILL have a very short life-span when used on a cabinet with glass beads.

Adding a container in-line between the cabinet and the shop vac will help some. Adding an automotive air filter between the container and the shop vac will help even more.

A really good filter on the shop vac will help some, but it will clog very quickly without the two add-ons.

Even with these, you will eat the shop vac motor in fifty hours...

Rob Edwards

Wally-

Thanks for the warning! I'd actually be happy to lose the shop vac, my ears were ringing after an hour or so.

M'kay, Sean, got a HF part # for the dust collector?