I took the plunge today and bought myself a nice blasting cabinet.

http://stores.channeladvisor.com/affordabletools/Items/HR-2763?sck=7764557

This place has some awesome deals and I am lucky enough to live 15 minutes away so I don't have to pay for shipping.

Anyway - I am going to assemble this sucker tomorrow and have a few questions for those who have one or a similar one:

1. Any tips on assembly?

2. Will I be able to angle headers into this thing or are they too long to close the door - and if they are...any tricks to seal off the end of the cabinet in order to leave the door open for larger parts?

3. What media is suggested for doing chassis parts, headers, wheels, and other cast or steel parts? I was planning on using black beauty. I know silica sand is bad news.

4. What else might I need other than my air compressor and media to get started blasting tomorrow?

hello, get some black magic from menards! it works great! and it is cheap!!!

I picked up the same from harbor freight a week ago seems to be a sturdy cabinate, I haven't used it yet but picked up some aluminum oxide to use in it, seems that it is the best for removing rust scale so I will give it a shot and see what happens.

I took the plunge today and bought myself a nice blasting cabinet.

http://stores.channeladvisor.com/affordabletools/Items/HR-2763?sck=7764557

This place has some awesome deals and I am lucky enough to live 15 minutes away so I don't have to pay for shipping.

Anyway - I am going to assemble this sucker tomorrow and have a few questions for those who have one or a similar one:

1. Any tips on assembly?

2. Will I be able to angle headers into this thing or are they too long to close the door - and if they are...any tricks to seal off the end of the cabinet in order to leave the door open for larger parts?

3. What media is suggested for doing chassis parts, headers, wheels, and other cast or steel parts? I was planning on using black beauty. I know silica sand is bad news.

4. What else might I need other than my air compressor and media to get started blasting tomorrow?

1. just assemble like they say in the instructions

2.You might be able to duct tape a bag on the side of the bead blaster.

3. Black beauty (coal slag) has low levels of tritium in it, might not be enough to hurt you, but wear a really good respirator and stay out of any dust. I think black beauty comes in different sizes, get the smallest you can get, because you probably don't have the larger nozzle.

4. If it doesn't have a vacuum, buy about a $30 one, they only last about three months, I know sand will get to them in that time. You will need a light if it doesn't have one.

My son started running steel shot in a small one like you have, and he really likes it.

Rob

Heres a little heads up on bead blasters.

I use one quite a bit, but I always have supplied air on.

Bead blasters can be used occasionly if a person takes a few precautions and wears a respirator.

Anytime your blasting you will have airborne contaminats.

So it isn't only the media you might be breathing, but what the media is taking off that goes airborne.

I'm not trying to scare anybody here with horror stories, just pointing out a few things.

And they all leak air, because of the air blowing into them, the vac won't get it all.

Beadblasters are nasty to deal with, you get junk in the air filling them, emptying them, when you open the door to put parts in you breathe it, when you blow your parts off after blasting you might be breathing it.

In other words, when you start using one your into it, so use a vac, point it down wind, just use some good common sense with it.

Once your friends know you have one, they may bring a couple of small parts over to have you blast them.

Well, this might be a lead based paint, just stop and think about all these things before you fire that baby up.

One more time here, if its a bead blaster, its airborne.

Put your respirator on before you even get near it.

Anyway, just trying to help out here, and, you will like a bead blaster, you can paint something, and if the color isn't right, blast her off and repaint, they are really nice to have.

Good luck.

Rob

blast with the blaster outside cause the dust gets everywhere !! mines got wheels on it so i can roll it out in the driveway !! siliconing all the joints on the blast box helps keep the dust contained too.:thumbsup:

Really - even with the cabinet the dust still flies everywhere? That sucks! I only plan on using it occasionally for small parts here and there, so I didn't really want to buy a $600+ supplied air respirator. I went out and bought an MSA Safety Works Toxic Dust respirator mask with the changeable filters. I was hoping that with the cabinet and this mask and the relatively low amount of usage it will get - that I'll be okay. It will be a LOT safer than using nothing at all - but a supplied air system is not in the budget. (I know - neither are the doctor bills from lung cancer - I get it). Just wondering what the experts think...I won't be standing over the blasting cabinet very often or for very long.

You will be fine if you use it in the garage and have plenty of ventalation. I too recommend sealing every joint with silicone, use a shop vac to help filter the dust and at a minimum use a good respirator. Does not have to be a SCBA respirator, but don't rely on just a cheap dust mask. Use a decent cartridge respirator and make sure to shave before you fit it on your face or it wont seal. I use aluminum oxide in mine with everything I have mentioned above in my garage and it works great.

Secondly, a regular header won't fit in the box. Maybe a shorty header (???), but not a standard size header. I don't recomment taping a bag to the end because your vac will want to suck it into the box.

Good Luck.

I have plenty of ventilation in the shop. I was thinking about getting a shop vac and an extra hose to dump the exhaust out the window next to the cabinet. That won't hurt anything but the overgrown brush behind the shop. Good tip on the masks/respirators and I will be sure to use caution and keep my face out of the dust!!

For squeezing a header in there - I may fab something like an aluminum box to slip over the end of the cabinet that could be sealed with duct tape just to get the headers done. Its not like I'll be doing a lot of these...just two of them.

I'll let you all know how it works out.

Here is the respirator I bought today at Home Depot for less than $30.
http://www.msasafetyworks.com/catalog/product1124.html

if you buy a GOOD blast cabinet you wont need a respirator and you wont have a dust problem.

something like this,
http://www.tptools.com/eccStoreImages/product_images/Images/960-ti-sandblasting-cabinet_L.jpg

The skat blast is the one we have-great piece of equipment!! shop vac hooked to it and I dont notice alot of escaped debris. When you open the door there is some airborne dust though. You forget about it after six cold ones!!! DONT try putting oversize parts in there and improvising on the door seal-IT DONT WORK!!! You will have media everywhere. Norman:beers:

Bryan, if you have the time, try and read all you can on respirators, then you will be giving yourself the best possible protection you can.

Heres some.

http://www.1969supersport.com/respirators.html

Rob

Okay - so I got around to putting the thing together today and step #1 SHOULD have read: "STEP 1. Empty giant bag of bolts, nuts, and washers into a tray and spend an hour separating them all by size and counting them to match the quantities to the instruction sheet because there is no indication of what is what at any point in this booklet." :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

Other than that it is coming together nicely. I bought a couple of tubes of clear silicone and will hit every crack and crevice before I put it into use. I hope this helps seal it up - I'm sure it won't hurt. :confused:

Then I ran to Menards and bought two 50 lb bags of Black Magnum for $5.39 each! Wow. I almost paid $25 for 25 lbs of Black Beauty online. So what is the difference besides the price?

I hope to have this thing up and running by tomorrow night...wish me luck.

Okay - so 7 1/2 hours later my cabinet is assembled. The people who make these things should be hung, drawn, and quartered!!! There had to be 200+ nuts/bolts/washers all about the size of one of these smiley face icons on here. One tip for anyone assembling one of these - dunk your fingertip in silicone caulk if you want to have any chance of picking up and holding onto these little s.o.b.'s!!! I did the entire assembly myself except for having the wife hold the screw driver while I tightened 6 unreachable screws...but the rest was a one man operation. I could have shaved off a 1/2 hour but the chinese directions weren't clear on the hopper assembly and I had the two side panels backwards, siliconed all nice and neat, and bolted together. Then I realized what I did and had to undo the whole mess and start over. Beyond that - and the fact there is no way to know if you are using the correct bolts - I didn't make any mistakes. I counted all the bolts and matched them up with the instruction sheet...it was the only way to know what the hell a #47 vs a #50 vs a #49 was.

One other thing - after siliconing all (and I mean ALL) joints inside the cabinet, I then went over them with duct tape. I'm sure some dust will still escape, but this HAS to minimize it I would think. Anyone else done this with success?

3. Black beauty (coal slag) has low levels of tritium in it,
Rob

Where did you get this information? The MSDS for Black Beauty does not list tritium in any amount. Here is the msds:

http://www.usmix.com/download.php?0b11b9dd4c6beac2a8fc45fc0daf5412

Here's the link for the Black Magnum msds. Also no reference to it containing tritium.

www.us-minerals.com/MSDS.pdf

For information on the various types of blasting media, here is a link to the Eastwood blast media selection chart:

http://www.eastwoodco.com/jump.jsp?itemID=1478&itemType=CATEGORY&iMainCat=688&iSubCat=1478

1. just assemble like they say in the instructions

2.You might be able to duct tape a bag on the side of the bead blaster.

3. Black beauty (coal slag) has low levels of tritium in it, might not be enough to hurt you, but wear a really good respirator and stay out of any dust. I think black beauty comes in different sizes, get the smallest you can get, because you probably don't have the larger nozzle.

4. If it doesn't have a vacuum, buy about a $30 one, they only last about three months, I know sand will get to them in that time. You will need a light if it doesn't have one.

My son started running steel shot in a small one like you have, and he really likes it.

Rob

I'm not sure on how to do this, but anyway I'll take the time here and try to explain where I'm coming from.

I have put out quite a bit of information on respiratory protection, and for the most part very basic.

This basic information comes from working in environments that require using these types of respirators

Negative pressure
positive pressure
supplied air
scba

I run a siphon, pressurized pot, and a siphon beadblaster on occasion as a hobbist.

So, the first thing to be addressed, is how much blasting and what type of material will actually hurt you. I don't have a clue, but I do know there are certain things that a person needs to or should be aware of when doing it.

Large commercial operations, like maybe a shipyard or whatever do on the job air sampling to protect a person when blasting, in other words they keep the level of exposure under federal regulations.

Occasional use of black beauty with a negative type respiratory might be the only protection you need, again I'm not sure and nobody else is, but if you can enhance your protection by learning why this works and why that won't, thats my intent.

Going down to the local auto supply or building supply and purchasing a respirator is a good thing for blasting and painting.

I'll just try to take it to the next level.

A lot of this is on my web site, but we'll just go over it again.

In order to determine if your respirator is working properly, the only sure way is to be put on a machine and be tested, so enter here nuclear power.

If you put on a respirator and walked into a booth where some body is spray painting a car, took a few good breaths through that respirator, walked out, took it off, it would be pretty hard to detect if you inhaled any paint fumes.

You do this in an radioactive airborne room, and walk right back out, they have the technology to detect anything that got by your mask or through your respirator filters.

So, a nuclear power plant is where you will find how these respirators really work.

They have procedures, and controls they have to follow, and to stay within a procedure they need to insure that all personnel that will or might have a remote chance of ingesting or inhaling any radioactive material be tested and trained on how to use a respirator.

Airborne radioactivity, I'll keep it very basic.

If you have a room that has radioactive material in it, you cannot enter that room unless you have a rwp, which is a radioactive work permit.

You will have a pre job brief and told what you can and cannot do, what you will wear for protective clothing, and if you need a respirator and what type, so when your done walking around or actually working on something, when you exit that area you will be monitored to check that you didn't get any radioactive material on you or in you or by way of ingesting or inhalation.

Okay were going to go into a room and grind, on a radioactive pipe. Looking at this pipe, its dirt and dust free on the surface.

When you grind on a radioactive pipe you will have airborne radioactivity, a health physics technician will run a air sampler during this, and the cartridge and paper filter will be sent into the chemistry department to determine what different types of isotopes have been put into the air.

All of this is evaluated to determine the type of protective clothing and respirator the individual needs to protect himself.

I could type on this for a couple of days, so don't nit pick it, its just a basic overview.

If your in a radioactive airborne cubicle and you (break the seal) in other words you might have turned your head to far to one side and the seal of the respirator lets some air by it, they can put you through a monitor and tell how much and what it actually is that got by it.

I'm 66 years old, started smoking in my early teens, quit smoking a little over a year ago, so I smoked steady for a good fifty years. I have run my beadblaster with black beauty and silica sand a few times without a respirator.

I can breathe okay, but if I get around a lot of airborne dust or paint I can feel it, so I use supplied air for everything but welding, but I keep a decent suction on my welding area and wear a mask when welding.

Okay, what can a guy do to protect himself the best he can.

Heres the scenario. We'll use Bill.

Bill just got home from work, and says to himself, I'm kind of tired, but I think I'll fire up that bead blaster and clean up those bumper brackets.

He's thinking, this will only take a few minutes.

Well Bill can stop right here, and he can start thinking about what he is going to do, how Bill can take care of himself, his wife and children can't do it, Bill has to.

It doesn't matter if you shaved before you went to work that morning, you need to do it again.

So shave, walk out to the garage, get your parts staged.

Put your respirator on right now, cover the filters with the palm of your hand and suck in a good deep breath and make sure the respirator kind of starts to collaspe or pull in on your face, if it doesn't your getting some leakage, so try adjusting the straps a little, spend a minute or two on it until you feel like its okay.

Keep your hair out of the respirator, that will prevent a good seal.

Now its uncomfortable, well to bad, deal with it:)

By putting it on right away you will start to sweat a little bit around the chin area, thats what you want.

Right now, Bill is getting a little aggravated, it really sucks wearing one.

Just because you think you have a seal right now without leakage, don't be so sure that you won't in a little bit.

Don't turn your head to far up or down or sideways, don't frown or do anymore facial expressions then you have to, don't talk unless you have to, try to slow down your body movements just a little, in other words be aware of the respirator.


Now you can go over to the bead blaster, start up the vacuum, make sure the vac exhaust is blowing down wind or away from you. load it up with media, or scrape it up in a pile in the blaster so the siphon tube is in the media sticking in it.

Blast what you have to, let the air inside the cabinet clean out, then pull your parts off and blow them off, down wind again, shut the blaster vac off, blow the dust off the front of you just in case, then take those clean parts and get away from the blaster.

If the blaster is in the same building you will be working in, open the door if not allready and blow the blaster off and anything around it including the floor, away from you again.

Give it a few minutes, then you take the respirator off.

Wether you realize it or not, you have just taken advantage of the only protection available to you in a situation like this.

How much does it help, well you can ask yourself.

I know my sentence structure sucks, but I'm two fingering these keys, then add in old age, you guys get the picture.:)

Rob

Easy tip Don't put too much media in your blaster it will pack on the bottom, then you will not get any to the tip. Also make sure your air supply is dry air. wet media packs easy.