sand blaster ?'s please read guys

[brans72]

So right now I can not afford both but wondering what you would recomm first guys! A vaccum reclaimer or a dust collector for my habor frieght stand up unit? I have tried a shop vaccum but that got burnt up. So which would you recomm and wonder what brands etc on tight budget here. Thanks Brandon

[makoshark]

I have heard, don't hold me to it, the Harbor Freight reclaimer actually works quite well

[brans72]

Same here on that note. I figured with 74 views I would get more then one post. Guess i need to mybe check on the H.A.M.B for info. Thanks for posting up. Brandon

[ccm399]

Not sure about your area but there are TONS of used nice dust collectors on Craigslist up here. I plan to buy one of them and use it for a blast cabinet when I get my barn built. :yes:

Chris

[elitecustombody]

Whatever you buy, just stay away from HF vacuum/blaster , it does not blast and I can't say the it vacuums well either.I even tried using it as dust collector with blasting cabinet,after I let go of the trigger, it takes at the least a minute to suck the dust out so you can see what's going on in the cabinet ,it does not keep up at all. Spend your money on good quality dust collector.

[brans72]

any brands you would look at then? I know there where some good reviews on the H.A.M.B for the H/F one.

[GregWeld]

I have the TP Tools blast cabinet... The bigger RED version they sell... I have their UPGRADED vac... not the one that comes with it... and a RECLAIMER in between. The reclaimer doesn't add to the clarity of the blast cabinet. It's there to allow the larger particles to drop out of the vac stream so you can reuse them. The fine dust goes into the vac.

I vented the vac exhaust OUTSIDE the shop. You can get silicosis from breathing this super fine dust. I had it vented inside the shop and noticed that I felt "dirty" after a blast session... so vented it outside - and bingo -- I can blast all day and not feel different or smell anything or see anything inside the shop.

This is the blast cabinet I have:

http://www.tptools.com/p/875,381_960-SE-Patriot-Abrasive-Blasting-Cabinet.html

This is the VAC system I upgraded to:

http://www.tptools.com/p/39,15_176-DC-Insider-Dust-Collector.html

This is the RECLAIMER in between the vac and the cabinet:

http://www.tptools.com/p/256,15_Stand-Alone-Vacuum-Abrasive-Reclaimer.html

NOTE THAT THE RECLAIMER IS COMPLETELY PASSIVE -- it does nothing except to allow the heavier sand to drop into a collection box.

[70rs]

There is a great thread on Nastyz28 about building a simple water pre filter for shopvacs hooked up to blast cabinets. It saves the shop vac from burning up and is super easy and cheap to build.

Look in the garage/shop thread section. Sorry I don't have a link.

[elitecustombody]

any brands you would look at then? I know there where some good reviews on the H.A.M.B for the H/F one.

The reclaimer HF sells is probably OK, I was talking about their blaster/vac combo. It's worthless.

[GregWeld]

The part people don't understand is how FINE the dust is.... which is why they have these special vacs that use many "bags" for filtration -- and they have bag shakers and clean outs (manual in my case) to keep them unclogged. A shop vac would be useless unless you're not planning to do much blasting.

If you have a blaster... and your friends find out... fugidaboudit... everybody has something they need to clean!

[brans72]

I do agree ith you there Greg and I don't want to breath that crap in really. I do wear a 3M respirator when blasting in garage. I can not afford both so need to start some where and guess reclaimer would be good start I think. Please correct me if I am wrong. Working 2 jobs right now,baby due in July and house payment etc I have to budget tightly to even play at all. Thanks for info so far and keep it coming. Brandon

[GregWeld]

I think a guy could make a reclaimer... and make it cheaply. All it is, or does, is to change air direction which causes the larger chunks to "drop out" of the air stream. In fact -- just dropping velocity for just a bit would probably do the trick... In the sense of the dust and grit get picked out of the air in the blast cabinet.... then they go into the reclaimer... my guess is that there's a "wall" between the intake and the suction side with openings at the top and bottom -- and the heavy grit hits the wall and drops into the bottom. The dust continues on into the vac. Just guessing here about how it works but it certainly seems like a simple enough contraption.

It's the fine fine dust that's killing the vacuum... they just can't handle that kind of fine dust.

[brans72]

waiting on your plans here Greg :D . I kinda understand what your saying but thinking how to build it is little harder to picture what I could use. I do have a couple guess 25 gal or hair small metal barrels for gear oil that are empty if that might help. Space is also a concern but open to hear your ideas anytime.

[Garage Dog 65]

I wonder if one of the wood dust cyclone designs would work for this ? I'd think you could make one out of light gage sheet metal pretty easy. There are plans out there in several locations.

http://www.woodcraft.com/Product/2021015/26326/Oneida-Molded-DIY-Dust-Deputy-Cyclone.aspx

Here's one out of PVC.


http://lumberjocks.com/SimonSKL/blog/10097


Jim

[BBC71Nova]

You might do a search over on GarageJournal because I've seen similar discussions get started over there. IIRC there are some fairly inexpensive cyclone style bucket setups that are popular. It sounded like they work pretty well between the cabinet and a shop vac.