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Thu Mar 20, 2003 4:17 pm

I was wondering if any one restoring VW's might have some experience with these small ("bench top") blast cabinets. I'd like to know which size of cabinet might be the best for most VW componets - wheels, engine tin, etc. They only information I can get might be in an Eastwood catalog or off the internet. Is it best to spend a little more and get one that might have its own "stand" with foot pedal control or would the smaller plastic style cabinet be sufficent? Is a dust collect (ie. - shop vac) a "must have" when blasting in a smaller cabinet? One last question, out of all the medias offered (sand, glass bead, poly, etc.) which seems to do the best for small to medium sized parts without the fear of possible warpage? Thanks for the help!

Thu Mar 20, 2003 5:31 pm

I dont think you risk warping anything small, like your talkin about. Warping is usually only a concern with large panels like doors, hoods, rooftop, ect...

Thu Mar 20, 2003 7:21 pm

We have two blast cabinets at work. The old one is a syphon feed cabinet about 2x2x3. The other is a pressure feed that's 4x4x4. We used to blast wheels and all sorts of things in the 2x2x3 on a regular basis. It was very slow but got the job done. Once we got the pressure feed cabinet we honestly rarely use the little cabinet anymore.

We use aluminum oxide basically exclusively. It lasts and cuts much faster than the sand and glass beads. It will warp sheet stainless and small pieces of sheetmetal if you run to much pressure.

For the wheels you may be better off to find a commercial blaster and have them basically rough in the wheels and then just do the touch up at home. Also make sure your compressor has enough cfm to keep up with whatever blaster you get.

Mike Paskiet
Summit Powder Coaters
59 single, 69 bus

Thu Mar 20, 2003 8:44 pm

It is not that hard, or expensive to make your own for home use. I built my own primarily out of 5/8" thick plywood, with inside dimmensions of approx. 2' x 3' x 4' with aluminum ducting for media return, and abs ducting for exhaust ventilation. i bought a pair of gloves and flanges from a surplus supplier, and scavenged the blasting equipment from my cheap siphon blaster. Total cost was less than $75. ekim had good advice about air volume. unless your compressor has better than 6 cfm @ 90 psi, you will find that blasting becomes tedious

Fri Mar 21, 2003 1:50 pm

There are times we wish we had built our own also. They really aren't that complicated if you are building a regular syphon feed model. Our pressure feed is more complex with the seperator and everything but we still ended up reengineering most of it anyways.

Mike