building my own sand blast cabinet - need opinions

[Rick]

I am a cabinet maker by profession so I would like to build my own blasting cabinet out of plywood. I would construct it in the same way as commercially available cabinets are built; square top, tapered base to funnel media, viewing window with replaceable window, light, glove holes, etc. My question is this: as far as the blasting gun and equipment, how do the cabinets work? Is it basically a "blast out of the bucket" system with the bucket being on the ground under the cabinet funnel catching the media and recycling it into the gun over and over or is there another way? Also, I would construct the cabinet out of blatic birch plywood. I am assuming that the media looses quite a bit of velocity once it hits the item being blasted and that the walls of the blast cabinet do not get too badly hammered. Do you think the plywood would wear out too quickly? I'm guessing that even if it wears it would be years and years before I had to do something about it. I could cut sheet metal and line the cabinet, but this seems like an unneeded step.
So to help me get the best set up how about listing your dream specs, keeping in mind that I don't need to blast very large parts (though building a larger cabinet is no more difficult than building a smaller one). I'm interested in hearing your thoughts on:
-cabinet size
-blast equipement (which gun, nozzles, etc)
-access from a hinged top, door(s) on the side or both?
-foot pedal or trigger?
-anything else you wish you had

Thanks everyone!

[John Miller]

Here is a link to one that I'm thinking about building:

http://www.ford-trucks.com/article/idx/5/007/article/Build_Your_Own_Grit_Blasting_Cabinet.html

It's on my "To do" list.
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The 68 Ghia
The 62 Beetle

[fredybear]

I made a cabinet out of 3 ply 1/2 funneled down to a bucket to collect sand with wire fence material on the bottom to hold parts.....Shop vac ....Harbor freight pressure blaster.....

Cabinet has a rectangular hole at the top with foam tape and a piece of plexiglass just floating on the tape with window treatment plastic inbetween so the plexi wont get eatin....and the light on the plexi just use one of those energy saving bulbs that dont get hot in the cone shaped things..Hole for shop vac.....2 holes for arms....just used the Eastwood.com blasting gloves and stuck em through the holes....2 holes for air lines ..Blast out of a bucket gun riggeg up to 2 compressors....straight air in at 100 psi and the other to pressurize the tank between 10 and 30 psi.......put it up to 100 on both and u can cut your arm off........if u do this kinda rig u have to put a ball valve on the gun to shut the sand off......u can run it without pressurizing the tank also but its very slow....still have it and have blasted many things with it.......

[Rick]

fredybear- so your media funnels out of the cabinet into a bucket. Then you have to reload your pressurized blaster? I assumed that a pressurized system is a closed system so feeding out of the blast cabinet would not be possible. Is this correct?

[4ghias]

Check this site out it will give a quick explanation and example of the difference of pressurized compared to suction.
http://www.metalfinishingsystems.com/tt-blasting.html
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4ghias

[fredybear]

The 5 gallon bucket fills up before u know it than u have to pour the sand back it the tank.....thats the only pain about it.....Eastwood.com has a sift screen made for a 5 gal bucket....screen in the bucket right under the cabinet to sift the sand...i took pics of it but forgot to post em and they got deleted....I used it with glass beads ,silica sand and black beauty.....only thig i did wrong was make the cabinet to small....it was around 2 feet x 4 feet....