Blast/media cabinets. How much dust?

I'd like to add a blast cabinet to the Shop of Good Intentions. I'm concerned about the level of dust it will leak into the shop.

Does anyone have any experience with a top end cabinet, like one from TP Tools? Or would I be better off with a Barrel Blaster that I can put on casters and roll outside of the shop when I use it?

The shop is also storage for a vintage motorcycle, some memorabilia, etc. and I don't want to get it too dusty.

Use a shop vac with a good filter, or better, buy a proper dust collection unit. If you don't suck air through the cabinet, you will be blasting blind in a matter of seconds.

I use a barrel blaster in my garage hooked up to a shop vac. I haven't noticed an inordinate amount of dust, but I keep dust covers on the collector cars, anyway.

Been thinking about getting one of these, but haven't seen the need, yet:

http://www.oneida-air.com/category.asp?Id=%7BCC6B6F2A-E3D7-4F18-A53C-B5C357DFE131%7D

I made a water trap filter for my sand blaster a few years ago. The water trap will capture nearly 100% of the dust.

The trap is made from a five gallon bucket and plastic electrical conduit fittings.

Definitely use a dust collector. You don't want to be breathing blasting abrasives. I run my shop vac through mine with a good set of filters.

Another really imporant thing- turn down the pressure. Run it as low as you can to do the work- high pressure runs the particles at a very hgih speed, which DOES result in them blasting apart. It's bad enough to have to deal with the crust you are taking off, you don't need to deal with sand dust that you are creating.

(FWIW, I learned this blowing glass- one can etch glass really well with a sand blaster, but my instructor really stressed not running more than 40psi, so that it didn't obliterate the sand. Which is not good for your health- while that looks like dust, they are tiny little glass crystals that were shattered into those dust particles.)

Thanks for the water trap idea.

I have enough hose to run the shop vac outside. still spews dust out . Not as noisy

One important thing, while they call the process "sand blasting" you shouldn't really use sand! There are media that work better then sand and don't have the downsides either. Black Beauty is one trade name for slag, a by product of steel making, another is walnut shells, also aluminum oxide, and then glass beads or crushed glass. These are the most common. I have used slag and glass beads. I did buy some walnut media but have yet to use it. If I was doing blasting outside on large objects where I will lose most is not all of the media I would use the cheapest media available but in a cabinet where you can recover 90% of the media I use what works best.

I pick up my blasting slag from Tractor Supply.

Thanks for all of the help. I'll keep everyone posted.

fujioko wrote: Would like to see a bit more detail and possibly some photos

I have a shop-made cabinet w/ a TP gun, pickup, gloves, lights, window protectors and dust collector.

No dust in the air, some beads on the floor near the cab due my my crap door seals.

fujioko wrote: I made a water trap filter for my sand blaster a few years ago. The water trap will capture nearly 100% of the dust. The trap is made from a five gallon bucket and plastic electrical conduit fittings.

It's like a Blaster Bong!

pirate wrote:

fujioko wrote: Would like to see a bit more detail and possibly some photos

Crap, the filter is about the only thing I don't have pictures of. I sold the blaster and the filter system on ebay when I was done with it. The ebay pictures are long gone.

Anyway, when I built the filter, I went to Home Depot and raided the tool department for a bunch of shop vac accessory's and dragged them around the store until I found stuff that would work.

The gray parts are definitely plastic electrical conduit parts. the black part may be PVC pipe or a shop vac extension.

You can buy a similar filter in the drywall section but the hoses seem too small.

The filter traps everything and the shop vac stays clean. The water will get skunky after a while but a few drops of bleach will fix that if you are too lazy to empty the bucket.

Hope that helps.

Is the water level above the end of the black tube or just below it?

pirate wrote:

fujioko wrote: Would like to see a bit more detail and possibly some photos

Google around a bit. Check on garagejournal.com. I've seen a number of different home builts in forums. Might even be a video on YouTube.

This is probably a good starting place:

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Bucket-Head-Wet-Dry-Vaccum-BH0100/202017218

In reply to Woody:

The water level was about just below the intake tube. The level wasn't too critical because the dust particles couldn't change direction fast enough and just slammed into the water.

I use one of the bucket head units on my cabinet and the exhaust goes out a hole in a boarded up window on the 2nd floor of the garage. I still get some leakage of bead due to it being a cheap cabinet from HF that was not sealed when new. So if you buy a cheap cabinet take the time and seal up all the seams 1st.