"Ignoramus24511" wrote in message
...
Just a little follow up on the sandblasting cabinet. This is a "trinco
24" cabinet, 24x18 inside. I modified it very slightly by shortening
its legs a little, so that it would fit where I wanted it to fit. Also
welded a grate support rod that was lost during the years.

I filled it with Harbor Freight blast media and it works great for my
typical purposes, like sandblasting a bench vise to prepare it for
painting.

The blasting gun, at my given pressure, seems to clean relatively
quickly. Fortunately, the compressor seems to easily keep up with
sandblaster's flow.

The vacuum dust remover seems to work, as well.

I have a couple of questions.

1. If the blast media gets clumpy due to moisture, despite using a air
dryer (say I forgot to turn it on), I could just dry it in my barbeque
on a low setting, for a couple of hours, right?
Yes, or just spread it out in the sun, and toss it every 1/2 hour with a
garden rake.
Unless it actually gets soaked, it will dry quickly.


2. Are the dust and blast media that accumulate in the "reclaimer"
meant to be recycled in the cabinet, until the media gets too
contaminated with blasting residue, or breaks down?
All of the above.


The vacuum is for
keeping the blaster's inside visible and preventing outside
contamination, not for separating grit from blasting residue?
Correct.


Experiment with different media. Glass beads, silica sand, river/concrete
sand, walnut shells, all have different properties. Walnut shells will blast
paint from soft materials like aluminum, with out removing any parent metal,
while silica will remove material from even steel or glass. If you machine
will circulate steel shot, you can even do surface stress relieving at low
pressures. As someone else mentioned, for everyday blasting and painting,
river/concrete sand is real cheap and works well.