bought me a new toy

[richard2717]

Well had to go to Jersey yesterday to pick up some truck parts. On the way back I stopped by Greg Smith equipment in Newark DE and picked up this blasting cabinet. I figured I would get a cheap one to start with and if it works out well I would graduate to a bigger one later on. I am already half wishing I could have picked up a bigger one cause the stuff I have put in it already has come out sweet. It would be real nice to have the big one and be able to get fenders and possibly doors in it but I think this one will do for now. It came with extra tips and peeloffs for the viewing window as well. All together it cost 3 bills including 25lb of media.

The main thing I dont like is the light inside. It is basically a drop cord florecent light. I will be upgrading that pretty quick. I will most likely upgrade with some T5 lamps with a pc of polished aluminum behind it for a reflector then cover it with som scrap polycarb. for a cover. Here is a shot of the cabinet



Put this blazer seat beltcover in looking like this





And it came out like this





Door hinge before





Door hinge after

[ETsC10]

Cool! You're going to use your cabinet all the time...very handy!
Try using a small flood lamp in the cabinet. If you choose the kind with the
thick, pebbly lens, you will get couple years use out of them.



.

[wraprail]

Nice blast cabinet, as far as lighting goes consider LED. For example, I just picked up an LED drop light from Sears for around $15. This could be easiley adapted for this use. They are very bright and would be easy to mount inside your cabinet. They operate on low voltage (12 volt in most cases) and use a remote transformer.
This particular drop light is very compact once the outer tube housing is removed and would be ideal for any number of uses. IMO
LEDs do not produce any heat (important inside a confined space) and they are super energy efficient. Plus, they last 20,000 plus hours and usually never need replacing. Ever
Par floodlamps produce lots of heat, use 20 times more electricity and are old technolegy.
LEDs are the future in lighting.

[richard2717]

I have two led drop cords and a battery powered led light and dont like the output of either of them compared to the fluoresent. LED lighting still has a long way to go.I am by no means an expert on LED's but I do work with them on a daily basis in the sign business and I can tell ya they are not all they are cracked up to be. Some are light years better than others but in the end you will see a lot of people looking for a different light source. Just in my small area of knowledge, people are spending tens of thousands of dollars on new LED signs because they have been promised smaller energy bills, no heat and last for ever when in reality they do produce heat (hence the cooling fins on the back side of the modules) heat is leds worst enemy, lots of times because of the almost nil power consumption the power companies put them in a higher rate catogory so they don't see the savings they were promised and the mantra that they never need replacing is a falsity that is now coming back to bite some of the manufacturers in the keister. When modules fail and have to be replaced with a new one The new one is 20 times brighter making the rest of the unit look bad. Short of replacing all of the modules the only thing that can be done is put more electronic components on the board to regulate the power going to each board to make them appear the same briteness. For now I will stick with the flouresent since it stays uniform. The T-5 lamps are very compact ( about the same diameter as my pinky finger)and super brite. and whats a half of an amp among friends in power consumption anyway

[richard2717]

Man....you don't realize how handy this thing is until you get it, then you keep saying to urself " if I had bought this 20 years ago like I said I was ".............

[Ironhorse]

I just recently got my TP Tools 780-Top Load up and running. Doing a
sm465/np205 to 350TH/np205 swap along with a 4 core swap and I am blasting the he!! out of stuff. Between blasting and priming and painting I wish I had bought mine 20 years or more like 30 years ago my-self. Great shop tool !!!

[richard2717]

Well I guess I will be building my t-5 light setup sooner than later. The light that came with it has went up already LOL oh well it wasn't much to begin with. Will post pics when I get it lit again.

[motornut]

I got a small one this spring
works great,and my bulb quit in a short time too
it seems to be a 12V florecent light....
but the blasting works great
lol I would not have thought to blast the seat belt part,worked great
I'm using crushed glass now,came with a real fine sand...

[oldblue1968chevy]

I want one!

Id like one big enough to do 15" steel wheels too. Any suggestions?

Does it make a mess in the shop? Mind sayin' what you paid?

[richard2717]

I bought mine at greg smith equipment including 25lbs of glass beads for $325. No shipping since I picked it up. I have not put one in it but Ithink it is big enough to put rims in it. No mess at all so far. I had one small leak when I1st used it but have since sealed that up.

Richard
Posted via Mobile Device

[oldblue1968chevy]

Is greg smith siilar to harbor freight or northern tools (dont have it)

[richard2717]

It is similar but the tools are better quality and not near the selection of HF or Northern.

They ship as well but I have one close enough its just as eaasy to stop by

www.gregsmithequipment.com

Richard

[Gumby]

I use an old single pane side sliding window out of a trailer and built one from wood and plastic sheeting. saved a bundle, that I soon spent in blasting material. boy that stuff goes fast. Ending up using something called coal slag I believe, enviro safe n cheap in big bags.

[pritch]

Our mechanic at the company shop has one very similar to that one. He loves it. I built my own. It works well, but I have learned a couple of things, and if I build another, it'll be better. I use 40/30 garnet @ about 15 bucks for 25 pounds. Maybe they are 50 # bags. It's been awhile since I bought some.

You won't be able to believe how many things need a good blasting, now that you have one!

[oldblue1968chevy]

You cant reuse etc the material?

[pritch]

Me? Yeah, it's all enclosed, but I have a shop-vac hooked up to suck out the dust, and the media does break down into dust after awhile. I'm sure that there are harder media's that don't break down, but I've had mine for 5 years and I'll bet I haven't gone through more than 4 or 5 bags of sand, and it's full right now. It holds 2 bags, maybe a little more, even. For some reason, I can't find any pictures of it on my computer. Maybe I'll take some and put them on the home-made tools thread.

[motornut]

Originally Posted by oldblue1968chevy

You cant reuse etc the material?

to a point,but it also gets full of crud
I'd wondered about "straining" it
and you need a moisture filter,or it clumps/clogs
this one was on sale I think 150 or so
doubt a rim would fit
barely got the jimmy seat bases in
everything gets dusted
mine when new

[Gumby]

Originally Posted by pritch

Me? Yeah, it's all enclosed, but I have a shop-vac hooked up to suck out the dust

how is that working out for ya? I killed two of those trying that, first one I thought well thats odd, worked for a min then quit, grabbed a 2nd, same thing, blasting dust gets to fine I believe for them.

I now just scoop and sift through a screen system.

[richard2717]

Originally Posted by oldblue1968chevy

I want one!

Id like one big enough to do 15" steel wheels too. Any suggestions?

Does it make a mess in the shop? Mind sayin' what you paid?

I had a few minutes tonight and found a 15" rim. It fits in this one with plenty of room to spare. I think a 16.5 would fit as long as it was not too deep a rim.

[richard2717]

Well the cabinet has apparently been sitting for almost 3 years now and not been touched. 5 days after I posted last I was in an auto accident and have not messed with it since. I have finally started feeling better and going out and piddling. I forgot all about the light being broke in it until I went to use it today. I had some extra LEDs and a power supply laying around from a finished sign project so I said what the heck. I think it turned out bad Azz if I can keep it that bright I will be happy. I am going to put a clear cover under them to keep the dust down but I guess I wont know how well they hold up until I get ta blasting. The really good news is I found my extreme bend hooks and my pass seat floor latch that I was missing. I assume I started blasting them before the accident.

Richard

I also have a new gun and pickup coming for it. The Chinese version no worky so well

[richard2717]

Gonna bring this back up to the top. I put these LED's in a little over 4 years ago and they are still as good now as when I put them in. These were some of the cheapest led's I have ever used and I figured they would not last in that environment not being sealed. With that said, If anyone else would like to do something similar, PM me. I just dismantled several signs that had led's and power supplies that were only about a year old and rather than toss them, I divided them up (based on what I used in mine) into a couple different lots that would be enough to do several cabinets. You would need to put new double face tape on the modules or you can screw them to the cabinet. I used tape on mine and it still holding fine after 4 years. I figure $35 shipped (conus) for one power supply and enough modules to do the size cabinet I have here. Everything is used but has been tested to work. You would need to supply Tape, screws and final assembly but it beat the crap out of the light that came with it and gives the cabinet a lot more uniform lighting.

[PGSigns]

Richard I added a dust collector to mine made from one of these and a 5 gallon bucket. Hook it to a shop vac and it really helps clear the cabinet. I like your led idea. PM inbound.
Jimmy

[richard2717]

After I burnt up my 1st shop vac I went ahead and bought one of these from Eastwood. They were having a sale & I got it way cheaper than advertised. I agree though, without some kind of filtration it can be frustrating trying to see.

The only negative on the reviews for this one was the push button switch failing so rather than deal with that I just leave the switch on and unplug it from the wall.
.

[Mbeef61]

What compressor setup do you use?

[richard2717]

Originally Posted by Mbeef61

What compressor setup do you use?

I have a 5hp 80 gallon 2 stage that I bought from snap on back in late 80's and it keeps up with it pretty good