Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums General Tech Soliciting input on blast cabinet/dust collector

I picked up a blast cabinet - Cyclone PK-36



and air powered dust collector - Central Pneumatics (Harbor Freight) brand.



The dust collector pulled the 5hp/36gal compressor down pretty quick and didn't have much effect on the cabinet.
Not the solution I was looking for.

So, I decided to try a sears 2 hp shop vac & dryer vent.
Added a stack to the exhaust of the vac to accept a 4" flex hose going to the vent.
Also added a 10x6 furnace filter and soffit vent on the far side of the cabinet to bring air in.
When I fired it up, I noticed the vac also exhausts filtered air through the handles on the sides of the top.
The vac's filter seems to be doing its job, & theres nothing visible in the exhaust.
I kinda doubt that the filter's as fine as the one in a purpose made dust collector, though.
That's what the dryer vent was supposed to allow for.
So here's the question:
If there's nothing visible, does that mean there's nothing harmful coming out?
The blast media is currently glass bead @ 60 psi.

Hard to say without a pic of the vac, but since the main collection chamber of the vac is under negative pressure, any clear air escaping would come from a leaky or clogged exhaust fitting/line or the cooling air exhaust from the vac motor, which has a separate air flow circuit from the vac.

As the glass beads fracture in service, the grit becomes finer, and it quickly blinds the filter media. Most larger blaster cabinets utilize a "baghouse" with shaker arms to mechanically dislodge entrained grit as needed. In your case, you just have to sweep down the filter paper cartridge in the vac when the cabinet starts getting too dusty inside. A simple damper plate on your makeup air intake will allow you to adjust airflow within the cabinet to best clarity while saving the filter a bit. You might not need full crossflow all the time. And a sheet of non metalic window screen fitted in front of the viewport glass will save the glass from being blasted into cloudiness for awhile.

Also, a fitted 'picture frame' with a snug window screen filler, set horizontally about halfway down in the 'funnel' cabinet base will sift and catch dislodged particles and crud before they get sucked back into the gun with the recycle grit and clog it or the sand hose.

I recommend the best quality goggles you can afford - grit gets everywhere - and USE 'em.

Glass beads are silica. Silica dust in your lungs is not a good thing. And, once you satisfy your collection/filtering requirements, be prepared for some possibly shocking developements.... web page

Ruh - Roh.

I think my dryer vent is probably exhausting the motor.
I never dreamed I was anywhere near that dumb.



That ridge around the top under the motor is an open space of about 1/4".
Intake for that side of things, I guess.

Here's the contraption I rigged up to accept the flex hose -



And one of the handles where the strong exhaust exits -



The void at the bottom of it catches a latch.
Underneath of it under the plate is another open area.
That's how the exhaust gets to the handles.

>A simple damper plate on your makeup air intake will allow you to adjust airflow within the cabinet to best clarity while saving the filter a bit.

Man, it really pulls hard.
Even with two 4" holes under that soffit vent, I can still see the gloves breath a bit when you kick it on.
I thought about throttling it somehow, but decided it'd be easier on the motor to just let it flow.

>And a sheet of non metalic window screen fitted in front of the viewport glass will save the glass from being blasted into cloudiness for awhile.

Yeah, the window was pretty much gone when I got the cabinet.
I made a new one and got some mylar overlays from Cyclone.

>Glass beads are silica.

Yet another thing I didn't realize.
Guess it stands to reason, though.

Re: static -
The cabinet is plastic.
Good & bad in that, maybe.
Instructions I downloaded didn't mention static.
Don't know just what all that means, but no problems so far.

Thanks for the imput, guys.
Good stuff.

Looks like you got it sorted out.

If your not seeing anything coming out when you first start the vac., your probably alright. I'm using a simular set up and when the filter gets real dirty it starts blowing dust out when I first start it up. It is quite noticable.

Good to hear.
I've cleaned the filter once.
Had an amazing amount of crud in it.