Cyclone dust collector

[Brian Rupnow]

Yesterday I picked up this wet/dry vacuum for $20 from the local buy and sell magazine. It works good. If it has too much suction I can trade it for a smaller vacuum that I use for cleaning up my lathe and mill. This is the kind of thing that I have to "try it and see" how it works. Everything in this chain of "sandblaster-cyclone dust collector-vacuum" has now been sourced, and all I have to figure out is the vacuum hoses. It would be easier to plumb it all with rigid plastic pipe and fittings, but it has to be flexible hose so that I can empty the 5 gallon dust collector can when I have to.

 

[Sparky_SC]

2" pvc works fine and it what many use. As long as it not glued if can come apart easily to dump the cyclone. (no need to glue) Just use long radius type elbows for good flow.

If there is too much suction you can just open up a "bleed" port somewhere, drill some holes in the PVC as a example.

 

[Brian Rupnow]

YES!!! I went over to the vacuum cleaner sales shop and bought 8 foot of 2" inner diameter vacuum hose, four gear clamps (and a reducer that I didn't use) for the grand total of $70 (which was about $20 too much) this morning. After some careful fitting and clamping I have all the vacuum lines installed. I still have to epoxy the metal tubes into the wooden parts of the cyclone dust collector, but it does work. I flipped on the vacuum cleaner and both gloves immediately blew up to full size---they were laying all wrinkled up before I switched on the vacuum. My vacuum lines are 2" inside diameter.

 

[Sparky_SC]

What do you plan on using for blast medium? You are very close to a first test run.

 

[Brian Rupnow]

I think I will use medium grit sandblasting sand. Princess Auto seem to carry many different grades as well as glass media and copper media. What do you suggest?

 

[Steamchick]

A picture of your wife and the wine coolers will make us jealous. But we'll enjoy seeing you enjoy the wine and company anyway.
K2

 

[Sparky_SC]

I think I will use medium grit sandblasting sand. Princess Auto seem to carry many different grades as well as glass media and copper media. What do you suggest?

Ha ! I am at the same stage as you. I plan on using either glass beads or crushed glass for my first attack. I am not interested in removing heavy rust, paint or anything like that. Just don't use playsand or any regular sand, that is quite dangerous.

That SOB Mayhugh1 building that 289 Ford engine here keeps showing those beautiful parts he makes with the glass bead finish and he roped me right in ! LOL

 

[ddmckee54]

If you use glass you'll probably need to watch your blasting pressure, too high and you run the risk of turning your media into a consumable media by breaking the beads into powder. Potentially, you should be able to re-use your media by sifting the chunks out.

If you are removing just paint, soda is another blasting media option. It'll strip the paint, but it won't hurt chrome or glass, it's supposedly safe on wood and plastic too - YMMV. Soda won't do anything to rust except knock the loose chunks off, and it's a one-time use media.

I've heard that ground walnut shells are also a relatively non-aggressive blasting media. The military used to use it as a blasting media to clean certain helicopter transmissions. That is until several of those transmissions failed due to the blasting media clogging the oil lines.

Sand and foundry slag are both fairly aggressive media. They'll strip paint and rust off quickly, but they do etch the surface.

 

[GreenTwin]

Corn cob is another option for removing paint without damaging the metal surface.
Must be well-sealed to avoid varmits and moisture absorption.

.

 

[Robsmith]

I think I will use medium grit sandblasting sand. Princess Auto seem to carry many different grades as well as glass media and copper media. What do you suggest?

I use glass beads on all my automotive stuff. It leaves a very nice matt finish. Also a nice "key" for paint. have coarse garnet but rarely use that. ( mostly on seriously rust pitted junk)

 

[Brian Rupnow]

Today I bought a 50 pound bag of 30-60 Greengrit recycled glass. My choice was influenced by the fact that this particular grit was on sale for $10 per bag. I also finished plumbing in the air pressure line. Tomorrow I will plumb in the sand supply line and hopefully try this system out.---Brian

 

[Oldiron]

With any glass product run the lowest air pressure that accomplishes the job at hand. The higher the air pressure the more dust and the shorter the abrasive life. Crushed glass is cheap and leaves a perfect finish for painting or powder coating, IMHO. I run 3 cabinets with different abrasives. Bob