Sand Blast Cabinet "Exhaust"

[Gerald C.]

I just bought a cabinet and will be using my shop vac for the "exhaust". I have no way of venting it outside unless I cut a hole in my basement wall.

Has anyone come up with a way of venting this "exhaust" without going outside? Any creative ways of getting this done?

Thanks,

Jerry

[Edward J.]

Re: Sand Blast Cabinet "Exhaust"

Jerry, I have a smaller blast cabinet and would say don' t even use it indoors, You will have a mess that you would not believe, The cabinet I have is about 36x36 and has a paper filter and a rear outlet w/foam filter. I just use it outside when I use it.

[Jim D.]

Re: Sand Blast Cabinet "Exhaust"

There's no reason not to use a properly set up system indoors.I've used mine for over 5 years with no problems. I use an abrasive reclaimer ( http://www.tptools.com/p/256,146_Sta...Reclaimer.html ) and a shop vac that exhausts outdoors.
If you can't exhaust outdoors, I've seen plans to use a 5 gal. bucket half filled with water using a sealed lid. The cabinet side is hook to a pipe that goes through the lid down into the water. The vacuum side is hooked to another pipe that only goes into the air space of the bucket so that all the air being removed from the cabinet goes through the water before going to the vacuum. People that have used this method say it works great.I hope I explained it correctly.

[Chuck S.]

Re: Sand Blast Cabinet "Exhaust"

...Has anyone come up with a way of venting this "exhaust" without going outside? Any creative ways of getting this done?...

There is probably going to be more dust collected that you imagine. My cabinet vac produces several pounds of fine dust with even moderate use.

Your shop vac will likely require frequent cartridge replacement or cleaning. TIP cabinets use a bag vacuum that drops the bag down with each shut down to dump the catch. TIP sells a kit for unvented use that adds another big filter on the discharge of their vacs. I haven't used the cabinet much since installing the exhaust bag, but it works as advertised...no dust. Venting outside would be preferable; no basement windows?

[Clem Z.]

Re: Sand Blast Cabinet "Exhaust"

i use a shop vac on mine and i built a diffuser inside the box to prevent the glass beads from being sucked out

[Donald O.]

Re: Sand Blast Cabinet "Exhaust"

When I assembled my cabinet, I sealed all seams with clear silicone sealant. Fabricated an exhaust pipe to go directly to one on the shop vacs. There has been no mess. Yes I shake off, replace the vac filter frequently.
As for the media, I use a mixture of glass beads and a very fine sand.

DonO

[Patrick H.]

Re: Sand Blast Cabinet "Exhaust"

I built a diffuser like Clem suggested, mounted a filter in it, and also re-sealed my unit.

The key is to use a bag inside your shop vac that is intended for drywall dust vacuuming. It works great, and I use mine in the garage with no problems at all.

http://www.shopvac.com/shopvac-accessories/Departments/Drywall-Dust.aspx

Patrick

[Domenic T.]

Re: Sand Blast Cabinet "Exhaust"

The shop vac's I have used clogged the filter regularly and the blade destructed in about a year.
I removed the filter and filled the can 1/3 with water and put a hose inside that directs the dust under water. The filter area is not the cleanest BUT the blades have not come apart and I am not cleaning a filter every day.
LOOKS BAD/LASTS LONGER.

DOM

[James R.]

Re: Sand Blast Cabinet "Exhaust"

I've been using the old vacuum cleaner from the house for the last couple of years without any probs.....seems to work fine

[Gene M.]

Re: Sand Blast Cabinet "Exhaust"

You need to have air going into the cabinet as well as a blower to exhaust air. If no air goes in none will come out, simple law of physics. You don't want the inside to be a dust storm, you woun't see what ever your working on.

The dust from blasting is no good for your lungs. Better find a way to exhaust it outside.

[Clem Z.]

Re: Sand Blast Cabinet "Exhaust"

one advantage of using a shop vac you can recycle the beads by screening them to remove the debris. depends what you are blasting as i do mostly carb parts after dip cleaning them of grease and dirt.

[Dick W.]

Re: Sand Blast Cabinet "Exhaust"

We have a Tip 970 cabinet and used the dust collector that came with it. I have an old tee shirt taped to the exhaust of the dust collector, no appreciable dust coming out the the collector

[Keith R.]

Re: Sand Blast Cabinet "Exhaust"

I'm using an Eastwood blast cabinet vacuum and it seems to do an OK job although it's really noisy. You have to wear ear protection along with a filter mask for the dust.

[Dick W.]

Re: Sand Blast Cabinet "Exhaust"

I'm using an Eastwood blast cabinet vacuum and it seems to do an OK job although it's really noisy. You have to wear ear protection along with a filter mask for the dust.

Something is wrong if you have to wear a dust mask when you us it. We get almost NO fines out of the exhaust on the TIP vacuum. As I stated we use an old t shirt over the exhaust and it takes several hours of blasting before the shirt is real dirty

We had an older cabinet with outside exhaust and had more dust in the shop from it that we do from this one

[Chuck S.]

Re: Sand Blast Cabinet "Exhaust"

Something is wrong if you have to wear a dust mask when you us it. We get almost NO fines out of the exhaust on the TIP vacuum. As I stated we use an old t shirt over the exhaust and it takes several hours of blasting before the shirt is real dirty

We had an older cabinet with outside exhaust and had more dust in the shop from it that we do from this one

I agree, Dickie.

Wearing a dust mask to use a blast cabinet would be unacceptable to me. If there was no other alternative, I would at least wear a respirator.

Dickie, your "dust collector" is probably an option on most TIP cabinets. They began selling that dust collector after I bought my cabinet back in the 90s. It's expensive (probably 3X the regular vacuum), but worth the money. It is, in effect, an industrial grade bag filter with multiple bags. I've considered buying one, but can't quite justify it for the little blasting I do...I opted for the cheaper exhaust bag retrofit on my old vac.