RE: Media blaster troubleshooting

[Steven Charette <stevec@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The small cabinets are Clarke benchtop cabinets from Tractor Supply (many
places sell/sold Clarke stuff).  

http://www.clarkeinternational.com/shop/product/details/heavy-duty-blast-cab
inet/path/

Clarke USA filed Chapter 11 in April 2009, closing their Perrysburg, Ohio
facility and is no longer in business in the US AFAIK, although they do
maintain a website in the UK (referenced above).  Most of the parts are
similar to other chinese imports.

The larger one is the imported floor model available through many outlets.
Almost all of the large and small cabinets I've seen appear to have been
cloned from the same machine - gloves and guns are pretty much universal.
Some cabinets have glove holes around 6", others around 7".

Gloves are available from tptools.com or industrial suppliers like WW
Grainger.  There are inexpensive replacements available now and again at
Harbor Freight or Tractor Supply, but it seems like they never have them the
day I need them, and they're usually not quite long enough to reach the back
of the cabinet.  The good quality gloves ($30+/pr) are worth the money if
you use your cabinet a lot.  We often re-coat the fingertips with urethane
after they get blasted through, to extend the life of the gloves.
Eventually the gloves get what we refer to technically as "icky" and we then
replace them. 

We used the peel-off plastic window protector sheets for a while but were
changing them daily - we have switched to glass panels from the local
hardware (12X16 is a standard size they have on the shelf).  We use shipping
tape to affix these panels to the plexiglas blaster window and they last
about a month for us before needing replacement.  Care when blasting keeps
the abrasive from bouncing directly at the window, which makes the window
protection last longer.  Snap-On cabinets used to have a piece of window
screen mounted just below the window that helped protect the window from
direct abrasive hits - the window and screen just needed cleaning once in a
while when they got dusty.

I highly recommend the Maxus guns and tips - we get ours from WW Grainger
(it's close - 6 miles from the Frankenmuth Shop).  They are a little more
expensive but they always have the parts on the shelf (carbide tips are next
day).

As mentioned earlier we run the media at a low level as the siphon blasters
tend to work better.  This requires "bonking" the cabinet once in a while
when the media fails to fall to the bottom of the hopper.  We clean the
cabinets  out about twice a year as the media breaks down and accumulated
debris makes everything pretty dusty.  Fresh media and a good tip really
speeds the blasting.  In the winter we run a ground cable through the media
and to the gun, and even up into the gloves to discharge static.  We've had
operators with big red marks on their arms from getting static shocks all
day when not using a ground wire or strap.  We run dust collectors as shop
vacs didn't last long - you don't want to be breathing any of this stuff,
especially silica (sand) dust.

One note - larger pieces of debris (rust, grease clumps, welding slag,
silicon, etc.) will plug the siphon tube and stop media flow.  Place your
free hand over the nozzle and pull the trigger, which will reverse flow in
the siphon tube and dislodge the obstruction (make sure the door is
closed!).  When cleaning dirty parts, we regularly sift the media with a
small kitchen strainer... it's amazing how much large debris accumulates.


Hope this helps!
SC

-----Original Message-----
From: MO ( Steve Mick) [mailto:micher@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] 
Sent: Tuesday, July 20, 2010 6:23 PM
To: 1962to1965mopars@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: Media blaster troubleshooting


 A friend of mine bought one of those Harbor Freight cheaper cabinets.  He
made the mistake of putting it together without sealing the seans--media all
over the place. .
 Steve , which modle do you have and are parts like gloves and carbide tips
available for it? Doesn't the viewing window get pitted up soon?  I would
like to have one myself.........................MO

{Steve Mick}
http://www.1962to1965mopar.ornocar.com/mick64.html

----- Original Message -----
From: "Butch Edison" <waedison@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <1962to1965mopars@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, July 20, 2010 11:02 AM
Subject: Re: Media blaster troubleshooting






Thanks Steve, I did not know there were carbide tips. Where do you get 
yours? I'm going to go back to zero with this cabinet and set it up again, 
all fresh, new gun tip, new media, etc., and will use the tips you all are 
providing on the forum to see what works best for me.



While the blaster did not work well with the gun that came with the cabinet,

it did work great for awhile with the gun off my $50.00 outdoor Sears 
blaster that uses builders sand. I think now that the ceramic tip in that 
gun is shot.



One thing I'm thinking, because I only have been "trying" to use my cabinet 
once a month or so that moisture is probably an issue with mine. I'm going 
to get one of the water collectors like we use in boats and rvs around here 
in the winter and put one them in the cabinet, see if it collects any water 
and if that changes performance.



Because I'm running out of time to get this car ready for Hot August Nights 
in Reno, I took the wheels to a professional powder coating shop for media 
blasting yesterday. He said he never uses these types of cabinets that count

on gravity feed, that even his small portables are such that the media is in

a pressurized tank and the media is discharged under pressure, which he 
finds more reliable, I have not looked at any of those set ups.



Liked that...... "like a white shirt in a bar fight". :)



Thanks/Butch/Ferndale, WA


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Steven Charette" <stevec@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: 1962to1965mopars@xxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Tuesday, July 20, 2010 8:50:50 AM
Subject: RE: Media blaster troubleshooting


Butch,
We run our Harbor Freight blasting cabinet 8-10 hours a day 4-6 days
a month. As others have mentioned, moisture can be a problem. We've also
discovered that having too much abrasive in the hopper prevents the siphon
hose from pulling well especially with a coarse media.

You may also want to look into a carbide tip if you don't have one
already - aluminum oxide is great but ceramic nozzles last like a white
shirt in a bar fight...


SC

-----Original Message----- 
From: Butch Edison [mailto:waedison@xxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Sunday, July 18, 2010 6:30 PM
To: 1962to1965mopars@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Media blaster troubleshooting


I bought a Northern Tool Media blast cabinet some months ago. It is way
smarter than me and it hurts to say you've been outsmarted by sand and
compressed air!. I have a large snap-on 7 HP 175 PSI 80 gallon compressor so
think I should have enough air. I'm trying to use 70 grit aluminum oxide to
clean some wheels. The thing barely draws for awhile, then it will work like
magic for a couple of minutes, then back to nothing or next to nothing. I've
tried changing guns, running the media pickup tube in and out of the media.
Nothing seems to work for more than a couple of minutes. I have an air dryer
in line with the media cabinet.

If you've had some lessons learned with these things, please tell me what
you've found out through your use. This thing could easily end up in the
scrap yard, but I think it's probably something I'm just not understanding
about how to use it.

Thanks for any help. /Butch/ Ferndale, WA


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Please address private mail -- mail of interest to only one person --  
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as well as other personal messages only to the intended recipient, not to 
the Clubhouse public address. This practice will protect your privacy, 
reduce the total volume of mail and fine tune the content signal to Mopar 
topic. Thanks!

1962 to 1965 Mopar Clubhouse Discussion Guidelines:
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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]


----
Please address private mail -- mail of interest to only one person --  
directly to that person.  I.e., send parts/car transactions and negotiations

as well as other personal messages only to the intended recipient, not to 
the Clubhouse public address. This practice will protect your privacy, 
reduce the total volume of mail and fine tune the content signal to Mopar 
topic.  Thanks!

1962 to 1965 Mopar Clubhouse Discussion Guidelines:
http://www.1962to1965mopar.ornocar.org/mletiq.html and 
http://www.1962to1965mopar.ornocar.com/general_disclaimer.html.


----
Please address private mail -- mail of interest to only one person --
directly to that person.  I.e., send parts/car transactions and negotiations
as well as other personal messages only to the intended recipient, not to
the Clubhouse public address. This practice will protect your privacy,
reduce the total volume of mail and fine tune the content signal to Mopar
topic.  Thanks!

1962 to 1965 Mopar Clubhouse Discussion Guidelines:
http://www.1962to1965mopar.ornocar.org/mletiq.html and
http://www.1962to1965mopar.ornocar.com/general_disclaimer.html. 


----
Please address private mail -- mail of interest to only one person -- directly to that person.  I.e., send parts/car transactions and negotiations as well as other personal messages only to the intended recipient, not to the Clubhouse public address. This practice will protect your privacy, reduce the total volume of mail and fine tune the content signal to Mopar topic.  Thanks!

1962 to 1965 Mopar Clubhouse Discussion Guidelines:
http://www.1962to1965mopar.ornocar.org/mletiq.html and http://www.1962to1965mopar.ornocar.com/general_disclaimer.html.