Blast Cab. Plumbing ?

[Guest]

I'm wondering how others here have plumbed in their blast cabinets. Ours has been giving us fits. It seems to have poor media flow and we have been unable to i.d. the problem. Here's what we have....... It is NOT new, but the gun itself is. The regulator, foot pedal and everything else is a few years old.

Our air supply is an Ingersol Rand, 7.5 HP, 80 gal, 2 stage, making 150 PSI @ 24 CFM. It is currently plumbed with 1/2 inch black rigid pipe. It has an Ingersol Rand twin water filter / regulator thingy before it. I have been told that I need a 1" air line to supply it. That doesn't make sense to me considering the hose from the regulator on the cabinet to the gun is 1/2". I know this isn't alot of info to diagnose the problem, but I am curious as to how it should be plumbed in properly.

[Guest]

Re: Blast Cab. Plumbing ?

If you check the flow capacities of copper pipe(which I would think are in the ball park of steel), a 1/2 inch pipe can flow 40scfm at 70 psi. So I would agree that a 1" feed is not required.

I would look closely at the pick up tube. I modified the pickup tube on my cabinet to get it working better.

[ATL Powder]

Re: Blast Cab. Plumbing ?

This cab doesn't have a pickup tube. It is siphon fed from a separate canister attached to the unit. We have checked and rechecked the canister and hose feeding from it to the gun. It's all clear.
BTW. the media in it is alum oxide, medium / fine grit, not sure what #.

[BeeBob]

Re: Blast Cab. Plumbing ?

Have you checked your air supply to the cabinet to make sure it's dry? It'll definitely spit if it works at all if the media and or air have moisture.

[X-Link]

Re: Blast Cab. Plumbing ?

Tell us more about the hopper that holds the media. Is it pressurized? If so how much psi are you feeding to it?

[ATL Powder]

Re: Blast Cab. Plumbing ?

It's the same air we powder coat with, so I'm 99% sure it's dry. The hopper is not pressurized. It's a combination gravity / siphon feed. Typically what happens is when you initially press the foot pedal you have good media flow, but it quickly tapers off.

[Doogles]

Re: Blast Cab. Plumbing ?

Two things to check.
You may need to add a suction breaker tube siamesed alongside the existing suction tube. Nothing fancy, 1/2" steel or copper line from the suction entry to over the top of your blast media should work.
Also your blast gun or associated valve may be corroded. Mine had a rubber insert and steel disc inside that corroded. It would work for a short time and quit flowing media. I cleaned things up and everything worked fine.

[rbroker]

Re: Blast Cab. Plumbing ?

Last week I cleaned out my vacuum and dumped in a bucket of new AO, and started having all sorts of problems with it not spraying. It ended up being too much media in the hopper. I don't know what it was, or why it would matter, but I tore this thing apart swearing there was a clog. But I dumped out half the new media and she works like she always did.

Just a thought.

[ATL Powder]

Re: Blast Cab. Plumbing ?

Last week I cleaned out my vacuum and dumped in a bucket of new AO, and started having all sorts of problems with it not spraying. It ended up being too much media in the hopper. I don't know what it was, or why it would matter, but I tore this thing apart swearing there was a clog. But I dumped out half the new media and she works like she always did.

Just a thought.

Hey that might be something for me to try. The hopper is FULL. Thanks for the suggestion. I appreciate everyone's input, like I said before the gun itself is new so I don't think corrosion is the issue and again these cabs don't use a pickup tube, but rather a hose that feeds media via gravity and siphon. I will empty half the media and try again.

[Guest]

Re: Blast Cab. Plumbing ?

My siphon cabinet had a 40# media limit. Worked okay if I stayed there and not more. But it is now a pressure pot fed blaster cabinet.

[X-Link]

Re: Blast Cab. Plumbing ?

Pressure pot blasters are the only way to go!

[rbroker]

Re: Blast Cab. Plumbing ?

Whats involved with the conversion?

[Guest]

Re: Blast Cab. Plumbing ?

Whats involved with the conversion?

I'm interested as well. I've used a pot blaster before so I'm somewhat familiar with them. I would imagine it's just a matter or running the gun and hose inside the cabinet. Then the media will have to be dumped out and put back into the pot often. I would like to see some pictures of what others have done.

[Guest]

Re: Blast Cab. Plumbing ?

I hooked a pressure blaster up to mine. It makes a big difference and goes three to ten times faster. I don't even use the siphon feed anymore.

[ATL Powder]

Re: Blast Cab. Plumbing ?

Well we did get it going again thanks in part to Cindy (CNTNC). She was kind enough to send me a PDF manual for the cabinet. What I ended up finding was I did not have enough media in the box. Now Gene can stand @ the blast cab for hours on end again.
Oh, and to Cindy.... Moo Chess, Grassy Ass