My Princess Auto Blast Cabinet! Lots Of Pictures!!

[Islandkent]

Hey guys. Hope everyone is good.
Just came in from the shop playing with my blast cabinet. Same as Harbor Freight. I watched all the videos of those mods they all swear by. I picked and choose with ones I deemed necessary. I had a small bench top before and still do. Well anybody that has one knows that they are too small to be of any use in our hobby. Size does matter. Works fine for small objects but I found out last summer when I did my exhaust manifolds. That was the limit. So I went about checking out the floor models.
Being in the Great White North, my choice is limited. Along with shipping anything up for the States is very cost prohibitive. So I watched u-tube till I was dreaming about blast cabinets. The mods for blast cabinets. The Canadian mods for blast cabinets. Dust collection. What abrasives to use. You get the idea. All home made solutions. 10-4??
That being said I finally put her through her paces this afternoon. Being stuck home and all. Well I'm more than pleased. Very minimal leaks, lots of light, no dust blowing around, and most important great visibility.
Below is a picture by picture index of the modifications I made with a brief description. And I mean brief. lol I already scared everybody off with this novel! lol
Enjoy I hope.
More pictures coming right up...

 

[Sahara]

I made one from scratch that looks just like that, only orange. Love it.

 

[dadsbee]

My honey bought me mine as a present.. Already put together with sealant on all seams.

 

[Islandkent]

Way to go fella's.
Sahara did you make the cabinet from scratch also?? We need to see her.
Wayne, funny my wife bought me mine for X-mas when they were on sale last fall. Couldn't touch it till Christmas. lol

 

[Islandkent]

Ok here we go. I imagine there might be posts in between my pictures. So bear with me... lol
Alrighty first thing I did was to add the lights. PA specials. Three of them one in each back corner and one in front, between the glove. Like I said up above. Lots of visibility. Not too many shadows. I'm getting old you know. lol

 

[eldubb440]

I trash picked mine....... looked like it fell out of a truck.......put an LED and a new piece of glass in it.......pushed out a dent and straightened a leg............ better than new lol

 

[Islandkent]

I wired in the original switch from my table top cabinet because the floor model didn't come with any. And I wired in a ancient AC adapter because the one that came with the table top one lasted about 20 minutes. And run a three LED truck lights in daisy chain. Here you can see the switch and my power bar hooked up running the lights and dust management system AKA shop vac. lol
Also in the picture you can see I'm not using the vacuum port for the vacuum. But for the intake port.

 

[Islandkent]

On the back side you can see where I mounted the hose for the vacuum. Where the original intake was. But according to everybody that did the mods this works best. I picked up the Adapter for the hose at Canadian Tire. CT. It was originally had a small vacuum brush attached to it to use for dusting?? So I just took the brush off and it fit perfectly. So I used that to attach to vacuum.
Like I said they might and I guess there is post in between.
eldubb440 you got the best kind... FREE

 

[Islandkent]

Here is a shot of my home made dust cyclone. Just a few pvc elbows and some duct tape and a few adaptors from CT shop vac kit. Workd great!

 

[Islandkent]

Now for the door mods... All those cabinets here and south of the border comes with those dam holes in the door. Well my son runs a metal brake and he cut up and bent me some pieces for the door and for the pieces inside so that those corners don't catch any of he media. He also bent me my baffles and the nice little box below the door to catch the media when you open the door. I said I was dreaming about this thing 24/7 lol I think I had it pretty well thought through. Look at the bonus the young fella even had blue to match. Not perfect but not bad for scrap!
Also I have to add you can see in these shots that I cut down the bottom screen to allow for more room as per the u-tube mods. And added extra door gasket material for the door and a little flap made out of duct tape to minimize the spillage when opening the door. You can also see the inside blow gun for cleaning parts off and blowing around the door before opening.

 

[Islandkent]

Oh I forgot to mention my home made proportioning valve made out of some plumbing pipes. to adjust the flow of the media to the gun. Found a video on line about it.

 

[Sahara]

Way to go fella's.
Sahara did you make the cabinet from scratch also?? We need to see her.
Wayne, funny my wife bought me mine for X-mas when they were on sale last fall. Couldn't touch it till Christmas. lol

I made this probably twenty years ago. The local high school shop class used it for about a decade. It’s seen a lot of use, works fantastic.

 

[bm02tj]

I have a little bench one for small items
still works after 10 years

 

[Islandkent]

Last but not least is the air system. I have a 1980's vintage T-30 Ingersoll Rand. So I have lots of wind but to make sure I'm getting it in time I increased to 1/2 ID hose, pipe. water separator. and even drilled out some of the fittings to make them a little bigger. That being said I found out later that most of the media don't like all the air at full pressure so I guess I'm covered.
I think that's it. Wow time for a nap. lol

 

[Islandkent]

Right on Sahara! The plywood must be getting thin after 20 years eh? We use to have one like that at a body shop I worked at 30 + years ago.
bm02tj yes I still have mine and was going to keep it for nuts and bolts and the likes but how this one works I think I'll give this one to the son-in-law for his wood working projects.

 

[Sahara]

Right on Sahara! The plywood must be getting thin after 20 years eh? We use to have one like that at a body shop I worked at 30 + years ago.
bm02tj yes I still have mine and was going to keep it for nuts and bolts and the likes but how this one works I think I'll give this one to son inlaw

I used three quarters inch plywood, so it’s pretty heavy duty. I try to not blast directly against the back but if I do it mostly just raises the grain. I have to repaint the inside every few years. The glass is an old tempered glass coffee table top. Replaced it a few times.

 

[Islandkent]

I found out on line Sahara that some of the guys are using stainless steel mesh or screen with fine fine holes for glass protector. They say the old fellas use to use it and never need to replace the glass because the media is deflected before it hits the glass. Only drawback is that you have to be looking straight through the screen/mesh in order to see properly.

Here is the extensions and the hood signal light brackets I did this afternoon to make me a believer. Princess Auto glass beads. Before and after.

 

[dadsbee]

I blow some bleed air into mine through the back port and exhaust outside on the other. Keeps visibility at a fair level. Test run and valve I installed later on.

 

[Islandkent]

Oh yeah I forgot to mention I made my own quick change window attachments with thumb screws and all. No tools required to change glass. I'm not using those tear away sheets. Glass on sand side plexi on top.

 

[Islandkent]

I hear you Wayne. The one I'm using is adjustable on the power/switch end. Just open or close it depending on the pressure your using. It swings on a spring loaded bolt and nut for tension. I think you can make it out in the picture up top. I just want enough air getting in to slightly inflate the gloves. No leaks anywhere because of the negative pressure caused by the shop vac. 10-4?