James, Jac, and everybody else,
Frank came up with a solution to the "media everywhere" problem a while
back. I built one of his dust collection systems for my sand blast cabinet
and it works great! I saved his post - here it is:
Frank Clarici wrote:
> Yesterday Joe Mec and I decided to make a dust collection system for my
glass bead
> cabinet.
> Yeah, the ole shop vac hooked up to the cabinet sort of works for 3
minutes til
> the filter clogs up and if you run the vac with no filter, the motor
sounds real
> funny after a couple days of sucking fine glass beads in it.
> So.....a couple of Italian heads, some good ole yankee ingenuity and a
bunch of
> junk from around the garage and we made a wet filter system that so far
seems to
> work.
>
> You will need;
>
> 1 shop vac (the small $20-30 1 gallon size works fine)
> 1 empty 5 gallon spackle bucket with tight fitting lid.
> 3' (min) of 3/4 or 1" ID rubber or vinyl hose.
> 2) 3/4 or 1" (see hose size) PVC ribbed couplings.
>
> Drill 2 holes in the bucket lid to fit the ribbed couplings, if they are
not real
> tight, caulk or seal them where they go thru the lid.
>
> Cut a length of hose to fit 3/4 of the way into the bucket.
> Cut a short one inch piece of hose for the inside of the other fitting,
angle it
> towards the side or make a splash diverter so to keep the water out of the
short
> hose.
>
> Insert a length of rubber hose to your blast cabinet where the shop vac is
> supposed to hook into or make a hole in the cabinet for the hose.
>
> Run the other end of this hose to the bucket fitting with the long hose
inside.
>
> Hook up the shop vac to the fitting with the short hose.
>
> Fill the bucket 1/2 full with water or an anti freeze solution (in cold
climates)
>
> When the vac is turned on it will create a suction in the water filled
bucket,
> dust from the blast cabinet will be drawn into the water.
> No dust gets into the shop vac.
>
> So far it works great for me. Some playing around with the exact water
level so it
> does not wet the vac filter was needed or a foam filter would work too. Be
sure to
> use a wet/dry vacuum for this project.
> K-mart has/had the 1 gallon shop vacs for around $20, the fittings are PVC
and I
> picked up a 4' of 3/4" ID vinyl hose. The whole project cost less then
$30. (but I
> had the vac for a year or so)
>
> If you saw the dust and dirt around my blast cabinet, you would know why I
did
> this. If I used the shop vac directly, the filter clogged in 5 minutes so
I just
> gave up until now. I don't want to dust up my new garage, at least not yet
anyway.
>
> Foreseeable problems.....
> As the dirt fills the bucket, the water level will rise.
> Water freezes in the cold so now a place for your used antifreeze :)
> Improvments......
> As my buddy the plumber came in while we were "creating" this thing, he
wants to
> add a drain and an automatic fill valve to the bucket. Of course this
would make
> it completely automatic but it's not THAT hard to empty a bucket every
couple
> months. Unless you mounted it up high in the lower portion of your garage
and have
> the blast cabinet upstairs like I do.
Rick
/// unsubscribe/change address requests to majordomo@autox.team.net or try
/// http://www.team.net/mailman/listinfo
/// Archives at http://www.team.net/archive/spridgets
|