Media blast cabinet.
The principle is similar to the "pressure pot" soda blaster's valve I've discussed in another thread. I did not have great luck with it there, but this is a different application and not the exact same design so who knows. Has anyone tried this mod?
I've made several other minor mods. Like converting the gun's air control to eliminate the trigger. Air is now controlled by a ball valve on the side of the cabinet so I don't have to hold the trigger down all the time. Since I'm left handed I relocated the hose connections to the left side of the cabinet and added a filter. In the process I also installed better quality hoses and clamps. Adding castors to the bottom of the legs makes it much easier to maneuver. Vinyl protective caps over all the bolt ends to prevent scratching things. And I made the bottom screen removable while the pick-up tubes and hoses are still attached.
What mods have you found to be helpful on a blast cabinet?
I have the HF blast cabinet as well, I bought mine second hand from a guy that had done a lot of mods and was in need of money... I bought the blast cabinet, a powdercoat system and a drill press.
It has the metering valve you show, it works good. I also have the vacuum dust correction system and have been thinking about adding a cyclone to increase the time between filter cleanings. The other mods are a foot control for the air supply and raising it about 6" so I can stand upright to work in it.
Here are the metering valve and the foot control
Vacuum system
The PO had also added this water trap and regulator, I think I will replace the regulator with just a pressure gauge as I have never used it, I just leave it wide open. My shop air is regulated already.
The most important thing I have found is having a good supply of clean dry air. I was having problems with water in my air supply, my automatic tank drains failed (Harbor freight) so when I re did my air system I went overboard, maybe.
I have an old 80 Gallon tank compressor, I put a 5HP motor on it, no idea what it's rated for. I ran the output of the compressor head through a "Franzinator" air dryer then into the tank, that did a pretty good job of cooling and drying the air but I still got moisture in the tank. The rebuild left these items as they were except for replacing the HF auto drains for some electric ones I got off of Amazon. Before the rebuild I was just running a 3/8" air hose into the shop for an air supply which restricted the flow, with that setup I was able to maintain 45 PSI at the blast cabinet running the blaster wide open continuously. I plumed in a 3/4" PEX air system from the compressor to the shop, I also increased the pulley size on the motor to bring the compressor RPM up to 400. Now the system will maintain 70 PSI at the blast cabinet wide open which works much better and there is no waiting for the compressor to catch up. I also added a regulator/ moisture trap followed by a desiccant air dryer I built from a water filter housing followed by an oil/water filter, then each drop in the shop has a water drain incorporated in it but so far about 9 months in I haven't had a drop of water in any of them.
This is the compressor and air system. You can see in the pic it's about time to recharge the desiccant it changes color from blue to pink when it is saturated. That is the original batch from 9 months ago, my air system probably runs an average of 2-3 days a week.
This is the franzinator, you can search that term and get all the info you want on how it works and how to build one.
You can see the auto drain on the bottom of the unit, there is also one on the tank drain. These are designed to be on all the time and open for an adjustable amount of time on an adjustable time schedule. I don't run my system continuously so I didn't want to have to remember to turn it on and off so I tied it into the contactor so it only has power when the compressor is running, when the compressor kicks in it opens for 3 seconds and then about every 15 minutes when it's running continuously.
This is the overhead drop for the blast cabinet feeding the 1/2" air hose down to the unit.
This is a closeup of the air outlets I made to terminate the drops, The inside is bored almost the full depth to the tap size for the 3/4" pipe fitting in the top to make a water reservoir with the drain in the bottom and the air outlet higher up on the side to help capture the moisture.
The other mod I have is a platform to stand on to make the foot pedal more ergonomic for those long blasting sessions.
Really relieves the stress on the ankle.