I am haveing a problem while media blasting parts. I have a small shop vac attached to the side of the cabinet to suck up the fine dust. I can't see the parts otherwise. It seems that a lot of the black sand is ending up in the bottom of the shop vac. I recently seen a new blast cabinet with a small filter over the hole where the vacume hose attaches. Should I install some sort of baffle or filter to the opening for the vacume line? What to use? Would a paper or K&N filter get clogged too quickly? What is everone else doing?

John
NNY

 

I've got a shop vac hooked up to mine as well and I do end up with some in the vac but it is really fine stuff. I try to blast away from the suction hole and I don't have a cover to baffle the vac hole. I do have a baffle over the vent that lets air into the booth but its just to keep stuff from getting out. Maybe run some sort of hose to route the vac near the top to get just the dust.

 

ShopVac's aren't usually equipped with good filters, and they are likely to suck up very fine particles. Those are being blown right back into your shop, into the air you're breathing. You should route the exhaust from the shop vac to outside to avoid respiratory problems! The cabinets are designed to be connected to an exhaust or dust collection system that gets that stuff completely out of the room. If your shopvac is a wet/dry, it might help to put some water in the tub.

 

I have a TP tools (Truman Industrial) media cabinet.
They sold me a box that acts as a "prefilter".
They call it an abrasive reclaimer.
The vacuum hose from the cabinet hooks to this box. The box has baffles in it and a door at the bottom.
Heavy grit settles out of the airflow and lands in the bottom of the box.
The vacuum hose hooks up to this box.
It does help.
Maybe you could fabricate something similar.

 

The fine dust will eventually eat away at the vacuum. I've had a little luck collecting the dust by filling the vacuum with about 3-4" of water to act as a water trap. I have a 6'X6'X6' steel electrical enclosure I got for free that works great for small and big parts. It does get really dusty in there without the vacuum.

I want to build a better trap and a guy on the Ford Barn, Skinned Knuckles, has the plans I am going to use:

http://www.fordbarn.com/aforum/memberpage/SKfilter1.jpg

http://www.fordbarn.com/aforum/memberpage/SKfilter2.jpg

He has some pictures of it in use: