Alan Myers wrote:
> Does your new cabinet have a dust collector? Mine has a simple
> (inexpensive!) 5 gal. wet/dry vac, which uses a standard vacuum hose to
> pick up the dust from a close fitted hole in the upper right side. It
> has an intake port in the same location as what you describe.
>
> As an intake, there is no filter on it... just a small round grill, not
> adjustable like yours.
My cheapo cabinet has a two level filter. There is a cone
shaped filter about the size of an apple that looks like a cheap
K&N, and on top of that is a thin foam element like a "pre-filter".
They seem to work ok, but there is always sand floating around
from opening and closing the cabinet. I wouldn't use it
without breathing protection.
> I've also found from my own experience and discussion with other cabinet
> users: 1. the sand always collects as far as possible from the pickup
> tube
Agreed. One thing that helped me was to lay the tube down in
the bottom of the cabinet, and secure it to the bottom with
an old speaker magnet. This at least stopped the pickup from
"floating" up to the top of the sand.
> 2. I always seem to need 4 times as much sand as is recommended
VERY agreed. My cabinet clearly said something like "do not use
more than 5 pounds of sand" or some really small number. With
this amount, I couldn't make it work at all. I had to put MANY
times more than this to make it reliable.
I still have no idea why it warns against using too much
sand. After all, it's really just a tin box! It's certainly strong
enough to support a whole bag of sand.
> allows me to roll it outside if it's a
> nice day
I would caution against blasting with sand inside a garage
if you do any real mechanical work inside the garage. It's
always dusty, and I'd hate to see that dust settle on
an exposed engine intake, an oil filter sitting on the shelf
waiting to be installed, etc.
--
Trevor Boicey, P. Eng.
Ottawa, Canada, tboicey@brit.ca
ICQ #17432933 http://www.brit.ca/~tboicey/
"Bury me alive, I'll give you a dollar!" - Johnny Bravo
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