Bike Forums - View Single Post

02-19-18, 08:08 PM

#10

Andrew R Stewart

Senior Member

Join Date: Feb 2012

Location: Rochester, NY

Posts: 18,048

Bikes: Stewart S&S coupled sport tourer, Stewart Sunday light, Stewart Commuting, Stewart Touring, Co Motion Tandem, Stewart 3-Spd, Stewart Track, Fuji Finest, Mongoose Tomac ATB, GT Bravado ATB, JCP Folder, Stewart 650B ATB

Mentioned: 0 Post(s)

Tagged: 0 Thread(s)

Quoted: 4191 Post(s)

Likes: 1,169

Liked 3,834 Times in 2,293 Posts

Part 2-

Fall 2016 saw me studying the options in earnest. Theinternet can soak up a lot of time… There were some initial aspects that needed to be figured out. Type,size and controls were first.
Siphon cabinets are significantly less cost, less hardwareand usually smaller then the equivalent pressure pot one, siphon it was. SinceI don’t do any real for profit work the speed of blasting wasn’t a reason tolook at pressure pots anyway.
The desk top units might be ok for frame parts before theirbrazed (and much larger) buy I didn’t want to wind up wishing I’d gotten acabinet large enough to blast the brazed up drop outs, crown/steerers and seattube/shells. The 36x24 “Harbor Freight” units (and the clones) are inexpensiveand just large enough but I know you get what you pay for. The on line videosabout these were mostly about making them better, not a good sign.Interestingly many of the vids mentioned the same source for the up gradingparts. My eyes grew again and the 4’ cabinets started to look pretty nice. Onecan fit an entire frame in side and the grade of construction was also a stepbetter then the HF type. 48”s was about as large as I could handle space wiseand be able to move it around if needed.
I wanted a foot pedal, they are far easier to use and thegun is also then easier to handle. Good lighting was a must. I learned aboutdust management and decided on a true dust collector instead of a simple vacuumducted to the outside.
At about this point I decided to call the guy who wasmentioned as the source for the HF vids modifications, Mike Tacoma ofPro-Blast. He’s a truly giving guy. He spent a lot of time on the phone with mewalking me through some of the issues and aspects of cabinets. I had to returnto the searching with the new guidelines.
Very soon I settled on the SBC 420 model. Not their biggestor smallest, 2 side and 1 big top doors, attached dust collector, good lightsand a foot pedal. I called Mike back and he said that this was the best of thelow cost cabinets but still suggested some upgrades to make it work better. Hesuggested buying it from the Greg Smith Co. as they had free freight. At that time the prices ran from just over$900 to a little over $1200 depending on which seller and whether freight wasor wasn’t included.
In the middle of February 2017 I placed the order andarranged with the freight hauler and my sister/brother in law for delivery. Lessthan a week later it came, a big wood and steel crate weighing nearly 400lbs. Ihad made a wood cart for it and we man handled it on to the cart and rolled itinto the garage and out of the way. It would be a while before I would assemble it.

Here's a link to the cabinet and supplier: SBC420 Sandblast Cabinet | GSES

Part 3 will have more photos. Andy

Reply