[chromo]

Say, in the search for info!

I saw the parts list link, still not found a link for info how it actaully works or details most people want/need like me before buying such a thing though, so still guessing. BUT, what I did find!

Nozzle 5/16" $36.10
Cartridge Filter $108.45
Dust Filter Bag $78.40

I hope people don't need to buy such things very often!

When I really looked into the parts list and the larger image details for the parts just now, it looks almost as if some-one stole the design for a cheap parts washer I built back around the 70's and converted it to media blasting with a vacuum! My washer was for blasting off large amounts of grease and oils without making too much mess, before hot tanking them.

I had a pressure washer sucking out the bottom of a tank and blowing into a hard rubber cup at the part, the water/soaps/grease drained back a large return hose into the center of tank and ran through a filter back into bottom of tank. This looks almost the same in respect to the hoses, tank, siphon, etc.. just allot different with the media use setup. Change that bottom tank fitting #19 1/2" Siphon Elbow $9.80 to connect to a pressure washer and run #21 Vacuum Hose $89.65 as the water return line and let dirty water drain back into a water filter setup in the tank back into the bottom of the tank to be sucked back out again. My filter was to collect large grease junks, grit, etc.. but let water flow through freely.

Looks same as what they are doing with the media in this unit, siphon media from bottom, return to tank using vacuum hose (media of course does not flow like water)! Drop media to bottom of tank to be used again perhaps?

Ya, if your creative you can build this thing in a smaller scale with a shop vac, cheap blaster gun, some hardware store fittings, etc... for $100-$200 and have a mighty nice unit if you want something like that! Very handy maybe for items to large for a cabinet, not very good for a ton of items though I think, like wiper arms and some other small and odd shaped parts.
Would be good for some large items still on vehicles perhaps like frames, floor pans, truck beds, and truck axles etc.. before painting. I will certainly be building myself one latter!

Mounting a shop vac lid/motor to a 55gal steel barrel or 35gal plastic barrel should do well. Block off the normal hose hole that goes to the tank for the shop vac, install hose in the barrel instead! Media will be sucked into barrel! Use filter to keep media in barrel and away from motor and filter the motor area as normal also. If you can get a shop vac with a mostly flat bottom tank just cut out part of the bottom and bolt and seal it to the barrel, tank and all over a hole in the barrels lid.
Attach a siphon feed outlet to the bottom of the barrel and to the blaster gun.
NOW, although it would at first seem that it would not work well, suction in the barrel might hold the media from flowing right? I seriously dought a problem here. The reason being that once you press the blaster end cup to the part and get a decent seal the pressure should equalize! Since the vacuum is pulling a suction against the part, that suction/pressure is equal to that in the barrel. So the end of blaster and barrel is equal, no media flow. What should happen now is when you start blasting you should have more AIR on the blaster side, so you should still suck media in a siphon feed as normal, that extra air is being sucked back to the barrel and out the shop vac, that means less vacuum in the barrel so the media should actually flow BETTER than a normal siphon feed. You have both the normal siphon feed and some added feed from vacuum to pull the media through. Even though there is still the same vacuum on the barrel as the blaster tip, more air is flowing at the tip and it's the movement of the air that is drawing the siphon on the media.

I am working on a chest freezer blast cabinet, doing well but slow, and as soon as I get that done if I have time I will be building a barrel blaster as I have described above. Very simple and should work great!
To add this to my chest freezer cabinet which will not have a seal at the parts, I may use 2 barrels, it's very easy to move a shop vac hose! So I draw media from one barrel and suck into the second barrel, when needed I swap hoses and go again. Always one barrel should be full of reclaimed media ready to blast. I need to install a bottom tube to drain media for the freezer still anyway, might as well be a shop vac hose! I have one mounted in the side for dust, but nothing to drain used media yet. So a down draft should work to get rid of dust and also collect media!