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blast cabinet brushes?

Hand Lettering topics: Sign Making, Design, Fabrication, Letterheads, Sign Books.

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Felix Marcano
Posts: 57
Joined: Mon Apr 25, 2005 10:36 am
Location: Luquillo, Puerto Rico
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blast cabinet brushes?

Post by Felix Marcano »

Hi everyone. I was wondering, how thick should the brushes for the blaster be? I was looking at the 5/16" brushes in mcmaster.com (page 1097) & the ones from sealeze.com. Will 5/16" be enough?

Thanks, Felix
Work hard, party like a tourist!
Patrick Mackle
Posts: 478
Joined: Thu Apr 08, 2004 10:21 am
Location: Monrovia, Ca.
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Post by Patrick Mackle »

Brushes keep the sand from passing through as long as they are in perfect shape. Don't lean on them or they will lose their "memory". You could double them up, 5/16" on 5/16". They will leak where your arms must go through, speading the bristles apart. Other leak factors would be size of grit rebounding back, blasting pressure, and distance from nozzle to surface being blasted. Most of all how efficiant your dust collector is at creating enough vaccum to block or reverse any escaping abrasive. Try to design so that your blast hose enters the cabinet from the bottom and not through the brushes so as not to wreck or bend them.
Larry White
Posts: 1213
Joined: Thu Apr 08, 2004 4:18 am

Cabinet Brushes

Post by Larry White »

I used the Sealeze brush, product #SFG140BL, which is a 72" length (I cut it down) of a .020" filament 4-1/2" long bristle. It can be found on their chart at:
http://www.sealeze.com/nylon.htm

They also have a variety of extrusions to hold the brushes. I used the XTG680CLA. I put a brush on the top and bottom of the 6" tall slot on my cabinet, with the brush tips meeting in the middle. This has worked quite well and the slot makes for a good air intake for the dust collection system. You can see it here:
http://www.russpix.com/deadman/img_2573 ... ze=1&exif=

-LW
Russ McMullin
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Joined: Mon Apr 25, 2005 12:57 am
Location: Tooele, UT
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Post by Russ McMullin »

Larry, when we were using your blast cabinet I didn't notice anything escaping through the brushes. What are the specs on your dust collection system? It seemed strong enough to keep any abrasive dust from escaping.
Larry White
Posts: 1213
Joined: Thu Apr 08, 2004 4:18 am

Dust Collector...

Post by Larry White »

We have a 15 HP dust collector, not sure of the CFM. The 12" duct into one of our booths will evacuate all the dust in about a minute. If I ran the cabinet without any of the other vents open, the brushes would be waving in the breeze. We hooked up the dust collection system prior to cutting the slot in the cabinet and installing the brushes. We mindlessly fired up the dust collector and it almost imploded the window in the cabinet. We've got plenty of suck around here, small farm animals are advised to stay clear of the vents. :D

-LW
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