Vapor Blaster Update

71Laverda750SF

Hero member
Now that I have had a chance to use the "home" edition of the Vapor Honing Technologies vapor blasting cabinet I have found the positives and negatives with their intro system. The best thing is the price, delivered it was $1850 (25 pound bucket of blast material and casters were the show specials included at no charge) and was relatively easy to set it up. The first use was ok, found out I need a bigger compressor with a bigger tank, and really could use a separate storage tank for long use periods to keep the flow up. Being the "economical" model there is no foot pedal for the air control, I have ordered one for $50 and should help with the massive wide open air flow (either on or off). The rinse hose works great but I have just ordered a coiled hose so it can be retracted out of the way automatically, $20. Working on adding a window rinse sprayer that can be controlled by a foot pedal. Small parts are hard to hold and sprayed at the same time, need a parts holder like a vice. The great thing is the spray does not remove any base material, does not heat up the part, and gives a smooth satin finish, see the pictures comparing the before and after. I have to hand it to the UK and EU for using this technology for a whole lot longer than the US. So over all this cabinet is great for a small business and home shops, add a couple hundred bucks and the little nuances will be removed, a far cry from their next model which has most of these built in for $5995 plus freight ($500 to Florida). Not sure if these will be available outside the US, if it is then there will be no doubt it will be a little more expensive.

Clay
 

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Ian, a couple of pictures I posted before, I'll get some more in the next day or so.

John, depending on where you are in Florida it might be a long drive but you can come up and blast your parts away. Cost is my Canadian best friend, Crown Royal  8)

Clay
 

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Thanks for the review. I am considering taking the plunge and ordering one. If you were to do it again what would you order, you mentioned the foot control and wiper, anything else?  I have relied on soda blasting and acid cleaning of alloy up to now with good results but the acid is dangerous and soda makes a mess.
Thanks
Jim
 
For the impecunious types like me, I'm just wondering how hard it would be to build a blast cabinet. I occasionally do a bit of soda or sand blasting, and it would be good to contain the mess. As I understand it, a blast cabinet is little more than a box with a window and a couple of long rubber gloves attached to arm holes. To save space in the shed, it would be good to invent something that can double as a parts washer and blast cabinet.
 
Guys,
For what it is worth' I did build a decent blast cabinet using ?6 plans off eBay and 2 sheets of 12mm plywood. Bought the gloves as "spares" off a cabinet supplier.  Put a Perspex panel in the top and a strong light shinning through it.  About 600 x 600 x 1000, door on the end with bit piano hinge. Sealed it with bath sealant.

Works as good as my compressor, keep buying bigger unit but nothing less than 3 HP is worth thinking about.  This is the biggest you can run off standard UK domestic power supply.

Be a bit more complex to home build for liquid based system: filters, pumps sealing the thing up.

Been brilliant but took a big longer to build that I would have liked, mostly due to the hopper shape.

Cheers,
Andy
 
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