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Has anyone gone the extra mile and bought their own media blaster set up to do mechs and castings? I know someone less that a mile from me who powder coats for a living, but he is always super busy, with major contarcts with Birdseye and big buisness. I can see the look on his face when I walk into his office with yet more slot parts. .
I would love to have a go myself as I have room in the workshop. Does anyone sell compresser, cabinet and gun as a bundle, new or second hand?

I did buy the needed parts some time ago, but not as a set. I made my own cabinet and bought the compressor (quite a large one) at a good price second hand on eBay (good as new actually). I set it up to use baking soda as the blast media because it's safer, environmentally cleaner, and less messy, that's to say, it's very messy but can simply be washed away.

To be honest, I don't use it very often. It works well but is quite a palaver to set it all up and break it all down as I do not have room to keep it set up full time. That would make a big difference. Although I did not buy my stuff from them, and this sounds a bit odd, I know several people (not slot machine related) who have bought either the parts (spray gun, blaster gun, hoses etc) or the compressor or indeed both from Lidl with good results. The spray gun could be better I'm told. The prices in Lidl are certainly good but, as I say, I have not used their version myself.

Just remember to get a large compressor otherwise you won't get the power to blast anything. I use a 200Litre tank with 145psi. Along with a big compressor you need good water /damp traps in the pipe line otherwise the gun will constantly clog up with lumps of media. As mentioned elsewhere, its a messy job even with a solid cabinet. Mine is used mainly for car parts, but also for the slot cabinets and mechs.

I agree with Paul, I bought a Millar soda blasting setup and built a cabinet but it still created so much dust in the workshop I gave it up in the end. As mentioned above you need a lot of compressor power and the flow of baking soda can be a little problematic (clogging etc). I'm sure if you have a lot to do its worth persevering, but it's not an easy project.

This YouTube video gives some idea of the dust problem mentioned above.


I thought this was the best comment.

Remember you are pumping air into the cabinet so it doesn't just need sealing it needs somewhere for all the air to escape from otherwise you will just blow it out from every seal, the main job of the shop vac is to void all the air you are pumping in.
For soda blasting in this type of cabinet you need to seal it up good and proper, then hook up a shop vac with a cyclone attached. This is what I do and it works.

Thanks for all the replies, if it makes loads of dust, then that's me out. I have finished machines in my workshop as well as stock for my business that would be a real problem if contaminated with dust, so it's a definate NO from me, but thanks

wembleylion wrote: ↑Sun Mar 21, 2021 11:40 am Remember you are pumping air into the cabinet so it doesn't just need sealing it needs somewhere for all the air to escape from otherwise you will just blow it out from every seal, the main job of the shop vac is to void all the air you are pumping in.
For soda blasting in this type of cabinet you need to seal it up good and proper, then hook up a shop vac with a cyclone attached. This is what I do and it works.

It was the last straw for my Henry Hoover!