Just got my first serious air abrasive unit, what should I know?

[Lmshoemaker]

Greetings!

 

I've been gone from the forum for a while because personal circumstance prevented me from prepping and showing off my finds, but due to a friend retiring and selling off his old setup to me I am now soon to be prepping again! My problem is with this Comco unit I got, I know water in the air line will put these temporarily out of commission in a heartbeat, so what all do I need to do to keep water from clumping my abrasive? I know some very basics, that I need an air drier and to keep the media dry, but what brands of air dryer work best for our preparators on the forum? How do store your media? Is there anything outside of these variables I'm missing? I'm going out tomorrow to look at supplies, so any recommendations would be appreciated.

[hadrosauridae]

I just finished building my prep station early this year.  Here is the thread I wrote describing my concept and components.  

 

[grandpa]

6 hours ago, hadrosauridae said:

I just finished building my prep station early this year.

Great post.  I'm just wondering, after several months of experience/use, would you do anything different if you were to do this again, and if so, what improvements might you recommend to your current system?

[hadrosauridae]

24 minutes ago, grandpa said:

Great post.  I'm just wondering, after several months of experience/use, would you do anything different if you were to do this again, and if so, what improvements might you recommend to your current system?

Nothing.  I have swapped out a couple components because quality / fitment issues, but the system is still the same.   I agree with comments made in the thread that a home built flat top blast cabinet would be better, I still couldnt have done it as cheaply as I got my HF cabinet.  

 

I have 2 work spaces, one bench for scribing and picking and the other for blasting.  I have seen pics of work-spaces where its all done in one spot, so that is something to consider if you are building everything from the start.

 

I do wish my compressor was in another room (or building) but its not an option for me.

 

Edit to add a thought - Besides the physical needs of airflow and filtering, the most important parts of a prep station would be lighting and magnification.  You can move through bulk matrix quickly, but then you need to see detail and you need a lot of light to help see.  Long arm microscopes arent cheap, but good mag visor and magnifying lens can be a huge aide.  Plan for eventual purchase of a microscope.