[Bob Carriere]

Oure expereince at the barn has been with the Princess cabinet..... which once assembled needs to be glued shut and/or taped.

I choose at the outset to use aluminum oxide.....expensive but lasts a long time and cuts fast. Sandblasting cabinet is USELESS unless you hookup a shop vac to create a neg. pressure....... I use a 5 gal. metal can to catch osme of the heavier dust before it enters the shop vac...... buy a shop vac with a written 5 year wrranty and expect to replace every year...... no matter what you do the aluminum oxide will kill the blower/motor bearings.

On a regular basis dump the blasign media as it gets full of large flakes that will plug the suction tube....... nozzles also need to be replaced as the wear to a large orifice and reduce your cutting capacity.

On the glass...... I made a new wooden frame held by wooden screews which are easier to remove to replace the plastic lining. Have a set of spare rubber gloves.... you will cut them or wear holes in them at themost unopportune time..... like late on a weekend and Princess is closed....

Keeping a good source of lights inside is also a challenge.... I have taken to junking them regularly when they get tooooo pitted to let light out....I have opted for under the counter lights from Home depot that runs on 12 volts....cheap and easy to replace.

Finally the "kompressor"....... like other manly things bigger is better.

Check out the specified C.F.M. of the cabinet as listed in the Princess catalogue...... you do not need high pressure but high volume.... youmight get by with a high CFM 7 1/2 HP..... as large a tank as you can find for the reasons given above...... you do not necessarily need a two stage compressor....... but they do come in handy to run a 3/4 inch impact for those stubborn rims studs...... requires 125/150 psi..... 900 pounds of torque and we still need touse the hot wrench to mellow the nuts to some mobility..

I am using a 10HP Princess running on single phase 60 amps on start up..... when it kicks in the lights dim in the village..... 120 gal. tank rated at 33 CFM at 100 psi.....

Caution..... whatever size you buy..... install it as far away as you can... they are noisy...... I had no previous expereince and installed mine in the attic of the barn...... never regretted the efforts to get it up there..... if you are in attic looking for parts and the sucker goes on...... hope your head is not under a low part of the ceiling.......they are as noisy as a Harley Dee.

Be prepared to drain the water out of the tank regularly.... so make provision for easy access to the drain plug/valve...... a good 3/4 in. ball valve from Princess will do the trick.... and a hose section to shoot the water in a desireable direction....... one litre of water at a time coming out at 150 psi really fogs up quickly......including oil from the compressor....

One final note..... when you pipe in your air lines from a remote location to your work site....... consider installing a special flexible section to you 1 inch steel delivery line..... it will reduce noise and vibration to the steel line.... and use a water trap in addition to draining the tank.

Now you are set for a blow job.....

my 5 cents worth

BooBee