Intheshaw

Hi Everyone!

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11 hours ago, Dakotagrafx said:

The paint mask can also be used for light glass etching with a sand blaster 

Maybe I'll have a reason to buy a sandblaster now. In the meantime my wife had already bought some of the etched glass look spray paint that I'll try out eventually.

And uscutter is fast at shipping, went out today and is scheduled for delivery on Saturday. Good to know it's really fast to the Midwest.

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sandblasting is another rabbit hole - some things I use a cabinet some I use a siphon unit outdoors

on the door one it is etched glass vinyl but the rest are actually etched 

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I second the rabbit hole. Blasting is fun. I don't recommend letting your wife see what can be done. It's a tradition now to do pyrex sets for our friends kids weddings. It looks sweet to put the new family name so you can see it through the bottom of the cookware. 

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7 hours ago, Wildgoose said:

I second the rabbit hole. Blasting is fun. I don't recommend letting your wife see what can be done. It's a tradition now to do pyrex sets for our friends kids weddings. It looks sweet to put the new family name so you can see it through the bottom of the cookware. 

It's a doubled edges sword, show her what can be done and she wont care if I buy the tools to do it BUT then I'll only work on stuff for her. I'm already in the middle of building a built-in mudroom bench that she was sure to remind me last night needs to be finished before I mess with the cutter haha.

For sandblasters, what are you guys using? Just one of those cheap harbor freight ones or something else? I wouldn't think you would need anything fancy to blast on glass but maybe I'm wrong.

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I just have one of the cheap HF bench style that was on a sale and because I don't have room for the free standing ones. I have seen home made versions built out of plastic totes as well. The only thing I recommend is installing an moisture trap and pressure regulator to your air line. I bought those both at HF as well and mounted them on the back of the cabinet. You only need around 35 psi to blast glass. 

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One down side the HF box that I've read about a lot, is they tend to leak. When you put it together if you take your time and use a good amount of caulk they can be pretty good from what I understand. I ended up spending a bit more and got a bench style unit that was one solid piece. Only place for the media to leak out is the window door. Most cabinet come with a cheap syphon gun that is usually good enough for most projects.

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Thanks guys. I'll take a look. 

Do you need a large compressor? I've got a 175 psi 6 gal pancake that's perfect for woodworking but probably too small for anything like sandblasting. I may be able to steal my brothers 40 gal since he's in the middle of building a house and I think it's just in storage.

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Even for a cheap siphon gun you are going to want at least 5cfm at 90 psi.

You will never blast glass at 90, but that is what they call for.

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It's definitely more about cfm than pressure. (If you blast at 90 you will likely blow off all your small details.)  Typically you don't need a long duration on glass so you will be able to do a piece then let it catch up and do another. Having a regulator will meter out your air a little. Glass doesn't take much effort and you can decide between a light etch or a carved cut. I have done leafs in two stages and first blasted the stem for a longer time then peeled the rest of the leaf and just did a quick etch so they get a 3D look. 

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Forgot to set the regulator once.

Blasting glass at 120psi is definitely not a good thing.

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Yeah, then my compressor definitely won't work as it's just 2.6 cfm at 90 psi. It's great for nail guns but not automotive. I'll have to keep an eye out for a larger compressor.

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1 minute ago, Intheshaw said:

Yeah, then my compressor definitely won't work as it's just 2.6 cfm at 90 psi. It's great for nail guns but not automotive. I'll have to keep an eye out for a larger compressor.

I would give it a shot - if it pressures up to 175lbs and you are only blasting at 40 or so it will last longer than you think - and gets you going

 

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Agreed, the pancake compressor will get you started. I only have an 8 gal compressor from HF. The cfm rating is just the cfm of the compressor, once the tank is full your cfm is simply that of what ever your hose and couplings will allow. Having a cfm equal to or higher than required would mean you could run the blaster nonstop. Having a cfm lower just means you have to take breaks every now and then to let the compressor fill the tank back up. Not a big deal since you rarely blast glass for long stretches.

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You might have already gotten your answers but I’m near here and I’d like to say jump in. I started with a titan and very quickly upgraded to a graphtec. Well worth it and I used money out of my pocket for both machines but in the end the machines ended up paying for themself. 

Hope this helps! Good luck. 

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On 3/16/2019 at 5:54 PM, TrackHawk707 said:

You might have already gotten your answers but I’m near here and I’d like to say jump in. I started with a titan and very quickly upgraded to a graphtec. Well worth it and I used money out of my pocket for both machines but in the end the machines ended up paying for themself. 

Hope this helps! Good luck. 

I jumped in with both feet and bought the graphtec, just finished putting the stand together as it's been in boxes in my basement for the last 2 weeks because my day job takes over my life this time of year. Hopefully I'll be cutting some trial runs this weekend.

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2 hours ago, Intheshaw said:

I jumped in with both feet and bought the graphtec, just finished putting the stand together as it's been in boxes in my basement for the last 2 weeks because my day job takes over my life this time of year. Hopefully I'll be cutting some trial runs this weekend.

Awesome to hear that ! Good luck if you have any questions I’m here to answer what I can, and sure every else can say the same. 

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Finally got around to getting this thing cutting last week, been having to fight the wife over the laptop usage so I just went out and bought a used old tower for cheap and it seems to be working well.

I can say I'm truly amazed by the graphtec and was cutting within about 30 minutes of messing with the setting.  Still learning but I've cut out a few plain text decals and they turned out great.

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