Trinco 20 Table Top Sand Blasting Cabinet (Overview)

by patpruitt on July 10, 2012

“I close my eyes
Only for a moment and the moment’s gone
All my dreams
Pass before my eyes with curiosity
Dust in the wind
All they are is dust in the wind” – Kansas

Ill start by saying there are a lot of good sand blasting cabinets out there…there are very few GREAT cabinets out there. My previous cabinets were some plastic units by Cyclone (from Rio), they worked, and if you don’t mind cleaning up all the media that leaked from the cabinet, they are good cabinets for under $200.

Ill also state, I have no affiliation with Trinco, just giving you my personal opinion on the build quality of these cabinets.

Ill clearly state, while most jewelers can get away with off the shelf cabinets from Rio, Harbor Freight, or some other place, I wanted something that would last an eternity.

Trinco specializes in the sandblasting industry.  They are one of the only companies that makes a small form factor cabinet that is solidly built.  I labored over this decision for a very long time, as I have the need for two cabinets with the work that I do, in addition, I needed something a little more robust.  One cabinet contains a coarse abrasive, the other a glass bead type abrasive.  The time it takes to clean the cabinet out and replace media is intensive, thus saving for two cabinets was the way to go.  At this point, you are jumping into the industrial machinery world….I personally welcome you.

Prices are all over the place for this little unit, and the stand is optional (did not purchase). I bought mine from JWK Machinery, and paid $600 +4% cc charge + freight (07/08/2012 prices).

These units have a shipping weight of 210lbs, so your only option is freight shipment.  This alone kills the overall price as this will have to come via truck, so shop around for the best price.   Its normally best to have them ship to the local pickup point in a major city. Note: all the dealers I called, none of them stocked this unit…they are shipped direct from Trinco.

Okay, enough of the usless banter….onto the photos!!!

Here is what you get, off the pallet of course.

All the parts unpacked. Some assembly required

– Cabinet with gun, screen, siphon assembly, dump door, gloves (all installed)
– Light and switch assembly, including light bulb (incandescent)
– Foot Pedal
– Glass for Cabinet (protective film)
– Dust Collector (yes, this is standard)
– Dust collector hose
– Regulator
– Air line (regulator to foot switch, foot switch to cabinet)
– Instructions

Pretty much everything you need to get up and running right out of the box minus the airline from your source to the regulator. The thing to note: the regulator has 3/8 NPT female port to hook your airline into.

First thing you notice, this thing is built like a little tank. 0.075″ steel plate is used throughout the entire build of this box. Hence the reason its well over 100lbs (200 lbs shipping). I will note, Trinco does not deburr a lot of the steel used in the cabinet, so becareful, TONS of sharp edges to cut yourself on.

The second, and probably most important safety feature, the window GLASS…yes, this is laminated Trulite safety glass. Probably 1/4″ total thickness

Next are the glass protectors…what can you say, but you get 3 of these…disposable and more will probably need to be ordered soon…

A couple things need to be put together in order to get up and running. The glass window and glass protectors (not pictured) and the light/switch assembly. This is where you will connect the sand blaster power cord to. Flip the switch on for the light, dust collector turns on….bitchen….

Gotta put the regulator on, two screws, thats it…

The Trinco 20 comes standard with a few nice things…the first, a foot pedal, kinda a safety type….door closed…

Door open….

Get this, a CARBIDE nozzle……STANDARD!!! Man, that’s flipping cool…plus its reversible…

Another thing that I pleasantly surprised by, the floor screen…I blast a lot of small parts, this is going to make life nice and easy…

The dump door is well gasketed and held in place by a pretty strong spring…

On the side of the cabinet is a pressure equalizer port, this is so your gloves dont get sucked off the mounts….its really nicely baffled.

Onto the dust collector…its a simple little can with a cloth filter, not much to say, but this would be good to upgrade to a hepa filter media here…

Last, but not least the hose…simple rubber band sealing, looks like a vacuum cleaner belt, but probably something super special from Trinco. Insert into vac, and into cabinet.

Okay, now that we covered the basics….here are some things that I noted, or changed.

– Trinco, for some reason, does not use teflon on any of the NPT threads…I got into the habit of always putting the stuff on threads…piece of mind, more than anything else.
– Keep in mind all the sharp edges I was telling you about.
– I also removed the safety flap on the foot switch, I could see that be very annoying down the road.

This metal plate reinforces the intake to the can dust collector…no gasket, so I added in some silicone…I want that thing to suck and not leak…

Now for the setup…here are both of my cabinets…just waiting on a dessicant dryer, media, and airlines to complete the setup. You will note the air compressor is right next to the cabinets…what is not shown is the 25+ foot run of steel air line that goes away from the compressor and circles back to the cabinets. I also had to modify an existing 36″ bench down to 30″ in height to make the arm holes more in line with my stature…I stand 6′ for reference. I would say max bench height would be about 32″….after that, the hose from the dust collector will not reach the intake port on the cabinet.

Well, hope you enjoy this write up. As stated this is one GREAT cabinet, and, surprisingly not a lot of information out there about it. For the money, you get a lot of stuff standard with this cabinet that you will have to pay extra for with other companies…

Enjoy!

P@

patpruitt

patpruitt

patpruitt

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