TumbleBlast™ Automated Tumble Baskets

Tumble blasting rotates a batch of parts while they're being blasted, so every surface gets the same even coverage without anyone turning parts by hand. Traditionally, tumble blast meant a large, dedicated machine. TumbleBlast™ brings the same idea to the sandblasting, bead-blasting or vapor-honing cabinet you already own: a motorized basket sits inside the cabinet and keeps your parts turning under the blast gun.

It takes four steps. Set the tumble basket inside your cabinet and the control box outside it. Load your parts. Start the rotation, then start blasting, with the gun mounted and the foot pedal clamped for hands-free operation. When the batch is done, unload it and run the next one. It works in sandblasting, bead-blasting and vapor-honing cabinets, and no CNC machine is needed.

Choose the Standard for bead blasting with glass bead or other non-abrasive media, loads up to 10 lb, and most freestanding and many tabletop cabinets. Choose the Giant for sand, aluminum oxide and other abrasive media, production or all-day use, loads up to 25 lb, and parts too big for a 9" basket. The Giant needs a freestanding cabinet. Both rotate your parts so every surface is blasted evenly.

The Standard needs about 14" W × 13" D × 14" H of interior space, and the Giant needs about 18" W × 17" D × 18" H. Either unit also has to fit through your cabinet's side door. To check your exact cabinet, use the free 3D Compatibility Tool on either product page. It covers about 476 cabinet models from 36 brands, including Harbor Freight, Skat Blast, Eastwood, Empire, Trinco, Cyclone and Guyson.

No modifications are needed, and yes, you can. TumbleBlast™ is the only drop-in, removable option: set it inside to turn your existing cabinet into an automated tumble blast cabinet, then lift it out whenever you want to blast by hand again. Other automated blast cabinet options are either built in permanently or are standalone machines.

It's built for machine shops, job shops and additive manufacturers that blast batches of small parts by hand today. Typical jobs include deburring machined parts, finishing SLS 3D prints, prepping surfaces for coating or plating, removing rust or scale, and giving production runs a consistent matte or satin finish. Parts with complex shapes and hard-to-reach surfaces are a strong fit, because constant rotation exposes every side.

About 30 minutes of standing at the gloves becomes about 5 minutes of loading and unloading, and your operator does other work while the batch runs. For example, if it saves 25 minutes per batch at $30 an hour and you run two batches a day, the Standard pays for itself in about 7 weeks and the Giant in about 11. Plug in your own labor rate and batch count to see your payback.

It's typically more consistent. Constant rotation removes the shadowing and missed spots that come with blasting by hand, and every part in the batch gets the same exposure time, so you get repeatable results from one batch to the next.

Gimbel Automation designs, assembles and supports the TumbleBlast™ in California. We originally built it for our own shop to cut manual blasting labor, and it's now six generations into the design. It runs in hundreds of wet-blast cabinets and thousands of dry blast cabinets, and every unit is backed by US-based support from the team that built it.