Do-It-Yourself Sand Blaster?

I see no problem with this,.. sand blaster does operated on the venture effect principle....

Frankly, the nozzle wears quite quickly,... and given a choice, I'd go to Harbor Freight, you can at least get a more wear resistant ceramic tip. And for only $19.99, and you can get it for less if you have a 20% discount coupon, that's easily available.

I think we had a discussion about this before....it's simple and it works....but personally I would avoid the dust....

I think... your using it wrong....

We get that on a regular basis in West Texas, at least every few years. Simple: use old coat hangars to hang up the work pieces, and wait for the next Haboob.

Agree with you on avoiding the dust. There's another video that shows how to make a paint spray booth that I didn't check out.

Could be very useful.

Looks very messy. Would need PPE (mask etc.) while using it, and be ready for a lot of clearing up afterwards. Much more convenient (for small items) to use an enclosure which (if properly designed) would also re-cycle the grit. Maybe OK for one-off or perhaps once-a-year use.

When I had my shop,... I would have to go to a customers facility, where I would modify one of these on the end with the sandblast gun and put a shroud over the brush hook it up to a vacuum... worked great.

The biggest problem I see is the lack of adequate compressor volume/power.

I have one of these pancake compressors that I use for airing bicycle tires and even that strains it. Inflating one tire will cause it to start and run for awhile.

I've also got a blow gun almost exactly like the one used here and the gun will drain that compressor tank in about 30 seconds.

So, nothing wrong with the concept, but you'd better have at least a 5 hp compressor to run it. I say this because I also have a 2.5 HP single cylinder, 21 gallon compressor that would not support this either.

And finally, that "old bolt" he blasts is a threaded coupling, not a bolt at all.

agree,... from Harbor Freight the Average air consumption 7 CFM @ 90 PSI.

And that's normal on the shy side. The more air supply the better becassue basically, you have live air exiting.

For such a small part the time and mess it makes. I'll stick with a soak in muriatic acid.

I'm with you ozzb. If it's one thing I've learned in life, wet finishing processes are always better than dry finishing processes.

There's no rust, metal, stone, wood, dirt, sand, 3M microgrit.... (add your favorite material or abrasive to my list) in existence that I really want to inhale...

But,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,what if I want it to rust afterward?

I'll use something I find on the internet.

As long as it's for fun, and you're only doing it once... well, you know I would too.

PS. if you want something to rust, spray it with vinegar.

If you really want it to rust, pee on it.

There you have it. "piss and vinegar" explained.

I nearly killed myself using my bench wire wheel to remove pitted nickel plate off a pair of very old pull bars from a door. I didn't inhale the flecks. I had a face mask on. But the areas of my neck, forearms, and around my ears were affected. It took a couple of months to recover and more than a year for the symptoms to subside.

It took months for me to connect the dots to the pull bars.

Nickel is such a common metal in industry, we don't often think about how toxic and allergenic it is. Many people start out with a high tolerance to it but develop severe allergies after years of exposure. I guess a big exposure does the same thing!

Did a doctor check your blood for nickel metal poisoning?

Are you certain it was nickel, not cadmium? not chrome?

Nope. Just Dr me.

It was nickel plate. Not. Chrome..

I wasn't aware that cad was an option?

I'm not allergy prone..

Cadmium is probably the worst actor of metals used in plating (it is mostly used on hardware as shiny steel bolts and nuts, and screws). While it does afford some corrosion resistance, I question the safety of using this anywhere near water.

I dispute the price. The air compressor certainly costs more than $6.

A hacker solution for a "I need it right now" problem. As discussed, there are many drawbacks, but sometimes ya just gotta do what ya gotta do to finish something.

I watched the video twice, I fail to see the mentioned USB connector used.

It is OK, as long as (1) none of the material can bridge up and block the air tube on the downstream side, as this will reverse the induced suction, over-pressure the bottle, and blow up in the users face, or (2) no material is too large to move through the small tube.

If materials are dry, properly screened, it should work. For a private individual this might be OK, but not OK in any commercial or governmental space where injury laws, and assumed liabilities are different.

As the owner of a steel trawler over the years I learned quite a lot about sandblasting. The most inportant lesson is that the quality of the job is directly propportional to the power of the blasting equipment used. If you want a DIY project for the weekend, the device on the video will work fine.... but due to it´s lack of power, blasting something larger than a screw or a little piece of metal may turn into a time consuming task. Better (cleaner and safer) alternatives are easily available for doing little jobs like such a toy blaster can do.

Not everyone can afford a 100 CFM screw compressor,... at best maybe a 25-30 CFM @ 90 PSI compressor,... and that is a rather large one at then.

I would put this in the same category as a modeler's or artist's airbrush for applying paint.

I agree with DoorMan. Quick and dirty small jobs OK.

Large jobs are for the pros.

The piece below cost $800.00 to have professionally done. It is about 7 feet long and is in two different panels, blue and red.

Soda blasting is popular for de-painting cars.

$19.99 at Harbor freight and it works well for very small jobs. I have one for misc. blasting.

It strikes me as odd that a member named Original Macgyver would purchase a mission specific tool when something could be cobbed up from a soda bottle, a short chunk of tube, and some duct tape.

I only need to cobble it together when the PROPER tool is unavailable. I guess if you had a peek inside my shop, you would realize that there is little I need to "cobble" together anymore! As a matter of fact, I seem to have TOO many tools and am having difficulty stuffing all the tools into my 9 toolboxes. To tell you the truth, My co-worker and I made a DIY sandblaster in 1982 for a quick job and it was a suction nozzle style. It worked great until we burned through the steel nozzle tip. Or maybe I should change my handle to Lazy Macgyver?

Lazy Macgyver? I can relate to that.

I once married a pregnant woman.

Depends upon who put her in that condition.

How big is your compressor?

I might buy one of those guns, if you give me the right answer. I've got some angle steel I'd like to sand blast. I can get sand free.

My tube fed blaster was under $15 new and may be aa many years old. It will work with the smallest compressor... For about 3 seconds.

Using a "large" compressor it's like a water pic compared to commercial units.

Bike frame? Okay..

car? Take time off.

... BTW.. free sand? Leave it on the ground

Lyn,

It's been so long since I have looked at my air compressor. I will look tonight and post tomorrow. Though I think it is either a 3.75 HP or a 5 HP but I don't know the CFM off hand either. It does sit on top of a 30 gallon tank though.

As a rough guide 4.5 c f m (Displacement) per HP.

3.5 c f m (Free Air) per HP.

John

Lyn,

The specs on my compressor are as follows:

5.5 HP

20 gallon tank

8.3 SCFM @ 40 PSI

5.8 SCFM @ 90 PSI

Max 125 PSI

When I'm spraying lacquer or using the sandblaster, the compressor almost never stops running to keep up. At times I have to stop to let it catch up. I had purchased it more for my nail guns which I can run all day with this compressor.

Thanks. I don't have enough compressor to run one, but I have an empty nail right next to where my 4 years old, never used, spray gun is hanging. I might need one sometime in the future. Believe it or not, that works on my wife every time.

That reminds me. I need to get that band saw that I bought last month out of the box and put together. I never realized how much like work retirement is.

Back to the subject.

My stepdaughter works for a shop supply service. (She sold a million dollars worth of shop supplies last year) I asked her to find a place to sandblast three 1 1/2" angle steel pieces, 18 inches long. I'll report on the cost when I get them done.

Really?

That sounds like something LynDoor™ SodaBlasters would comp out to her as a routine, no problem-o, thanks for all the times you've helped me out, be done tomorrow sort of a transaction.

Conflict of interest, you know.

One of her accounts will come through. She knows a lot of people and they like her.

Why task your daughter with such a menial task?

Walk in a shop with a crisp $20 and if they show you the door walk into the one next door.

I mean for $20 you can buy new angle iron

You said: "Why task your daughter with such a menial task?"

Because it is her job to visit shops and sell them shop disposables, tools and whatever they want to buy to run their business. #39 I didn't ask her to DO anything but recommend a shop that she knew of. "I asked her to find a place." And she knew of such a place that was on on her client list. She gave me their name.

Then, you say "Walk in a shop with a crisp $20 and if they show you the door walk into the one next door."

I don't know where you live, but here in Arizona, sandblasting shops aren't like gas stations. There's not one every half mile or so.

I was just thinking about the X number of times you suggested GOOGLE IT!

And yes. Sandblasting shops may be more plentiful here.. Just like the rust.

I did Google it. There are three within 9 miles and one of those is a sandblasting shop that I did business with before I retired, that is closer, who might have done it no charge.

I asked my daughter if there was someone that she dealt with so that I could spend my money with one of her clients.

They were nice people. Old like me.

The sand blasting cost me $20.00 USD which is what I expected.

Next time, I'll just throw them in a bed of coals and leave them. I'm going to try that with another section of angle and see how it looks tomorrow.

I'm wondering if a siphon on the end of the gun might not have the same effect without having to operate on (cut the top) the air gun.

$20 - sandblasting for Lyn