sandblaster

The trick to getting a siphon feed to work is the siphon. If you're interested, I'll explain it to you. Another neat trick about my homemade unit is that I never attached the siphon to anything, I was in a hurry. As it turns out, when it clogs (which happens a fair amount, I just pull it out of the sand, put my hand over the end of the nozzle and squeeze the trigger. The clog shoots out, I stick it back in the sand and keep going. Takes 5 seconds. I've used a lot of commercial siphon feed sand blast cabinets (good name ones) in a number of military auto hobby shops, didn't like any of them nearly as much as mine.

Don't know about using a pressure feed system in a cabinet, but would be interested to hear from someone who has.

Tools

Funny you should ask, I FINALLY have two bottles at the filler place being filled. The oxy bottle was no prob to get hydroed and is filled, the acet bottle had to get shipped out of town, expecting it (if it passes, it's OLD) back mid Jan.

Also have the torch and gages all spiffed up and ready to go.

Have my friends old DC arc welder (the Bug!) down there, and he brought over a TIG torch and argon bottle (which I had to hydro and fill), so I'm going on a welding tour de force very soon.

Need to build a little lean to and dedicate it to welding as I don't really want to keep these big old bottles indoors, the gas welder would be much easier to use there also. My shop just has too much wood and chemical flammables.

Keep an eye out, should be here asking welding questions before long. Have TONS of projects to gain practice with.

Tools, Chickamauga, GA

I can see where a buzz box is handier, but the TIG capabilities of the DC welder is what I'm looking forward to.

Tried playing with it a couple times, pretty sad. Am hoping some experience with the oxy/acet rig will help. Havn't had a chance to play with it with the TIG torch attached. Was thinking that learning to get the arc started with a TIG torch will be easier than an electrode. Sort of takes one variable out, then I won't have to learn the arc thing and feeding at the same time.

Here's a wierd one, cranked it up a while back to use it as a generator, ate up my angle grinder. Will have to check into that, something isn't regulating or something.

Availability of parts turned out to not really be a problem. Got them locally, too.

Tools

I can see where a buzz box is handier, but the TIG capabilities of the DC welder is what I'm looking forward to.

Tried playing with it a couple times, pretty sad. Am hoping some experience with the oxy/acet rig will help. Havn't had a chance to play with it with the TIG torch attached. Was thinking that learning to get the arc started with a TIG torch will be easier than an electrode. Sort of takes one variable out, then I won't have to learn the arc thing and feeding at the same time.

Here's a wierd one, cranked it up a while back to use it as a generator, ate up my angle grinder. Will have to check into that, something isn't regulating or something.

Availability of parts turned out to not really be a problem. Got them locally, too.

Tools

The pickup is crucial. I have never seen the pickup in commercial siphon cabinets, but they suck. The pickup in my little portable siphon is a tube, with a hole drilled just above where the sand level is, which confused me.

Turns out, sucking sand up a tube is very hard, and gets harder the further down in the sand it is. Just like it's easy to breathe through a snorkel, until you get underwater. Then, it gets really hard if you try to submerge as far as it will let you.

The trick is to get a siphon tube that essentially picks sand up at atmospheric pressure, not whatever the pressure is several inches down. That's what the little hole is trying to do, but doesn't work well.

Get a 1/2" OD tube as a pickup. Put it inside a tube that's bigger, say 5/8 or 3/4 ID. Make sure they are even on the pickup end, the smaller tube should stick out the top of the bigger tube enough to hook up your flexible pickup hose. Actually, 3/8 OD and 1/2 or 5/8 ID might work better, whatever. Mine are held together by simply crimping them in a set of bolt cutters JUST ENOUGH that they stay together. You want to distort the inside of the pickup tube as little as possible. The commercial version I did see had a fancy little crimp that I couldn't duplicate. A pop rivet might work as well. My tubes still rattle a lot, which is fine.

That's it! Sucks sand like there's no tomorrow. Having it loose inside the cabinet is nice, too. I use it to scrape the sand down into the bottom of my hopper and stick it right in the middle. As I mentioned, a clog is cleared instantly. If you're watching carefully when you "backblast" it, you can usually see the piece of RTV or whatever caused the plug and quickly pick it up. My gun is the cheapo with the trigger on it. I have to rebuild the trigger every couple years, a triggerless gun and a footpedal would work better.

However, it's the increased flow of sand due to a better pickup that makes all the difference.

If I muddled things up, give a shout, I'll try to re-explain it. Better yet, I fixed my digital camera yesterday, maybe I'll just go take a pic and email it to you if you want.

Tools

Tools

Looks like the way to go for me is to buy the largest discount blaster I can get, then upgrade things like the nozzle as they wear out.

Tools