Sandblaster

I used the nozzle from a $30 Cambell Hausfield portable sandblaster, a small boxer fan (like used on computers and stereo equipment, usually $10 from electronic surplus stores) to ventilate the cabinent, a spare bathroom flourescent light (24") fixture and glass panes from 14x17 picture frames I buy at garage sales. The gloves came from Eastwood Co. (JC Whitney, TIP and others sell similiar ones) for $20 (they're lined, and thats advisable) about 2 years ago, shouldn't be much more now. I had to go to a metal dealer for the expanded metal grate, but one from an old grill should work fine, that was another $10 but fits just right.

Some pointers: The pickup tube is important. I used a 3/8 piece of aluminum tubing (about 14" long) inside of a 5/8 piece which was 2" shorter. Even them up on the end which will go in the sand and crimp the larger one (with bolt cutters or something) just enough to hold the inner tube in place. Put your siphon feed tube for the nozzle on the 3/8" piece. A siphon feed just cannot pick up sand from a tube stuck 6" underground so to speak. This arrangement is essentially like holding the pickup tube right on the surface all the time, no matter how deep you plunge it in the sand. I just leave it hanging down in the hopper and when I get a plug, pick it up, hold you hand over the end of the nozzle and squeeze the trigger. The air is forced out the siphon feed tube and shoots out the clog. Move the pickup tube a few inches and stick it back in the sand and keep working. It also works well to shove the sand clinging to the sides of the hopper back down to the bottom. The steeper you make the walls of the hopper, the less you have to do this. My dad made his shallow and spends a lot of time scraping all the sand back to the bottom. My hopper is nearly as big as the blasting area. I am still working on one 50# sack of childrens play sand. It went through ceramic nozzles like mad for the first several months, till the sand got all broken down into a fine powder. It now leaves a finish as fine as glass beads and hasn't worn out a nozzle in 2 years. Still cuts stubborn rust well though. As for the window, I just duct tape old picture frame glass to the opening and replace the glass every 2 or 3 hours of use. Old picture frames are CHEAP at thrift stores and garage sales. Lastly, the squeeze trigger nozzles weren't meant to be used INSIDE a cabinent, so you'll have to take it apart and clean out the sand every 10 or so hours of use. Small price to pay for such an inexpensive but effective setup.

I am prior military and have used LOTS of very expensive snap-on (and similar)sandblasters at the base hobby shops. By far, mine works better than any of them. They are neat machines, but are rather finicky about getting plugged up, replacement glass is odd shaped, expensive and a pain to replace, and so on.

Good luck.

Mike

The main problem I have with the cheap blaster, is that it comes with a pretty much unusable hood- the window is very hard to see through. So that will be my next purchase.

Harbor freight has these blasters at a lower price than northern tool, I think. And they are probably the same thing. I got mine from Iron Man Air (which was a royal hassle), and it is identical to the ones that HF sells.

I think this is a tool where you can easily get by on the cheap.

They sell blasting cabinets and supplies. They offer a "kit" for about $150, plus shipping, with instructions on how to put one together.

Good luck