Home Built Sand Blast Cabinet

[larry4406]

Been thinking about building a cabinet and putting the savings into an Eaton 7.5 hp compressor, can't justify $1700 for a compressor and another $1700 for a large cabinet (want to be able to clean doors, fenders, axles, etc). I am sure many of you have built your own cabinets before and am looking for advice/ideas, especially the tips on what you would not do again or would do differently. I expect I would build it out of plywood, possibly use a rear window out of a pickup as the viewing glass, etc.

These links are pretty helpful, especially the first one.

http://www.joeshome.com/projects/blastcabinet/default.htm
http://www.drjing.com/Mini/BLOG/BlastCabinet.htm

 

[porschedude996TT]

I don't like the idea about sand blasting body metal on a large scale due to the possible warping of the metal. Larger items like axle housings and heavier parts are fine. Why not purchase a cabinet or two from Harbor Freight? You could weld them together of expand them. Using two stations would get you closer to the work area.

For the larger stuff I would use a soda blaster, they don't heat and warp the metal.

 

[LAWFISH]

I don't like the idea about sand blasting body metal on a large scale due to the possible warping of the metal. Larger items like axle housings and heavier parts are fine. Why not purchase a cabinet or two from Harbor Freight? You could weld them together of expand them. Using two stations would get you closer to the work area.

For the larger stuff I would use a soda blaster, they don't heat and warp the metal.

You dont use sand on panels and larger items. I am buying this cabinet because its big enough for fenders, ect. I use walnut shells or glass beads or what ever is on sale as they work best. I also wont spend the time making a wooden cabinet because eventually the wood breaks down due to the blasting. You can use the metal covered wood like a panel for the inside so thta helps, but the labor is intensive for someone like me who is not a wood worker. I work on metal.

I am buying this one soon, its not cheap, but I am throwing my harbor freight one AWAY, its junk and I have redone it many times causing delays. This one also has a dust collector/ My buddy spent several weekends building a wood cabinet several years ago and was hot on it. After a few months, the inside of the wood started to wear.

I personally will work 4 overtime days and buy this one. I know everyone has different needs and resources but this is what I am finally going for after years of workign on cars. I have a TEXAS blaster for sand and it works great, but its sand and an outside job and sand ISNT CHEAP anymore and I dont have a recovery system for the sand.

Dave
http://www.tptools.com/p/881,53_970-Detailer-Abrasive-Blast-Cabinet.html

 

[Uncle Buck]

Want to build your own, here is your link.

http://www.tptools.com/SearchResult.aspx?keyword=plans&SDeptId=&tier_level=&SearchTitleDescr=

 

[Firefyter-Emt]

You should be fine making your own. I would build the main box form chip board or ply and line the inside with hardboard panels. I say this just for the cost factor and not long life. If you make the hardboard panels screw on, you can just swap out any damaged ones.
1/4" plate glass for the window with window screen on the inside to protect the glass. It will not stop 100%, but is cheap and works amazingly well.

I would set it up as a pleasure pot remote style and maybe design it so the bottom of the cabinet has a sluice door to dump the sand back into the sandblaster. (Use screen to filter the sand at the sand-blaster.

You will need a good fan that is vented outside. I would go with metal ducting on this myself. Make the cabinet normal sized and build an "outrigger" that can bolt on to the side to hold longer parts. This way you do not use up the room all the time, but can fit in things like an axle.

A sandblast cabinet does not need to be all that fancy, it will be abused to death.
FYI, If I have to do very large parts, I use a folding dog kennel (4' high fence panels) and cover it in the middle of my shop with a blue tarp. I use a box fan and drop lights and with myself covered like an Eskimo, I get right inside my cave and blast away. The beauty is that the shop floor sweeps up nice and the sand can be re-used. I find there there is very little sand that sneaks out. This way I am not left with a mess outside.

 

[larry4406]

Believe me, I have been drooling over the TP cabinets for some time and they are the source I would buy key parts from. I am fairly competent with wood working, so no issues there. I have been looking at TP's 976 model for extra height and door size. I also have one of their TP99'er pressure pots (they don't sell them anymore). Can't affort to spend close to $4k on a nice compressor and cabinet, so since I can't build the compressor, looking into building the cabinet as an alternative.

 

[rsanter]

I built my own blast cabinet about 12 or so years ago.
I used 16ga and 2x2 tubing that I happened to have around
it was built big enough to put a mustang door in if I wanted to blast the corners that get rust in them.
the tank below was a throw away freon tank so I could build it as a pressure feed system
I always hated the small window on cabinets so I made mine full size out of a sheet of plexi that I happened to have. now for those who think it wont last because it will get blasted, it is the original piece I installed in it.
to keep the window from getting blasted I used a window screen that is spaced about an inch from the window to stop most the back blast.
I also used a piece of plexi on the top so I could have lots of light from the florecent tube lights mounted on the outside of the unit
to refill the pressure tank you remove a pipe plug on the inside and let the sand (or media) drain back into pressure tank.

now the bad:
originally this was built as a siphon type cabinet so I built it with a deep centered sump. this did not leave room for a very big pressure tank. if I were to do it again I would just use a seperate pressure tank and dump the media into a bucket to pour back into the pressure tank

bob

 

[rsanter]

by the way
you can build one out of plywood. a friend of mine did that and just lined the inside with a thin sheetmetal

bob

 

[BigChevy80]

A friend of mine built a blast cabinet out of two of those old 275 gallon oval fuel oil tanks. He cut one side off each of them and welded them together. The finished cabinet is about 8 feet long. He used various parts from TP to build it. Works great and is nice and big. Big enough to put axles, driveshafts, etc in.