Make me a smoke bomb

[countrypapa]

I have an eastwood glass blast cabinet and am going crazy trying to find the leaks. I have replaced all the seals and siliconed all the rest but the beads always seem to find a way out and when I'm done I'm slip sliding in glass beads. It's not drastic but just a pain in the neck. So my thought was to get some kind of a smoke bomb and see if I detect where it's leaking from. I don't smoke so that rules that out. Any ideas to make smoke?

 

[gmcgeo]

Dry ice and add water? light some wood on fire and shut the door to smoke it out? smoke machine?

Or a soldering iron on low in a bowl of baby oil, this will make a lot of smoke and not catch fire as long as its set on low to medium heat
I used this method when i made my own automotive smoke machine.

 

[Shiftless]

I have an eastwood glass blast cabinet and am going crazy trying to find the leaks. I have replaced all the seals and siliconed all the rest but the beads always seem to find a way out and when I'm done I'm slip sliding in glass beads. It's not drastic but just a pain in the neck. So my thought was to get some kind of a smoke bomb and see if I detect where it's leaking from. I don't smoke so that rules that out. Any ideas to make smoke?

The first thing I thought of was incense.
I would NOT recommend a Highway flare.

 

[mike93lx]

Can you moderately pressurize it and use soapy water?

 

[Shiftless]

Can you moderately pressurize it and use soapy water?

Best idea so far.

 

[FredWanaker]

That is pretty much how glass bead machines work unless you can keep negative pressure in them when blasting, meaning you need more vacuum inside it. Those beads will find their way out simply by lifting items in and out of the machine.

 

[cvairwerks]

The window frame, the door area and the vent are the biggest leakage areas. Best practice, is leave the vacuum running after blasting apart and use a blow gun to clear away the rail near the door before opening it.

 

[gmcgeo]

Best idea so far.

that hurts my feelings

 

[Shiftless]

that hurts my feelings

Seriously, I didn’t see your response before I posted. Your ideas are great.
Way back in my misspent youth, I used to make homemade smoke bombs using sawdust and a variety of chemicals I’d rather not post on a public forum. Wrapped them up in newspaper like gigantic blunts and insert a short length of cannon fuse. Light them up and you would get enormous clouds of smoke as big as a house.

 

[gmcgeo]

Seriously, I didn’t see your response before I posted. Your ideas are great.
Way back in my misspent youth, I used to make homemade smoke bombs using sawdust and a variety of chemicals I’d rather not post on a public forum. Wrapped them up in newspaper like gigantic blunts and insert a short length of cannon fuse. Light them up and you would get enormous clouds of smoke as big as a house.

LOL i was just kidding with ya.... but thanks

I did the same thing with sawdust!

awww to be a kid again

 

[mike93lx]

Seriously, I didn’t see your response before I posted. Your ideas are great.
Way back in my misspent youth, I used to make homemade smoke bombs using sawdust and a variety of chemicals I’d rather not post on a public forum. Wrapped them up in newspaper like gigantic blunts and insert a short length of cannon fuse. Light them up and you would get enormous clouds of smoke as big as a house.

They may be great ideas, but mine is better. You said so yourself and there are no take backs on this payground

 

[Shiftless]

 

[CN Spots]

Seal it up, throw it in the pool and look for bubbles? (faster than checking for a pulse too)

Serious option: Wait until it's dark & use a powerful spot/flashlight to check for dust/debris coming out of somewhere while you or somebody else is blasting..

 

[vwpieces]

Bunch of videos on how to make an emissions smoke testing machine on the cheep.
Will have future use too.
I made one after pricing them out.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Any fireworks stores around you ? Those little round smoke bombs should work.

Or have any beekeeper friends ? They will have a smoker.

 

[dutchgray]

Do you have smoke matches in the states? we use them to test the draw on gas appliances, get them from plumbing merchants.

 

[countrypapa]

Thanks for the replies, I was thinking about a small fire but with it being pretty air tight I don't know how it would burn but now that I think about it , it would probably just smolder, just what I was looking for. Speaking of smoldering I'm going to hijack my own thread and tell a side story. When I built my house a few years back we were about two weeks away from moving in and were finishing up some staining of the woodwork and my wife threw the stain rags in the trash can. Closed up the house and the next morning opened the door and saw a totally black house inside. Spontaneous combustion from the rags started a fire, burned a hole in the living room floor down to the basement and smoke damage thru out the house. The fire marshal said that if we had opened a door to let air in the whole house would have gone up in flames. The house was so tight it just smoldered because of no air. The heat inside was so hot it melted the smoke detector 50 feet away in the bedroom. All the tile had to be ripped up, kitchen cabinets replaced, new dining room set and lots of clean up and repairs. Getting back to my original post I guess I blocked out starting another fire but I might give it a try. Putting it in the pool does not sound too good (Ha Ha), nor pouring water on it. Dry ice might be good but I don't know where to buy it.

 

[ZRX61]

Thanks for the replies, I was thinking about a small fire but with it being pretty air tight I don't know how it would burn but now that I think about it , it would probably just smolder, just what I was looking for. Speaking of smoldering I'm going to hijack my own thread and tell a side story. When I built my house a few years back we were about two weeks away from moving in and were finishing up some staining of the woodwork and my wife threw the stain rags in the trash can. Closed up the house and the next morning opened the door and saw a totally black house inside. Spontaneous combustion from the rags started a fire, burned a hole in the living room floor down to the basement and smoke damage thru out the house. The fire marshal said that if we had opened a door to let air in the whole house would have gone up in flames. The house was so tight it just smoldered because of no air. The heat inside was so hot it melted the smoke detector 50 feet away in the bedroom. All the tile had to be ripped up, kitchen cabinets replaced, new dining room set and lots of clean up and repairs. Getting back to my original post I guess I blocked out starting another fire but I might give it a try. Putting it in the pool does not sound too good (Ha Ha), nor pouring water on it. Dry ice might be good but I don't know where to buy it.

Local welding shop usually, I know Praxair carries it

 

[no704]

Get a sniffer and fill it with Freon. !

 

[no704]

Or put blue painters tape around all the holes and see where most of the sand collects.

 

[mikegt4]

Eastwood has several blast cabinets with a varying degree of sophistication. You didn't mention if you have a vac setup on your cabinet. Without negative pressure inside you will get leakage because the incoming air supply will force the media out in places you could never imagine.

 

[countrypapa]

I don't use it too much and I don't have a vac. hooked up. When it really starts to get dusty I figure it's time to change the media. I understand the positive charge in the cabinet so I put vent on it with a filter to relieve pressure but still have a problem. If I use it for about 10 or 15 minutes I get about a good tablespoon of beads spread around. Got to be a nice crack somewhere that I'm not seeing.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Oh, no vacuum ? Buy yourself an old shop vac or a cheap 2-3 gallon shop vac. That should solve alot of your issues.

I have a small Cman 2 gallon vac hooked up to mine. It blows out through a roof vent, which looks like a regular DWV on the roof.

 

[mikegt4]

An air extraction system is almost essential on a blast cabinet, it will improve visibility immensely and cut down on media leakage as a bonus. A hose fitting is easy to come by, just hook up your shop vac hose to it and your in business. A little hood over the interior side of the opening will help keep all your media from going out through the hose. An inlet air source at the opposite end of the cabinet will create a crossflow effect. Don't forget to turn the vac motor on, I forget all too often but I am reminded rather quickly when I can't see what I am doing.

A proper hose fitting can be found at woodworker supply stores, here is an example from Rockler.

Rockler 2-1/2'' Dust Port

Easily connect your shop vacuum to any shop machine using this 2-1/2" Dust Port.

www.rockler.com

 

[countrypapa]

I'm rigged up to use a vac and have used it in the past but it sucked too much media out so I quit, maybe the vac was too powerfull?

 

[rburke65]

The vac is supposed to vacuum out the dust!

 

[ItsNemo]

Lighter (or mini torch) and some wet twigs would probably be enough

 

[FredWanaker]

that dust is carcinogenic big time. The small shards of glass get into your lungs and do the same thing as asbestos. Get a simple 6 gallon hepa shop vac. Use a bag and a hepa filter. My lungs have never been the same since I glass beaded a few months without one. It is also the reason they don't burn rice fields around here anymore. The leaves are very high in silica, and the rice smoke causes a high number of cancer cases.

 

[dogdog]

..you can make your own smoke bomb a cup worth will fill 1000 sqft easily with smoke, some youtube guy have plenty of those videos.

incense sticks or cones?.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074YLDXFZ/?tag=atomicindus08-20

There was a DIY smoke machine with 12V and some nickle chromium wires and a canister as housing here as well search for it.


I think Amazon Ancel brand store is running a sale on their inventory of automotive diag stuff saw a smoke and evap vacuum machine on sale. for $200 after discount code and promotion code.

from another forum... not sure.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09FT1XFC7/?tag=atomicindus08-20

Promote Code :FSAO8FX6
Price after promotion is $202.29

I got 2 of their ODB scanners and battery tester, it's good stuff.. don't have the needed for this machine or even know how to use it.

 

[dogdog]

I'm rigged up to use a vac and have used it in the past but it sucked too much media out so I quit, maybe the vac was too powerfull?

use a funnel (cone) shaped on the end and it will not **** up that much and move the same volume ?

 

[FredWanaker]

If you want to do it really right get a bead seperator, and use professional beads, not that HF stuff.

 

[mike93lx]

Start with a clean vac and just dump the media back in when you are done

 

[countrypapa]

Thanks guys and girls (just in case) for all the input, all I need now is some time to try these ideas out.

 

[RAS61]

A coffee can with some dry leaves and limited air, simple and should supply more than enough smoke. Start a small fire in bottom of can, then add a lot of leaves on top, will smoke like hell.

 

[jagboy69]

I've got the big POS blasting cabinet from the hazard fart. Even after 2 tubes of silicone when it was new, it has always leaked. Best solution I found was install 4 castors on the feet. Now I wheel it's leaky *** OUTSIDE when I use it. Problem solved! No more gritty machine tools!