Bead blasting on a budget

[MrRage]

I’m in a bind when it comes to cash but I wanted to put together a setup for bead blasting. I don’t have much, just a small 1 hp 4-gallon compressor. My shop-vac is toast so I can’t use that in this application.

I need a cabinet setup that can handle small parts, usually less than a foot in length and about an inch in diameter. Fabrication tools I have at my disposal are minimal. An arc welder, table saw and some hand tools.

I had the thought of converting a 6 gallon plastic bucket into a bead blasting cabinet, but I don’t know how safe a plastic tub would be if the walls were only 0.09” thick.

[rustyolddo]

You can use anything for the cabinet. HArbor Freight usually has deals on small benchtop units far cheaper than you can build.

You can use plywood for a cabinet, you can use a 5 gal bucket., an old dishwasher etc. Your problem will be your compressor. It's takes a good bit of air to blast with.

What I'd suggest is that you get one of the little spot blaster guns from Harbor Freight, looks like a paint gun and holds a small amount of abrasive, use a 5 gal bucket with a piece of plexi for the lid, a couple of leather work gloves, cut two holes in the side of the bucket near the bottom to get your hands in, a hole near the top for the air to escape and skip the shop vac.

[whiteriver]

You can make your cabinet out of just about anything. Slope the bottom so that the sand collects there for the suction hose to pick back up. A trap door in the bottom is a good idea also for cleaning it out and changing the sand. Easy to do with a spring a hinge and some weather stripping. Use double pane saftey glass for a window and cover the inside with a plastic sheet to save the glass. A cheap fluorscent light on top in a box with a glass between it and the sand will add a lot to your design. Those cheep suction blasters from harbor freight work ok $15. A pressure pot blaster will work on less cfm than a suction $50. 5 to 10 cfm verse my suction of 26 cfm. But the pot style you have to refill often. In production use a suction. I have come across a few 80 gallon air tanks over the years for free. You can sometimes find them in the paper for cheap. Someones compressor went out and they sell the tank. You could hook it up to you compressor to give you more volume in reserve.
For a vacuum. Go to your local hvac repair places and hit them up for a old furance so you can take the blower and motor out of it. They usually send them to the dump and would be glad to let you haul it off. They usally pull them and replace with a more efficient unit. Pull the blower or cut the cabinet down so its just the blower. Blank off both sides and leave the output open. Put your vacuum hose from your cabinet into a hole in one of the blanked sides. I have built 2 units like this from used furnaces and both are still going 8 hours a day 5 days a week. There are several styles. You want one where the motor is isolated from the blower to keep the sand from burning it up. Lasts lots longer than the Tweco style vacuums they sell for hundreds of dollars. I used to go thu a motor a month with those cause the guys wouldnt clean the filter bags. With the blower there are no bags. Set it outside under cover from the weather and shovel the sand away once a month.
Just my 2 cents. Hope it gives you some ideas.

Donny

www.whiterivermfg.com

[ynneb]

This sounds like a cool project. What about using a 44gallon drum on its side and weld 4 legs onto it. Cut out a section for the view area. and replace it with some plexi glass that you have melted to shape. Or build some kind of coupling that will allow you to use flat glass.

If you cut two arm sized circles into the drum you could slip in some industrial rubber gloves. cut some large washers that can be screwed over the holes and clamp the end of the gloves into place.

I would make one myself if I could think of a use for one.

Ditto with Donny's light and vacuum suggestion.

EDIT: How about using two more 44 gallon drums as legsfor the horizontal drum. One drum could house all the vacuum works, the other drum could become the sand hopper.

[Rigid Racing]

I built my own out of wood. I wanted to do parts that are 26" long and the only ones at the local cheap tool store were over $700. I have about $110-120 into it and its 4'x2'x2' inside. I used 2x4's for the frame and legs and 7/16 OSB for all the sides. It's worked great so far. The only problem is that I got that cheap treated wood and its bright pink. I'll take some pictures to post next time I'm at the shop.

[harvard5]

Here is the one I built out of an old plastic drum.

[snakebit95]

I have been down this road recently. You are going to need a BIGGER compressor, that is capable of providing at least 10-12 CFM on a continuous basis. I have the Craftsman Professional 25 Gallon that supposedly supplies 7 CFM, and it would not keep the gun running more than 10-12 seconds. The compressor was running its ass off, and I could never get enough air supply. I tried 3 different guns. One of them even had smaller air jets and feed nozzles, and still had the same problem. I spoke with a tech at Cyclone, and he stated I would never get the system to work without at least 12 CFM air supply. If somebody is getting good results with less air, please share the type gun you are using. I would love to get my system running without buying a $800-$1K compressor.

Thanks,
Wayne

[ynneb]

But what about using a vacuum cleaner motor or even two of them in paralell ( More air flow)? I am guessing that it is air flow (quantity) and not air pressure ( Force) that is required.

Would this work better than an air compressor ?
Just a thought.

[Geof]

For bead blasting or sand blasting you need both volume and pressure. Even 12 cfm is marginal if you are using a piston compressor because most will overheat if their duty cycle is greater than about 50%. Well the cheap ones will as I found out by seizing one up. The best is a screw compressor because they can run 100% of the time but unfortunately you are looking at really big bucks.

[mxtras]

I built the one I use the most out of wood then lined the back wall with 16ga sheet metal. It works as well as the industrial units - I think the secret is in the gun, nozzle and the siphon arrangement. It's also important to keep the blasting media dry and pre-filter out the bigger blobs of snot - de-grease the parts before blasting. Paint remover is faster to get rid of unwanted finishes than blasting - depending on the type of paint, that is. The harder the paint, the better it comes off with the blaster.

Glass beads work good for aluminum, sand works best for rust. Paint remover works best on paint and it saves your media.

If you build one yourself, make sure you provide an air bleed to the bottom of the pick-up tube. Use safety glass for the window and keep the nozzle and the rebound as far away from the glass as you can. Waxing the inside of the glass with car wax a couple of times helps slow the pitting down, but not by a whole lot.

Scott