home made tools and equipment...

Here is a sandblast cabinet I built (it's not quite finished, but I couldn't wait to use it, lol). It is my own design, kind of a copy of a Snap On (Dee Blast) clamshell model. It is built mostly from 1/2" plywood. The overall dimensions are 48" wide X 32" deep X 80" tall. The media remains in the funnel shaped lower portion of the cabinet, which has a spring loaded bottom door for media changes.









I originally planned this to be a cheap project, but I am over $650 into it right now, and I still need to buy a few more things. I would not suggest anyone take this project on, as you can buy a nice Cyclone brand clamshell model of nearly the same specs for $1200 and the Snap On one is $2600, not too bad if you factor build time.


The interior lighting is two 120W flood lamps in outdoor style holders. They are unprotected, as the consensus is that they will burn out before they become scratched enough to do any damage. Wiring was done so that there is a main switch for the lights and power supply to the vacuum is switched seperately, but the main light switch must be on for the vacuum to work. This was opposed to all or nothing, one switch, as most commercially made units have.


The window is tempered safety glass with a protective film on the inside and a polycarbonate (Lexan) sheet on the outside for addditional protection. I bought it from www.tptools.com for about $35.




Greyson

 

Nice blaster! What media are you using and what kind of dust extractor?

 

I am running 60-120 glass beads in it. I plan to get some Alum-Oxide soon for a faster cut.

The vacuum is one I built as well. It is a 1/2HP squirrel cage ventalator fan pulling through an air filter for a Caterpillar inside a 30 gal pony drum. It is way overkill and could suck a bowling ball through a garden hose.

 

I spent my summer vacation by building a rotisserie





And it works too..

 

Would it be possible to post some pictures and some of construction details on your "vacuum", sounds interesting. Thanks

 

Looks good. I need to build one of these myself.

 

I kept my blast cabinet cheap! A couple sheets of OSB, some hinges, some weather stripping, a couple hinges, a drier vent kit, some plexiglass wrapped with saran wrap a cheap lamp holder, and a harbor Freight siphon blaster.
Mine will handle 6 ft stuff with 2 sets of hand holes.
Lousy pictures and a ton of dust from sitting unused for a couple of years

 

Looks Great! You will thank yourself a hundred times for building that if you do more than one car.

 

me too
plan is an old fridge,with a big door and make it large enough to slide stuff around.this way i load a few pieces and just slide them into place for blasting.

 

I had such a mess of stuff stuck into a corner thought I better straighten up my act! So wanted to get the threaded rod and other small stock straightened up so made a couple of these. Should have done it years ago! After punching a set of 8 hole in one panel and could not sleep tried a different approach, when that did not work had the wife come out and work the whitney punch then using the Greenlee knock outs enlarge the holes twice. The sheet is 22 gauge, was 36" wide so made the panels 7.5" by 18" to reduce waste, a bunch of holes, .75" flanges some pop rivets and it stronger than I thought it would be, now to find a empty spot along the wall to mount them.

 

Thanks!

I've build a lot of tools etc. because of one project,so i guess this wont be a last one..

 

With the amount of dust in the blaster, would the use of that type of lighting be considered safe? I think a better alterative is a fluorescent outside the cabinet with a window. Most dusts are combustable.

 

I am not worried. Dust in a blast cabinet is the least of the explosion hazards around my shop, lol!

I wanted lots of light in the cabinet. The units with fluoresent lights, especially outside the cabinet, suck balls. The TP Tools do it yourself uses the same type of light fixtures, and there are tons of those cabinets built.

Greyson

 

Here's another idea on the blast cabinet lights.

I remove the original angle adjustment screw in the bulb holder, drill out the threads, and install a longer screw with a spring and lock nuts. I also mount the bulb holder in a 90 degree entrance elbow leaving it loose enough to rotate. Easy to see the arrangement since this is a top load cabinet; but it works the same on the end load cabinets I've built.

This mounting allows you to make quick adjustments to both directions allowing you to direct the lighting to the area you are blasting, especially handy on large items.

Over the years, I've used these types of bulbs inside of several cabinets with no problems, biggest trouble is getting them unscrewed when they burn out, the grit and dust really lock up the threads. The halogen bulbs you get now days actually have another bulb inside instead of just the filament like a regular old
bulbs.

 

A large O-ring around the base of the light bulb will help keep dust and grit out of the socket threads.

 

RICH B:

That is a GREAT idea! I am going to modify my lights right away. Thanks for the tip. I love this board.

Greyson

 

here is my new concept on rotisseries, i train young guys at my hobby shop so I need a better way to rotate stop and lock in place. Plus the ability to load on a car trailer easily I call it Roller Hoop.

 

I don't see a method for positively locking the rotation, how are you doing it?

 

Great question! it's all top secret stuff! See the picture of the two hoodlums standing on it, that's locked in and doesn't move! You simply press on one of the four foot brakes on the roller base units, stops and locks it so you can work very efficiently if you happen to need to move it a few inches or complete 360, simply toe kick it off and roll to your next desired position all within seconds and keep working!

No need to stop and go get a wrench, or try to index a pin, no need to get Joe or bill to help spin it, it rolls with minimal effort! The foot brakes are a simple yet very effective, you only need to use one to hold in place while you perform your work, If you press down and lock all four it is like the body shell is welded to the earth!

 

perhaps it seems that way and no that is not my intent here as I put the pictures out that really so how the genral build of the system. I'm just a small simple shop and this is a home built piece of equipment my home is right behind my shop and I spend most every night here until 11pm just like all the other HamBers out there. My life is and always has been to help out others and this product simply dose that, I get very excited to show it off anytime here in my shop to who ever stops by. It has cost me hundreds of thousand of $ to get this far with it and the time I put into showing it dose not benefit me much at all. I'm just simply pleased to try and help out and see another classic get saved! My cousin for one built his own version it is a bit crude made from oilfield materials, but very functional i was delighted to see it and felt it was a complement to a good idea. Yes it has been out for a few years now and i do manufacture them right here in my shop along side of classics & customs we build, it is a great way for some of these young guys i train to get experience in welding & such. Advertizing? no i keep it pretty basic didn't really think about that, there are better ways to do that for sure, I just enjoy passing along all the hard work and effort i put into this concept and rotisserie. it just shows that maybe a good home built Idea can hit the market? so keep at it is the message i guess? But I do now also see your point and please remove it if necessary I'll be more careful in the future. (uum were did your comment go? I ment you could remove my posting? if not appropriate)

 

I like it except for the photo on the trailer. Looks like the center of gravity would render it questionable.

 

Not at all! loading on and off a trailer is simple and traveling down the interstate 16 miles each way at 70 to 75 mph is now just a normal thing for me anymore, I have to admit the first couple times out on the road were worrisome but now it's standard operating procedure. I hauled the Galaxie over 220 miles round trip to a show West point Nebraska a few years back, that's when Dennis Gage of My Classic Car sat in the Galaxie to do the closing of his show. Back in 07 we hauled a car from Pomona to Long Beach for the big swapmeet out there, 6 lanes of busy L.A. freeway that was a good test! always lots of looks, but never a problem! Here are a couple pictures of the 220 mile round trip with the 63 Galaxie it is a Big car and is in the larger Hoops it transports much better than the end mount style, don't need to add to the trailer or brace the body shell in the center, you can see here since i took the complete unit on the road for displaying i used the roller bases as well with the brakes locked and the rolling casters on and then just strapped it down and traveled. believe me if you can think of an issue with this system I have already addressed it and come out on top!

 

I just wonder how it actually connects to a car? It seems that the center supports that connect it to the vehicle would have to be different for each vehicle. I know a lot of the info regarding this product is probably top secret as you said, so I ask is this a question you can answer?

Thanks!

 

Seems like those hoops would constantly be in the way.....like say swapping a 1/4 panel or fender. Would suck trying to work around them. Neat idea though.

 

My english wheel i am slowly building, i just have to make the adjuster and finish off the opening and it will be ready for grind and paint, hopefully by christmas.

 

That's awesome! Hadn't thought of making an "o" before the "c"...very cool

 

I made this to remove pinion yokes off rear ends (u joint straps in place). It's used with the screw from my Snap On steering wheel/harmonic balancer puller

 

Nothing fancy or super amazing here....just a handful of homemade punches/chisels/scrapers that I made out of old rack and pinion inner tie rod ends. I figured they would work pretty well since they are made of hardened steel to begin with. I just heated them up red hot and beat them into shape on the anvil, then heated them up red hot again and quenched them in oil, took them to the grinder to get them to the final shape. The scrapers actually hold an extremely sharp edge, and the sharp punch is strong enough to center punch steel. The chrome one on the end is actually the center piston rod from an old strut...that sumbitch was TOUGH to cut/shape. I had these old tie rods laying around and got bored and decided to try my hand at blacksmithing. Total cost? free

 

Wow, great idea Doug, only issue I can see is it needs different attatchments for different cars, in saying that though a normal bumper bolt on job differs from car to car as well. I love it, keep up the good work..

 

I built two wood media blast cabinets back in the 80's. For lighting, I have a clear window in the top of the cabinet so the light source is outside the cabinet for safety. On the aluminum oxide cabinet, the wood erroded away at the back of the cabinet so I added some old plexiglass sheets. On the glass bead cabinet the wood is unaffected.