Cheap/Awesome Sandblast 'Cabinet' Build

[nsn240]

I'm too lazy to post a full-blown build thread on my car... but here's something that I'm sure just about everyone here could use. I think sandblasters are f*cking awesome and I always wanted one.

We all know how sandblasters work... you need abrasive media, blast gun, air (roughly 10+ cfm @ 90psi) and either a enclosed cabinet or a mask & some land.

It's getting cold here and I wanted to recycle my blasting media so I did some searching and came up with a few pictures on a hotrodding forum.

Craigslisted some 55 Gallon drums for $5 each and went to work.
I'll let the pictures do the talking.

Measured up:
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h15/nsn240/P1070550.jpg

Used a dremel cutoff wheel and a jigsaw:
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h15/nsn240/P1070559.jpg
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h15/nsn240/P1070561.jpg

Sometimes character comes from necessity.. Chopped up some old texas plates for ends:
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h15/nsn240/P1070565.jpg

Where I left off tonight:
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h15/nsn240/P1070570.jpg
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h15/nsn240/P1070571.jpg

I don't have many tools around so I pride myself on making shit happen with some thought and patience...

Tally:
Drum $5
Blast Gloves on ebay $20
Everything else was scrap sitting around - lexan window, air fittings, scrap metal and I already had the siphon gun

Now I need a compressor that can handle blasting... Hoping/Planning on making some loot blasting stuff for friends and buying a 60gal with that cash.

[ManoNegra]

but can you BBQ in it?
lol... nice ingenuity, props.

[japslapsilvia]

i LOVE it!!!

[punxva]

great idea man, now you've got me thinking haha i might have to make me one.

[SochBAT]

^^

I'm with stupid.

[HyperTek]

shit, spray paint the drum and it would look pretty slick.

[BustedS13]

that's pretty cool.

[kingkilburn]

Are you going to seal the seams? I think you need an outlet for the air with some kind of bad to catch the blasting media.

Awesome ingenuity.

[ayuaddict]

isnt lexan going to scratch pretty easily will all that media flying around?

i have no idea, just wondering how that works.

im definitely digging this though.

i too need to make one of these babies.

[nsn240]

isnt lexan going to scratch pretty easily will all that media flying around?


Yea, it happens so matter what, you'll always have to replace your glass. I read guys cover it with this clear flourist paper to help - my mom is a flourist :)

Are you going to seal the seams? I think you need an outlet for the air with some kind of bad to catch the blasting media.

Awesome ingenuity.

Thanks man, Yea I gotta tack or rivet everything togethor and ill seal up the seams. You run a shop vac to pull the dust of of the air, I'm not gonna get all fancy with reclaiming sand or anything.

[fckillerbee]

sorry for the retarded post....but what would you sandblast in there?

[mehsilvia]

sorry for the retarded post....but what would you sandblast in there?

Endless possibilities:

Brake Calipers
Suspension components
Valve covers
PS pump brackets - hell, even teh pump itself
etc, etc . . .

Anything small enough to fit.

The hardest thing is going to be ample lighting. Making sure you can see WTF you are doing in that drum.

Awesome idea!

BTW - anyone in SoCAL interested in some media, ive got 50lbs of course and 50lbs of soft i dont have any use for. All new!

[Otto347]

Best bet for the window is find a glass window from a blasting cabinet that fits and use underlayers for that glass. They work great and are cheap.

We have a 2 person cabinet at my job that runs for 8 hours a day and they change the underlayers about once a day.

[fckillerbee]

Endless possibilities:

Brake Calipers
Suspension components
Valve covers
PS pump brackets - hell, even teh pump itself
etc, etc . . .

Anything small enough to fit.

The hardest thing is going to be ample lighting. Making sure you can see WTF you are doing in that drum.

Awesome idea!

BTW - anyone in SoCAL interested in some media, ive got 50lbs of course and 50lbs of soft i dont have any use for. All new!

sorry let me be more specific....I understand you can sandblast anything that will literally fit in there... but I guess my question is...why would you need to sandblast say a brake caliper...prep for paint maybe...i'm sorry I just don't know. I still have the mindset of sandblasting windows for art lol.

[mehsilvia]

sorry let me be more specific....I understand you can sandblast anything that will literally fit in there... but I guess my question is...why would you need to sandblast say a brake caliper...prep for paint maybe...i'm sorry I just don't know. I still have the mindset of sandblasting windows for art lol.

Definately wrong mindset.

Media blasting is great for removing layers of paint, rust and grime. Its cleaner, easier and faster than using chemical strippers or sanding. Other advantages would be the stripping of parts that various contours and crevices.

It leaves behind a clean and prepped surface ready to be refinished.

[JEDIs13]

damn that thing is pretty neat. i wish i had something like that when i painted my se's.
those probably would have been a tight fit tho lol

[fckillerbee]

Definately wrong mindset.

Media blasting is great for removing layers of paint, rust and grime. Its cleaner, easier and faster than using chemical strippers or sanding. Other advantages would be the stripping of parts that various contours and crevices.

It leaves behind a clean and prepped surface ready to be refinished.

that's what I was thinking...but didn't know. I've seen someone do wheels...it did make them really clean now that I think back on it.

[mrmephistopheles]

You know, I've got some 55gal drums that need repurposing. Perhaps 'media blaster' is in the future for one of them.

[upsdude]

sorry let me be more specific....I understand you can sandblast anything that will literally fit in there... but I guess my question is...why would you need to sandblast say a brake caliper...prep for paint maybe...i'm sorry I just don't know. I still have the mindset of sandblasting windows for art lol.

it's more efficient than using say, a wire wheel, to clean/prep parts...such as brake calipers. very good thing to have if you plan to do powder coating as well as painting. i cheated and just got a harbor freight blast cabinet, but haven't hooked it up yet. but to OP, very nice set up dude! you should post that on the powder coating forums.

[ManoNegra]

sandblasting is, well, a blast
super cool and quick way to get parts clean
I use the one we have at work all the time
beats using degreaser/scrubbing/sanding/brushing dirty car parts

[ayuaddict]

i for one would LOVE to blast all the suspension parts on my S30 to prep for paint.

man...

[DreamN]

As Chris (mehsilvia) mentioned, you will need ample lighting. A cheap idea that might work is a aquarium tank hood with dual fluorescent lighting bulbs. They're on craigslist and ebay all the time.

I'm really liking this idea. So once I get a garage of my own I know exactly what one of the first things I'll be building.

[nsn240]

Quick update before I hit the snowy streets for some Explorer drifting

Got the window frame all riveted in - decided to go that route cause a rivet gun was $3 at harbor freight and its way easier then trying to track down a welder.
Door is cut out and ready to be hinged.

I'll have more pictures tomorrow.

[nsn240]

Sorry for the delay.. Got caught up in some other stuff this week and didn't get around to posting anything.
Thanks for all the compliments guys, means alot.

The whole thing can be seen here:
Right Coast Steeze* (http://rightcoaststeeze.blogspot.com/)

Finished everything up on my next day off.

Cut out a chunk of mdf for the door - fit perfect, i could've left the hinge off and it would have stayed in place.
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h15/nsn240/P1070572.jpg

Cut the end out of the barrel. Fished a chunk of steel out my eye and continued...
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h15/nsn240/P1070575.jpg

Finished door.. ballin bronze closed nuts and cream cabinet hinges from pops.
Used some sort of squishk door/window stripping from home depot for the seal.
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h15/nsn240/P1070592.jpg

Made the glove rings from a paint can, 'pie cut' them and riveted them in place.
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h15/nsn240/P1070593.jpg

Inside with everything in place
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h15/nsn240/P1070597.jpg

This little fucker isn't cutting it
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h15/nsn240/P1070602.jpg

First thing blasted.. Subframe bracket. Not too bad for a little compressor and playsand.
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h15/nsn240/P1070603.jpg

Turned my old skate ramp into the stand... note ghetto drop light (that works awesome)
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h15/nsn240/P1070622.jpg