Homemade Blast Cabinet - and request for advice

[stretchie_]

Hi all, I have recently started to make a blast cabinet at home, it’s not finished yet but thought I’d share what I’ve got so far and also ask some advice on where to get bits from.

Here is the build so far in a couple of pics:

Got to use the air drill I bought ages ago but never got around to using it. It sounds awesome, I felt like a professional ; )

I still need to sand down the edges so they are flat and then add the top, attach the door via hinges to the top of the box and also figure out what I want to do with the bottom bit to catch the media as it is spent.

I have a big sheet of Perspex and need to sort the window out. I have two plastic Ikea lights that are going inside so I can see and an aluminium grate already on the inside. It is 600mm x 570mm and takes a 17” rear motorbike wheel and is big enough to turn the wheel around inside without having to open the door. I have lined the rear of the cabinet with rubber sheet so any media that hits it will hopefully just drop down instead of pinging around.

The plan is to have the media gun live inside the cabinet and the hose to come out of the side of the box in to the media bucket that will be below the cabinet for pick up. I have bought a big square plastic vent from B&Q which can slide left and right to open close for when I’m blasting.

What I need help with is:

• The airline fixing, the gun will live inside and I want a coupling on the outside so I can attached and detach a compressor line easily for when it gets put out of the way. The wood is (from memory) 36mm thick and is too thick for the thread of the couplers to get through. How can I sort this out?
• Air/dust extraction. The general idea is to have an outlet that I can put the vacuum hose around until I figure out a better way for the extraction.
• The arm holes. The idea here is to have 2x 6” metal tubing go through the front wall so that I can attach the blasting gloves around them on the inside of the cabinet with jubilee type clips. Only problem is, how do I stop the tubing from sliding through the wall? Remembering that I have just joined this forum to learn how to weld but have not got the gear yet so cannot even attempt to weld.

All comments welcome but I do realise that it is a small compressor and I would love to have a bigger compressor which is more suited to the job but that is just not going to happen and as a result of which this is to be no more than a hobby blaster that will let me strip the crap of carbs and fork lowers and so on for a bike re-build I would like to do in the future.


Cheers


Stretchie

 

[RBDIVE]

Like you i built my own wooden box for my restoration project. this is what i did,
For the gloves i bought from the bay some hydroponics duct spigots, the flange is on the outside of the box and clamps the gloves in place.
also the gloves act as a gasket.
For the airline, i have a seperate hose about 1m long this simply passes through the box with the hose tails clipped on after finished with some caulk. although in the picture, i have made this bigger so i can use the pressure pot.

I also added a 1.5" waste pipe connection with a blanking plate at the bottom of the hopper so i can drain the media out...

Im sure there are better ideas out there, its just what i did

 

[stretchie_]

Cheers mate, I see that your window goes the full width, what is it made from and what do you use to protect it from frosting with? I have heard people saying to use perspex and to cover it with clear exercise book covering you get from WHSmiths, but I just wonder how easy it is to remove that stuff withour leaving half of it on your perspex?

I was going to go with a roughly 8" x 10" window in the door.

 

[RBDIVE]

Yep its a big window, but the perspex was free.. it has some florist wrap behind for protection, its just held in place by the perspex so i remove the wing nuts and simple/cheap to change.