My DIY blast cabinet

Hi everyone, thought i would share my build of a suitable cabinet to blast parts for my restoration of my MG bgt car,

I have always desired a blast cabinet, i have put a lot of components to blast companies, but it really is a hit and a miss if it comes back to an acceptable standard, and more often than not, it has been to rough a finish.

This was probaly due to them prepping to pre-poder coat standard, where as many finishes i require, and other restorers, needa delicate finish with minimal prepping to spray. I generally finish in satin hammerite or similar.

I had a friend come to me with pedals for his mountain bike that required stripping, he had tried Nitromors and elbow grease, but due to the intricate nature of the pedals, it was not going to plan.

I have a small compressor, a Clarke model from Machine Mart, and too small for blasting when you read the math on it all, but decided to buy a small spot blast gun and give it a go anyway.

I also stopped off and bought kiln dried sand from B & Q, and used that as my medium to blast with.

PLEASE NOTE, blasting with sand is extremely dangerous to your lungs, use a mask of suitable quality, if this gets into your lungs then it will stay there and cause Silicosis. see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicosis

This stuff comes back at you fast, goes down your neck, in your hair (i wish), and unless you have eyelashes of a camel, wear googles all the time, along with a nice pair of leather gloves, so be warned, but its excellent fun to see old paint and rust form into a nice, new finish. I could hold the parts by hand without gloves, but it also gets a bit warm, and sand is not as inert as we all think.

It worked a treat, and did the whole job in under ten minutes.

The finish at this point was perfect, i think sand is too agressive for aluminium, but due to the relatively low pressure capabilities of my compressor, it achieve a fantastic finish, and reminded me of the satin finishes you get on custom pistols from Colt and Barettas, and i have always admired those.

At this point i understood that this blast cabinet was now a neccessity.

I discussed with my friend my needs, and my build would require a ducting panel, or similar, and he works with these guys all day! The result was he dropped of next day a full section of flanged, 1mm or so thick ducting section, fantastic!

So after some careful measurement, a review of the web and other chaps exercises in blast cabinet projects, which are many, particularly in the US, i started marking it all up to cut. so here goes....