im presently in the process of building a sandblasting cabinet out of an old mop sink. im building one for the sole purpose of making it a little easier on me with polishing and removing paint. im fed up with using sandpapers and a dremel.

im a little unsure though of what brand of gun, what size compressor, and what type of media i need to use?? any insite or advise would be much appreciated.

adam

this is kinda what the finished product would look like:

 

You need a good compressor... don't cheap out or you'll regret it. I have a dewalt 15gal that I LOVE! Most people suggest a 30gal for blasting... I have not tried it with the 15gal.

Summit racing has good info on media type and guns... all depends on what material your blasting

 

what kinda price range am i looking at. regarding a good compressor?

also, what cfm and psi rating should i be looking for?

 

Looks good.You might want to cut a bigger hole on the bottom and put a mesh screen for the sand to fall threw.That little hole doesn't seem like it's going to do it's job.A 20gal. and up would do good but the bigger the tank the more air flow you'll have.When blasting you don't want to wait around for compression to build up you just want to keep blasting.As far as a blaster you don't want to keep stopping to fill it up so get at least a 50gal and it will last you quite a bit of blasting.Theres different medias to use depending on what your blasting.If it's soft material like aluminum there is baking soda media that does real nice.It doesn't give you that coarse grainy look after you blast.You'll have to buy the adapter at Eastwood.com and they also sell the different medias there also.I've been buying from them for years and there products and tool are great.If you need more info pm me with your number so we can talk.

 

im not entirely sure of the process. if i wanted to polish something, such as aluminum...would i use different types of media to get a decent finished product; just like if i were to hand sand it? is there a media scale just like sandpapers? because i usually go through 5 different grits of sandpaper till im about finished

would it be possible to blast using 1 type of media, apply a bit of finishing polish, then end with a buff?

im pretty new to this whole sandblasting bit. i did alota research, but im having trouble finding an exact answer to my q's.

 

I like the silica bead's, awsome for aluminum but will take a bit but still work on steel. find a gun with ceramic nozzles and no on off on the gun, a variable foot peddle is a lot nicer imo.
you will never get a high gloss finish with bead blasting. it gives a nice mat/semi gloss finish that's real clean. it will remove casting texture but not mold lines. if you want a mirror finish you will still need to do work by hand.

 

good luck
keep us posted how it turns out in the end

 

What is your clear lid made of, a plasitic or lexan sheet will scratch up in no time. If you have excess a sheet of storm glass will not scratch to bad and should last alot longer.

 

plexiglass. but i was planing on getting a film for overtop

 

Aim for minimum 9 or 10 scfm or else your compressor will be running non-stop. Also a two-stage compressor will work more efficiently (compress on both the intake and exhaust stroke). Craigslist.com or Kijiji.com cruising should locate a suitable compressor local to you for under $300. You could also check harbour freight for a gun assembly to retrofit to your sink. Good idea though, might do something like that myself.

 

thx! very helpful

 

harbor frieght... sign up and they do 15% and 20% off items every so often.... got my 30gallon air compressor for a lil over 300... 4.5 hp and like 13.5 cfm @ 90psi? or something like that.. its bad *** and i i had no problems sand blasting all my suspension parts.. also their large sandblasting cabinet is only 209$ if you wanna save the hassle of building your own...

i use coupons on both so i got them for like 500....

 

how did you get coupons? i found a few things i will need from the site and coupons would really help since im droping this much money.

thx

 

bump for my q..

 

Another thought about the air compressor is to find an older oiled motor. Typically 240v. You can easily attach motors to tanks and even daisy chain tanks to increase your capacity. So you could get a smaller tank with a suitable compressor on it and cruise craigslist for someone selling a larger tanked compressor that has a bad motor on it and just use the tank for expansion.

 

my cabnet is just a little larger, and i have a vac. dea; hooked to so the media "dust" is pulled out and it really helps. 2 or 3 yrs ago 1 of the atl guys was redoing the bushings and such on his sr5 vert. so he used my cabinet and 80 gal. compressor every day for 2 weeks a good 4 or 5 hour per day. He ended up burnin up the motor on my compresser. so get a larger than needed cfm wise. and yea if you can get a 2 stage they are killer. he would take the pretty parts home every night and had bought a extra oven and a powder coating setup from harbor or norther and put on a "clear" powder coat. ill tell ya it sure looked good the day it rolled outa the garage, but was lots of time wasted, its a daily driver and he never showed the car.
as for what media to use well it depends on what your doing? u want a flat matt look on housings, northern "black silica" , a finer media and a more semigloss finish is glass beads but its not cheap, walnut shells are for cleaning the guts to motors and other elct. items. any place that sell media should beable to tell u whats good for what. I have had nothing but BAD luch with plain sand, it gets moister in it and clumps and wont flow like it should.
If you want the cooles you get a soda blaster, uses bakin soda but this is what most good shops use when restoring cars and its good for body and frame alike it just eats off the paint.

 

Sandblasting is out, Sodablasting is in.