I spent about $40 for everything and already had some of it lying around. It sure beats blasting parts in the driveway. Here's how: First I started with a clean 55 gallon barrel. This is the type with a removable lid. I got this one for free and it was clean on the inside. Youll have to search around for one. The door: I cut the lid as shown and added a piano hinge ($5) for easy access. The existing holes were the perfect size for the shop vac hose and the blast hose inlet.
The window: this is just a simple box made of 3/4" birch veneer plywood that screws together with a slot on the inside to slide the glass in and a radius cut on the band saw to fit the barrel. After I had a good fit I marked the inside on the barrel and cut the opening, added some silicone sealer and screwed it on from the inside. I cut the glass from an old window I had. I made one side of the window box removable for glass replacement because the glass gets pitted after time. Tempered glass might be best. The arm holes: I vacuum formed these out of 1/8” black ABS plastic over a wooden buck. These were riveted on. Use sealer to keep the sand in. This can also be made of a steel tube large enough for your arms. Just weld it in.
Gloves: The flange going in (see above) is where the gloves are attached. I used some thick industrial rubber gloves from the local surplus store ($5) and put a large diameter hose clamp around them on the inside to hold them in place. I found the fluorescent light at a garage sale for $2. Home Depot has them too. This is self contained with the ballast inside. Two nuts and bolts hold it in place. I used some silicone sealer around the edges of the lens and corners to keep sand out and drilled a hole in the top of the barrel to run the chord out with a grommet around it. The rack on the inside came out of an old refrigerator. I will upgrade this eventually but hey- it works for now! I added a vent on the opposite end from the vacuum hose inlet. This helps keep the air clear inside so there is not a lot of dust flying around.
The base is also made of 3/4" birch veneer plywood. There are two types of blasting I have done with this cabinet. At first I set it up as a siphon blaster ($18 at Enco) where the sand is drawn up through the hose via air running through the gun. (I put a quick connect on for the air line hookup through the barrel.) That way is rather slow but you don’t have to refill the pressure tank, it just picks the sand up off of the bottom. I used it this way for about a year and then bought a pressure blaster (Northern tool outlet) which is way faster than siphon blasting. The only drawback here is refilling the tank with sand once you are out. Both of these are the trigger style. For a few dollars more you can get the foot pedal type. Happy Blasting!
I REALLY like that!! Very slick! This gets my vote for sure... Would like to see some pics of how you vacuume formed the glove holes if you have them. Pretty neet! There is a HAMBer (bald rears) who made a vacuum system for a home made cabinet using two smaller oil barrels (20gal I think), a Heavy duty vacuum motor and a filter bag from TP Tools. It's amazing what you can do with steel barrels!
WOW, thats pretty neat. Those blast cabinets can sure come in handy. I know I used Roadstars ALOT last winter.
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