Hello again.
Yes it was time to show what last week went to. This post is long.
Well as you have gathered, I got tired of leaving away any blasting job that was larger than type 20x20cm.
So with all the work that was suffering for it, not to mention all the cost of money for the job and travel costs, etc., plus you always have to wait for it to be done, I decided to build my own blasting cabinet at the absolute lowest cost.
Sat and thought about buying sheets of metal and fold up a cabinet but have no possibility to fold that large pieces so there is a little problem directly ...
no, I thought, one more lap.
Got an idea that it has to work with refrigerators.
The problem is that these plastic inner side which will not last long.
If you remove this it will not be air tight so that idea went away.
But anyway, so I checked on the net and all other buy and sell sites.
2-500SEK(30£) it was ok to find to that cost but then it was an option to buy the sheet again .... fuck.
But what the fuck I was thinking a "freezer box" has the aluminum inside usually plus they're larger.
great!!but these were even more expensive.
But then the thought struck me that it is the freon in them, recycling of household goods is in our community to be free to get rid of.
Scrapyard next
Calling the scrapyard and talking to their boss whom showing a large interest in diesel cars ..... huh Oh well
After some talk, it is clear that I can come and look if there is any cabinet.
It does, fortune was made. The cabinet was already empty of gas, so it felt good.
You do not want to ruin the environment more than necessary.
This is what it looked like.
Then I put the box on the stand.
Idea was that the door would be opened upwards, but because of the height it needed so it was not good.
I had marked out for the holes to put the hands in etc so it was probably the last second I checked the ceiling height in the garage.
Missing about 20cm for it to go free. It goes fast sometimes ...
Was to turn the cabinet.
i put a few locks jumpers from the local hardware store that I had lying around, believe they were the kind 1£ each or something.
Then it looked like this.
But while I was on the scrapyard, I took the opportunity to pick a stove door.
Awesome resistant glass in these windows, they are not scratched for quite some time.
Another good thing with these stove lids is that they are in metal, and have a ready framework to cut out .....
Free is good.
By far the hardest thing to sort out in blast cabinets, is visibility, you have to have a good situation for air to enter and exit efficiently.
Had a an old airfilter from a Volvo 850 laying around, perfect.
Was to cut out for this and make a frame that holds it in place.
Wanted easy access to be able to change it from the outside. On with 2 valve cover I had on the inside.
Took the opportunity to drill a hole for airfeeding into the cabinet, created an air connection and with water separator, becuase water we do not want in the cabinet. I have this already on my second box and is easy to move over.
I installed a quick release on the inside because I want to be able to put my old cabinet in this one to save space. Turned out like this.
But the air must be filtered and everyone who has worked with a blasting cabinet know how fast all filters etc clogging. Vacuum cleaners are fighting like an idiots and pretty soon it has died.
Has this problem in the small cabinet.
No, now I build a cyclone filter.
But where shall I put this, course it also takes space.
But there is the place where the compressor is in the freezer ..... behind it perhaps there is space.
Began to measure and soon i saw that it was quite possible to get a filter with good airflow capacity in there.
But it is not so easy to make a cone .... but after some counting and searching on the web, etc. I found a formula that could be used.
But now I had no sheets of metal ...... Damn, it becomes the next problem.
But then the thought struck me that one of my sponsors are working with sheet metal.
Went down to Piaab and had the possibility to take some waste pieces from their container., Free AGAIN ....
Drawn and cut, rolled and bent as best I could,
Found a pipe that was just the right size for connections and welding sheet metal is not my favorite.
Mounted the cyclone filter and then it became like this.
Now it was to get a steelnet/mesch? or something , this was not easy, but down to the store in the village, and asked if they had a shelve that were broken, that they had ...
Free again Fantastic!!
Now it was to fold a sheet metal square cone, and this was not so hard up with the spare pieces of sheet I received from Piaab and draw, cut and bend it.
Tried to see if it fit, and it did.
Before this, I cut out the bottom of the cabinet.
Glue and blind rivets so it was airtight.
Measure out where to put my arms, find the position for the window on the box and cut out for them.
Had two old floor-well connections I bought for the laundry room renovation.
Mounted these parts on the boxdoor.
Attached the rubber gloves that I bought.
Underneth the cabinet you can see the nice yellow and black roof plates that became a cone in a blasting cabinets in there "second" life ..
Bought a blast nozzle and modified it where the connection to the sand.
If you buy a blast nozzle gun, do check all the races there is always burrs that cause malfunction.
Connect all hoses and in with the grid.
Turned on the vacum cleaner and put in a bit of old rusty parts from a vw golf.
A rear brake caliper bracket, a strut, everything with rust since 1983 ....
Closing the door on with the air and try.
Sweet jesus it worked
: Thumbup:
Inner dimensions are for the interested is 85cm deep, 95cm wide and 65cm high.
Believe the cost ended up with glue and screws etc about 80£. : D
There's some adjustments to be made, but on the whole ... : Thumbup:
Exceeded expectations ...
Thanks to me for this time.
Thomas