Using Sand Blasters is an effective way of removing paint, rust, and debris from surfaces, so the team at Make It Extreme has put together an informative guide on creating your own sand blaster.
Traditional methods for abrasive blasting utilize sand; however, due to its potential to produce fine particles that stick in your lungs and cause silicosis, metallic media like steel shot, steel grit, copper shot or even crushed walnut shells may be better options for blasting purposes.
1. Abrasive Media
At the core of any sand blaster is its abrasive media - which may consist of silica sand, glass beads or small rock particulates - depending on your project needs and goals.
When selecting an abrasive, it is essential to take its shape, hardness and size into consideration. Shape plays an integral part in this decision; an angular media will produce an uneven surface suitable for stripping and anchoring while round-shaped ones may provide better polishing results and creating smooth surfaces.
Sandblasters utilize pressurized air to project an abrasive media beam onto any object needing cleaning, with many being equipped with blasting cabinets that store and direct it downward through valves into your gun.
There are various kinds of abrasive media, ranging from organic (nutshells and corncob) and plastic abrasives (glass beads with different mesh sizes) to wet blasting (an effective method for cleaning delicate items or projects where heat from dry blasting would damage substrate).
Hardness of an abrasive is also an essential consideration, measured on a Mohs scale from 1-10. Harder abrasives tend to be more aggressive and will leave greater impacts in their wake on surface profiles; hence it is wise to begin with softer options before gradually progressing toward harder ones as necessary for your project.
2. Air Compressor
Sandblasters use high pressure air guns to use coarse abrasive material as blast media - typically, sand is one of the most cost-effective and economical choices available.
Sand blasters can be powered by diesel, gas or electric compressors; selecting the appropriate high quality compressor that can provide sufficient air pressure is key to effective sandblasting. Furthermore, its noise-level should not disturb others during its use in an office environment. Piston air compressors tend to be the least costly; they work by compressing a single piston up and down in an enclosed cylinder to produce larger CFM per horse power production rates than their screw style counterparts but may require more maintenance over time.
Anyone with access to a basic air compressor can create their own sandblaster for less than $10, as [adamf135] demonstrated with his plastic soda bottle sandblaster. Any glass bead jar should work. He filed a small hole into its mark so sand could flow through, attached an air hose gun's second attachment, dropped one end of said hose into a bucket filled with garnet sand and used Bernoulli's Principle propel the blast sand back out again for reuse later.
3. Hoses
Sandblasting is an effective and versatile means for cleaning up and shaping materials, from stripping old paint and rust off metals to cleaning plastic components and eliminating mold flash. Sandblasting can even give jeans an acid wash look!
A sandblaster uses high-compressed air with an abrasive material such as sand to form an ultrasonic wave that blasts a powerful blast of abrasive material through an opening in its nozzle and strikes against materials being treated, leaving their surfaces looking brand new in no time.
There are various kinds of abrasive media used for sandblasting, depending on what materials need treating. Mineral sand is effective at removing rust and paint from thick metals while slag and quartz work great for etching glass surfaces and hard surfaces. Other materials that could be employed include agricultural materials like nutshells and fruit kernels which act as soft abrasives but do less damage to underlying materials.
When choosing a sandblaster, be sure it comes equipped with a built-in hopper to store abrasive media. The hopper should include a control valve with two hoses leading directly into the nozzle; one for air and another for media. Once stored in the hopper, pressurization by compressor allows it to be shot out through its nozzle nozzles - blast cabinets can even be fastened together for easier maintenance or repairs!
4. Nozzles
Blaster guns and nozzles wear out quickly, and replacement parts are costly. To save money you could make a DIY sandblaster using a pressure pot; this will allow you to efficiently remove old paint or rust from metal surfaces before powder coating or painting them.
Sandblasting utilizes various abrasive media such as glass beads, steel shot, steel grit and metallic media such as copper slag, zinc shot or crushed glass; soft abrasives include soda pop bottles, dry ice or walnut shells for even further polishing.
Sandblasting can be an extremely messy endeavor and the rebounded abrasive grit can easily damage nearby objects, so it is vital that appropriate safety equipment be worn when blasting in open spaces or close-quarter work environments. Padded headgear and respirators should be worn when blasting in open environments while goggles with masks should protect both eyes.
Sandblasting can be dangerous as the abrasive grit propelled from the nozzle can become very fine and enter your lungs, potentially leading to silicosis. To lessen lung disease risk other forms of abrasive media have been developed; such as steel shot, steel grit and other metals as well as glass beads or agricultural media like nut shells or kernels. You should try not using silica sand as this form is no longer permitted in many countries and workplaces.
5. Mixing Valve
Sandblasters are used to quickly smooth out rough surfaces by firing an abrasive material through an air-powered nozzle at high speed. Sandblasters come in many forms from professional machines with robotic controls to simple hand cabinets - some can even be quite costly! As an economical solution, consider creating your own homemade sandblaster in the comfort of your own home!
Sandblasting equipment can be found either online or at local hardware stores. To start off, you will require a large air compressor capable of producing both high PSI and volume as well as a pot, nozzle, valves and blast media for your project. Most importantly is choosing an appropriate size nozzle; its bore will determine both blast pressure and air flow needed to operate optimally; Elcometer offers a variety of blast nozzles to meet almost every project need.
Blast cleaning is an efficient means of stripping surface coatings, paint layers, adhesives and sealants from metal parts. It is especially useful in corrosion control for stripping and cleaning damaged or corroded surfaces before recoating; creating anchor profiles to enhance adhesion of paint and coatings; as well as reaching hard-to-reach spots on parts such as mill scale, weld tarnish or rust spots from boiler tubes.
6. Tank
Designing a tank involves some practical considerations that need to be kept in mind when creating its structure. Of particular note is making the tank as simple as possible to reduce seam welding requirements and facilitate fabrication, with large sections of flat metal clamped together into shape via clamps to form its shape. Making it round also reduces work for creating internal structure flanges using homemade bending gadgets.