Help me design a mini-bead blaster

I have an ongoing need to bead blast some 1" x 1/2" parts (one part at a time). I purchased a Harbor Freight blast cabinet and it is overkill for my needs - it's messy, it leaks (I hate to clean-up the powdery-fine glass beads) and it takes up too much space.

I want to design a mini-blaster from perhaps brass fittings and brass or plastic pipe. I don't need a trigger, a simple valve in line with my regulated air supply will do fine. I know the real nozzles are ceramic, but for my use I could maybe get away with a home-made replaceable brass nozzle.

I'm thinking of a 2" dia, 12" long pipe with threaded end caps on each end. The part gets loaded and suspended from inside the far cap. The near end of the pipe would have a 1" X 6" dia pipe joined at 90 deg to hold the glass beads and a plastic pick-up tube.

The far end of the 2" pipe would have a 1/2" x 6" dia pipe joined at

90 deg with a small crankcase breather filter attached. This would be the exhaust port ( I can simply take this set-up outdoors and wear a mask when I use it )

I guess the hard part is figuring out how to make the nozzle and attach the glass bead pick-up tube. I suppose I could take apart the existing gun and look at the dimensions. I have a small lathe so making or modifying the nozzle or fittings is no problem.

Am I on-track, or is there a simpler way to go? ( No I don't want to make my existing cabinet leak-proof - that monster has got to go)

Ed

Reply to
Ed
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I know the real nozzles are

Chuckle! Ceramic nozzles are a joke! You can wear one out in a couple hours using abrasive in place of glass beads. Decent bead or sand blast guns have a carbide nozzle. They're not cheap, but they outlast ceramics so well that using ceramic makes no sense.

You're highly unlikely to enjoy good success trying to filter the exhaust air with a small filter. You'd also have one hell of a time with anything with threads. Tiny particles will load the joint and make assembly and disassembly difficult, if not impossible.

I used to specialize in small machine work when I was gainfully employed (now retired). One of the tricks I used to use was to drill air holes in the bottom of something like a quart or pint plastic rubbing alcohol bottle, then plug my gun in the top, where the screw cap fits. It is a good fit, slightly loose. I use my foot pedal and shake the bottle about, giving the part(s), which is/are in the bottle, 100% exposure to the blasting media, what ever it may be. The holes permit air and media to discharge into my cabinet, where the exhaust air is then discharged through the wall, outside, by a squirrel cage blower. I don't use any kind of filter or the typical vacuum cleaner type device because they plug up too fast. This doesn't eliminate a small amount of media getting on the floor around the cabinet, but it's not bad.

Doesn't sound like my method will serve your needs, but consider it if it fits. It would require you keep your cabinet, which I understand you don't want to do.

Harold

Reply to
Harold & Susan Vordos

Maybe you could use a spark plug blaster. Check out TP tools or maybe harbor freight has one as well.

Aloha, Russell

Reply to
Russell Shigeoka

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MICROLUX GRIT BLASTER Part # 82775 cloaeout for 199.95 MINI SANDBLAST GUN Part # 60287 for 43.95

Reply to
Ken Moffett

Thanks for the replies. I found a Spot Sandblaster on ebay that looks like a paint sprayer with a metal cup and a large screw fitting on the end. I'll make a screw-on adapter, to hold the part, with holes on the far side and a hose venting to the outside. I like the idea of using a clear plastic container with holes to view and tumble the part inside. I agree - a vac will not work with the fine glass powder (beads). I hate to let it vent outside, but I can't see anyway to trap, filter, or recover the media. Even a blast cabinet is going to vent some media to the outside. I only need to blast each part for about 30 seconds to give it a fine texture finish.

Ed

Reply to
Ed

There exists a wide range of sizes of blasting cabinets for removing the investment from castings in the jewelry and dental laboratory technology industries. See if you can't get the parts list to some of these in sizes close to your needs. Build what you wish and purchase the rest. A box with an attach for vacuum, a light, some have a magnifying window to watch what you're doing. You should be able to buy the gun and nozzle by themselves.

bob g.

Ed wrote:

Reply to
Robert Galloway

There are small airbrushes made to spew sand now. Perhaps that would be easier than reinventing the wheel, so to speak.

Search for PAASCHE AIR ERASER on Ebay or Google for "airbrush sandblaster", Ed.

Reply to
Larry Jaques

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