bead blasting

S

shiner1

New Member
hello everyone-has anybody out there had any experience with the diy type bead blasters i need to do inlet manifold etc i figure i could buy one instead of sending work out i have 3 hp 12 cfm compressor -alternatively does anyone know of firm who does this near to me in mansfield notts-thanks andy
 
I've got one, Andy. It's great for all those small blasting jobs. My old compressor wasn't up to the task, so now I use a 3HP 16cfm (displacement; free air delivery will be about 12cfm) which maintains the airflow needed. I use garnet sand rather than beads, on the advice of the blasting specialists I go to. No matter what you do though, dust and shit will get everywhere, so you will need to sit it on a trolley with castors and roll it out of the garage/workshop when you're using it. I love mine. It has saved me untold money.
 
I got the inlet manifold, rocker covers, and air cleaner elbows on my V8 powder coated for £50 which included blasting. Prior to that I dropped the inlet manifold off at a chemical stripping place to make sure the internal galleries were clear which cost another £30.
 
I bought a sand blaster from ebay for a very small amount, somewhere around £20.00 I think.

I used it for the Dedion elbows, all the complicated stuff up behind the headlights, etc. Made a gawd awful mess but saved me many hours with a wire brush and sandpaper. I even made up a small cabinet for doing smaller items.


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Very useful but I am still finding bits of the sand in all sorts of places in the garage.

Richard
 
That's why mine sits on an old trolley so I can wheel it outside for blasting.

It's a million times more effective than wire brushes, etc. I even managed to blast my ZF case in mine, although the bell housing was a little large to squeeze in.
 
much to the purists annoyance i have found company within one mile from me and they blasted and powder coated -rocker covers in red and elbows inlet manifold and severn bits in satin black for total cost of £70.00 they are WH PAINT FINISHING on 01623420393 lovely job but i will still buy blast cabinet if one comes up-andy
 
Nothing wrong with those colours - and should a purist ever come into possession of your car in the future he/she can easily change them back.
 
I've got one of these

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I can just squeeze a V8 rocker cover in there and do the whole thing, but it is awkward to do. The seal round the top is rubbish, and quite simply fills literally everything in the vicinity in a fine fallout of dust. I've tried fixing the seal, but the filters on the back keep on clogging up so it just blows the seals again! The beads also ruin the clear window, they come with disposeable clear plastic sheets to protect it, which are great until somebody else borrows it, tears it off and doesn't put a new one on in it's place :roll:

My plan is to cannibalise it and make a bigger cabinet, with a proper glass window set upright away from the blasting and a proper side door and ventilation system, one day :LOL:
 
Aha! You've just described my experiences with my little cabinet. As I said, I roll mine outside on a trolley to use it because of the dust getting everywhere, and because I use it outside I have ditched the filter and have fitted a tube that sits in a bucket and catches the bulk of the sand that blows out of the hole. With the filter gone I no longer have the problem of the cabinet pressure forcing all the dust out through the lid seal. I buy sheets of clear plastic from Para to replenish the supply of sacrificial screens.

I've blasted all kinds of things in this little box - including my ZF case! Awkward, but I managed it. The bellhousing was too big though. Rocker covers would be a piece of cake. Having cut my teeth on this one I'd like a better contraption, just like you describe, but I don't really do enough blasting to justify it.
 
Mine used to be on a nice wheeled trolley with a shelf underneath for the bucket of fresh beads and spare parts. Storage and stuff meant that had to go, so it's just perched on top of a toolbox right now waiting to take out a window or door panel one day!

I was going to take the filter out as you say, then run a large hose down into a plastic barrel with a pre-filter and filter on the end, if that wasn't enough I would've just stuck another barrel on the end to filter it out more!

Current plan is to make a custom sized box, with glass window and side door, built onto a trolley with sufficient venting built in, when I get the chance and have space to do it!
 
Directing the air from the filter hole into a bucket does nothing to stop dust, but it does catch the sand for eventual tipping back into the cabinet. I suspect any sort of filter there is going to clog up in no time, so I'm happy with it as it is, so long as I don't use it inside! I hope to get the opportunity to look at a more professional setup one of these days and steal an idea or two, but it's useable and very useful even as it is. You've just got to be prepared to get dirty!
 
I've used a few 'pro' cabinets, the ones where you need a forklift truck to move them about, and even they leak! I think the filter box units suck through a giant bag and need occasional emptying.

I did consider plumbing an old Henry hoover into mine to see if that would work :LOL:

My plan is to catch all the heavy stuff in the barrels so it can be re-used, I begrudge throwing away perfectly good fine sand/beads! Once all the heavy stuff has dropped out only the light finer stuff should be getting to the filters so having them quick and easy to clean should in theory do the trick.

Of course in reality it won't work and I'll still be covering everything in and out of sight in a fine coating of fallout :LOL:
 
I did try an ancient, debagged vacuum cleaner on mine! It created so much negative pressure in the cabinet that the gloves stuck out ramrod straight and I couldn't move them. Even allowing some relief around the vacuum cleaner nozzle wasn't enough to sufficiently reduce the pressure so I gave up at the point of engineering a variac into the cleaner motor. Somewhat less suck is needed.
 
I bought a single flat pack kitchen cabinet from ebay, made it up and just fixed a sheet of clear perspex to the front. This left a 4" gap down one side to which I taped a sheet of polythene.

By holding the gun under the polythene, you can spray as much as you like and the grit just blows up into the top of the cabinet, then drops to the floor. I could have done a much better job, but wasonly using it for a few small jobs like the De dion elbows so really couldn't be bothered to do much more.

It certainly saved spending hours cleaning up, and on my estate I don't have the facility to take it outside.

Richard
 
The pro one I occasionally get to use is massive. It will easily fit a complete V8 engine with room to spare. It has an extractor system that does the whole filter bag routine for dust extraction and it's useless. The whole room where it's housed is covered in this fine dust and you look like a ghost when exiting after using it.
 
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