Introduction: DIY Sand Blaster $50 in an Hour

By TinkerIT Makerspace Designers
About: After 8 years in 8 makerspaces I learned what works and what doesn't (for tools and members). I now help build makerspaces in schools and communities to help people avoid the mistakes and issues I have overcom…

No long intro, get started and save $200 and 8 hours of assembly on the big red one you keep seeing.

It's a media blaster to prep your metal for welding or powder coating, prep your beer glass for awesomeness, remove unsightly body hair painfully, feel like you are at a public beach, and tear stuff up.

Very Special Thank You to Steve Peters from our MAKER home Geekspace Gwinnett

Step 1: Parts List

No big story to start this. Let's just get to the deal and you can read my story at the bottom if you care.

PARTS List



1. Big Plastic Storage Tub $6 on sale 6-pack from Amazon for reference

2. Sand Blaster Gun: $20 (Updated from Campbell Haus to available option)

3. Big/Long Gloves: $7 Gloves

4. Rings for the Glove Hole: $5.60 each Flange (home depot link)Amazon Link

5. Exhaust Vent: $5 Exhaust Vent

6. Dust Mask for Vent: $2 Dust Mask

7. Coil Hose for Gun: $6 C oil Hose

8. Inline Desiccant Dryer/Filter: $8 air dryer or 2-Pack

9. Plexi glass for Window: $5 Plexiglass

**Update** Prices keep changing on Amazon. The exhaust vent is $2 at Home Depot. We also changed the flange to one that has a little lip to it, but it did not help much.

EXTRA Parts List



1. Air connectors to fit your compressor.
2. Silicone, Liquid Nails, Caulk, not hot glue, or any thick adhesive you think will seal plastic and keep sand from escaping.
3. Teflon tape for air connections.
4. Disposable clear shield for view window.
5. Small Nut/Bolt pairs for securing the glove rings.


TOOLS List



1. Drill and bits for your size air hose connections
2. Jig Saw for cutting holes and plumbers rings.
3. Teflon tape for air line connections.
4. File for rough edges on rings.

Step 2: Cut It Out!

GLOVE/ ARM Holes

  1. Draw a ring with a sharpie where you want your arm holes (Be sure to make them shoulder width apart for a 5'10"-6'3" person.
  2. Drill a hold inside the ring so your saw can get in.
  3. Cut the OUTSIDE of the Sharpie ring so that the plumbing ring is your smooth edge.

PLUMBING RING MODIFICATION

We had to cut the excess edges from the rings so we could wrap the glove on the inside for a better seal.

EXHAUST/VENT Hole

  1. Draw a ring with a sharpie, using the outside of the round vent as a guide.
  2. Drill a hole on the inside to start your saw.
  3. Cut the INSIDE of the sharpie ring. DO NOT cut any of the ink. This will allow a friction-fit when you finish

AIRLINE Hole

  1. Drill a hole the same size as your air line connection (1/4" or 3/8")
  2. Insert washer as a security from pulling the connections through the hole.
  3. Add desiccant filter here to keep the air coming in as dry as possible. A normal dryer/filter may not be enough. This little thing has 100s of little silicon beads to grab that rust-creating foe.
  4. Hook up your coil hose to the connector OR add a shutoff valve like we did. (I found out this was useless, but left it in anyway)

BLAST MEDIA Hole

Drill a hole for your 1/2" tube to pass through so you can leave your blast media outside the tub.

TOP WINDOW Hole

Leave at least 1 inch of the tub lid for your plexi-glass window to adhere to, and to silicon the joint.

Step 3: Issues and Cautions

DO NOT SKIP THIS

Find a bigger plumbers ring for bigger guys. My arms are tight at time when trying to reach far corners.

Shorten the gloves. They are too long and you don't need that much length. They bunch up all the time and it is a pain.

Use a shorter coiled hose. 25' was too much mass for the small tub. The more flexible, the better.

The Shut-off valve was just for helping use the washer. The dryer attachment could work too.

SEAL EVERYTHING! That sand gets everywhere and I think I will find a pearl in my gut folds next Christmas.

HOT GLUE DOES NOT HOLD! I tried to be lazy and quick, but this needs liquid nails, calk, silicone, anything thick and sticky.

Buy a taller tub

Put something like a small rack or closet shelf in the bottom where sand can fall through, but parts stay on top

Put a disposable shield on the plexiglass. The bouncing sand screwed mine up in the first minute. A taller/larger tub will help this tremendously.

Step 4: Stuff You Can Do

It took 45 seconds to do this glass. Masking tape would have been better, but Scotch was all that I had available.

$25 for this blast media. It's glass

There is also walnut shells, and some oxide-sounding one. I have no idea how they work. GOOGLE!

Thank you all for reading. I tried to make it was simple and quick as possible, highlighting the important stuff and taking lots of photos. I like more pics and less words in the instructables that I go after.

This is my first one and I will add as many updates as possible. I have only had an hour to test this out so far.

Very special thank you out to member sepeters228 (the guy in the pictures) who handled all of the precision work that boring rainy morning that we built this. Also out to Midsouthmakers.org the makerspacein Memphis who member Jwoodjr made one of these five years ago and posted this wiki based on an instructable he modified. I took his design and tried to see where I could make cheaper and quicker. This 'ible is what came of it. Thank you all! More to come soon, including video and photos of work done with this.