I was perusing harbor Freight, Northern Tools, etc looking for a media blasting box. As I go through and clean-up and paint, plate, coat parts it just makes sense to have one on hand. The only probelm is that for a decent size box it's spendy. I did an internet search and came up with the this link. It doesn't look that hard to make and for the money gives a rather large work area. Anbody ever construct such a thing? Any plans you can share? I can't quite figure out what is being accomplished with the sheet metal on the bottom. Is it for a media trap drain? Thoughts?
The nice HF box is frequently on sale for $200. I like it. The time spent in building one could be spent restoring the car.
This the one you're talking about Jim that goes on sale??? I hear you on the time thing, never enough...
yep Agreed. With the exception of some crappy Chinese welding along the pick-up basin, my unit was worth the $$.
Buddy's wife works at the local hospital. His homemade blast box started out as an infant incubator! Comes complete with the gloves, see-thru sections, stand, wheels. Hospital was done with it, cost him zero.
I made one out of plywood, and used a Sears 'blast-from-a-bucket' gun assembly. Been using it for 15+ years.... It's 33" wide, 28"deep, and 28" high...just fits thru the basement door. Yes, I planned it that way! I use a shop vac as a dust collector, with an old air cleaner (with filter) assembly inside the cabinet to keep the blast media out of the vac. I use silicon carbide for blast media...it lasts much longer than most other types, and doesn't get dusty. About $70 for 50 lbs. from MSC. Sometimes used units turn up at auctions......
Thanks for the responses guys. I guess it'll either be HF, HD, or the maternity ward! If that HF deal doesn't go on sale soon, I'll probably just build one. Thanks again!
Coupla ideas to add to the HF $199 blast cabinet---of course now you will wonder why buy it when it takes more time to modify it but I think these are worthwhile ideas. 1) Paint the inside of the cabinet (back wall, ceiling and left side wall) with an appliance epoxy paint in WHITE. Just mask off the window on the inside, scuff the red coating, wax and grease remover and spray a few good coats of this white paint on there. 2) Add a floodlight to the inside--go to Lowe's, etc where you get the paint and get a cheap $5 basic one bulb OUTDOOR floodlight. You don't need the double throwdown thingamajiggy with the rain guage and the motion detector...just a cheap one and wire it up to a switch box--with the switch box on the outside of the cabinet--and wire an 3 prong extension cord line from the box that you can plug into the wall. I put this floodlight on the Left side of the cabinet hanging from the ceiling. 3) Also--if you like fabricating then you can make a quick and easy aluminum "catch pan" that you can screw into the Right side of the cabinet just below the door...this will catch some of the sand that inevitable falls off the door as you open it...I use cheap, thin aluminum flashing metal---easy to bend using a metal yardstick as a sheet metal brake. The red paint makes the box dark inside and the cheap flourescent light HF provides is not very bright..both these ideas will help. TP Tools, they sell more expensive and much nicer cabinets uses floodlights in their cabinets---I have used them and they provide better light.
Excellent point. The only way I can see anything using the stock lighting is to close the garage doors and turn off the OH lights. This leads to eye strain headaches and chocolate milk Kleenex. Both healthy I'm sure.
