Fat Albert's '43 MB 217048 Project Thread

[zepher11]

It's good to get out and log some G503 time, eh Ducth? I find it a good stress reliever. Nice to see you getting your shop organized and put together as well. That will really pay off in the winter months as it gets colder and rainy season arrives.

Take care,

[nick peters]

Hey Dutch
Good to see you back. I know its a real bind when work gets in the way of your Hobby
regards Nick

[Fat Albert]

No pictures tonight but i did get to spend a little time this evening working on the MB. I hooked the sand blaster cabinet back up after a few months hiatus and was able to get a few small parts done before my moisture problem became an issue again. Oh well... it was fun while it lasted. I'll have to solve that problem soon as I am planning on painting my baby girl's car next week! But it was nice being able to zone out for a little while once more. Tomorrow's another day.

[ILikePlanesToo]

I was frustrated with my blaster for years, but I have made a few mods along the way and now I'm pretty happy with it. The three problems that I had were lighting, dust, and moister.

I put a second florescent clip light inside, and now it's nice and bright in there.

To get rid of airborne dust in the cabinet and help with dust in my shop in general, I added a port on the side for my shop vac to connect to. It works great and I always run the vac when I blast.

I tried a few things for drying the air, but for a long time nothing worked. After A while I realized that I was trying to dry the air too close to the compressor where the air was still hot. Maybe it's obvious to everyone else, but I just recently figured out that it is way better to put the drier close to your work so the air has a chance to cool and the water can condense out and be collected just upstream of the air tool. It has made a huge difference. I put a quick disconnect on either side of an inexpensive drier, and I put it right on the side of the blast cabinet. Every few minutes I drain the water out and I never get moister problems anymore. I can blast for hours now. It's also nice because I take it off and use it near my gun when I am painting. It works great.

Anyway, it seems to work for me now on my cheep little HW blaster.

Michael

[Fat Albert]

Thanks Michael! I can certainly relate to all 3 of your former problems. I had 4... 3 of which you nailed perfectly. My first one was not enough compressor for the job. I was finally able to solve that one last week! Thanks for the info about the water separators... I didn't realize that placement mattered. I was planning on installing one at the tank soon. I had earlier picked up a couple cheap in-line air filters and used them as moisture catchers but they don't last long and then you have to swap them out and wait for them to dry out. NOT an efficient way to work.
Light has been a major problem too... Especially with having to work at night mostly.
And dust... Oh my. I was blasting the other night... as mentioned above... It was dark and I was using a small LED headlamp and the sandblast cabinet light to see by. The compressor pulls too much juice to run much else with it right now. I gotta run another wire soon. Anyways... I couldn't see much but i knew I was getting a lot of air flow coming out of the blast cabinet while I was leaned over squinting trying to see what I was doing. When I finally quit and went to the house I was shocked to see what looked like a coal miner staring back at me from the mirror! I think next time I'll put tape around the cracks of the door!
Thanks for the ideas again Michael... and your jeep is looking good!

[drjeff]

Hey Dutch, Here is a picture of a friends homemade cabinet. to solve his dust problem, he used a shop vac along with a five gallon bucket and some pvc pipe. The bucket is used as a water trap and virtually eliminated his dust problem. He would put about a 1/4 bucket full of H20 in. The PVC pipe extends down just above the water level. Hope you can make heads or tail from the photo.

[zepher11]

Hey Dutch, Here is a picture of a friends homemade cabinet. to solve his dust problem, he used a shop vac along with a five gallon bucket and some pvc pipe. The bucket is used as a water trap and virtually eliminated his dust problem. He would put about a 1/4 bucket full of H20 in. The PVC pipe extends down just above the water level. Hope you can make heads or tail from the photo.

Now that is a nice cabinet. And it even has his and hers glove ports!

On a serious note, what are you guys using for blast cabinet media? I have a little HF blast cabinet and I haven't noticed an issue with moisture or dust. I have been using the glass beads which I have been happy with. Light is my biggest issue. The glare off the window from the garage lights causes some of the problem.

[ILikePlanesToo]

On a serious note, what are you guys using for blast cabinet media? I have a little HF blast cabinet and I haven't noticed an issue with moisture or dust. I have been using the glass beads which I have been happy with. Light is my biggest issue. The glare off the window from the garage lights causes some of the problem.

I've used a number of different blast media: garnet, glass beads, and aluminum oxide mostly. They all seem to have pluses and minuses. Right now I'm using a very aggressive aluminum oxide shot at about 60psi. It really cleans up parts fast and leaves a great surface for painting. Not much dust either. I have had some good luck with garnet, but it fractures easily, so it never seemed to last very long and produced a lot of dust. Glass beads can be nice. They also fracture pretty fast I found, so I had to shoot them at pretty low pressure to get them to last and then they weren't aggressive enough for me. Maybe the glass beads I was using were too fine from the beginning. What size/grit are you using?

For blasting outside I just use baking soda on delicate parts and regular silica sand on bigger stuff. I think wearing a respirator is a must when blasting outside. I like using the vacuum inside so I don't need to worry about breathing anything bad.

I think they all have benefits and shortcomings....

Michael

[The Raven]

i have ground up glass that has no silica. i only have a sholder mounted blaster so only do it on the driveway. i generally hold my breath and close my eyes to blast. It seems to work...just have sand in every crevas fir a week afterwards!!

[zepher11]

Maybe the glass beads I was using were too fine from the beginning. What size/grit are you using? Michael

I am using 80 grit glass beads. I used them quite a bit and have yet to change it out. Seems to still work good.

i have ground up glass that has no silica. i only have a sholder mounted blaster so only do it on the driveway. i generally hold my breath and close my eyes to blast. It seems to work...just have sand in every crevas fir a week afterwards!!

That was funny about holding your breath.

I'm anal and use a respirator if I am blasting inside my cabinet or outside with the bigger blaster. Outside I use the Black Diamond 30-60 media that I get at Tractor Supply. It is actually coal slag, but is very similiar to sand and has low silica content. It's washed and doesn't create any dust. I try to stay away from the silica if I can. Here's a link: BLACK DIAMOND MEDIA at TS If I go ahead and blast my tub myself, I should basically have my driveway redone in coal slag!

[The Raven]

if i have to do a lot i tend to try and save some of the sand and run it through a window screen....then take that an toss it on a windy day to blow away the lighter dust. seems to work good.....but im a cheap SOB...$10 for a years worth of sand is too expensive....i try to stretch it to 3 years.

[ILikePlanesToo]

Maybe I need to practice more... I don't think I can holding my breath that long.

I actually try to be really careful too. I always wear a respirator when I use my blast cabinet. I mostly like the vacuum because I feel like I don't worry as much about breathing fine particles later when I'm just working around the shop.

I think the glass beads that I was using were a lot finer than that. After about 2 weeks of normal use, my blast cabinet looked like it was full of powered sugar. All the little beads got pulverized. Maybe I'll try larger glass beads when I swap out next time.

Michael

[The Raven]

lots of breaks to catch my breath...

[Fat Albert]

Hey guys... It's been awhile since I last posted. I'm not any further along than I was back in July... work, life and a general lack of funds right now have put a pinch on the MB! Not whining... actually makes things interesting sometimes. I just wanted to say hello and look over your projects. They are looking good. Can't wait to finally get back on schedule with mine.

[nick peters]

Hey Dutch
Good to see you back mate I was wondering where you had gone . Reading your post, I think that most have the same problems from time to time work ,lack of funds ect ect. Take a little comfort in knowing that a lot of the guys here on 503 have sympathy, as like i say most will have been in the same spot. But then Dutch remember you can allways go fishing in your lake with your kids and the dog,when things look bleak.
good luck.
Nick