Built a sandblaster!

[creed1969]

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Hey I thought some of you might be interested to see my sandblaster I built last month.

It started life as an 11 gallon portable air tank from Princess Auto, and the rest is just steel pipe fittings, square tubing, and some rubber hose. Here's some pics:





As you can see, I used 3/8 inch copper tubing to provide air pressure to the top of the vessel. It looks small, but once the tank is pressurized there isn't too much airflow to the top of the tank...just enough to replace the sand that is used, and whatever air leaches through the sand out the bottom.






I have seen sandblasters that use a ball valve or gate valve to throttle the sand flow, but was concerned that the flowing sand might erode the partially opened valve over time. So I used a throttling method I've seen on large industrial blasters, where a rubber hose is compressed by an adjustable clamp to vary the passage size in the hose. The rubber is virtually unaffected by the sand.




My welding is far from perfect guys, so take it easy... All I can do is practice... Here this one's a little better. And yes...I put it outside and did a pressure test to 120 psi while I hid in the shop. It seems solid.



The ceramic nozzle is the only part specifically designed for a sandblaster...I modified a 1 inch brass union to make a quick-disconnect to hold the nozzle.

And the bottom line is...it works just great! Total cost was just over $100.