SuzukiSavage.com - DIY Sand Blaster + Powder Coating?

sillydilly

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DIY Sand Blaster + Powder Coating?
05/09/11 at 12:22:19

I know this isnt really the right place to be asking it, but Id like the opinions of some of you old mechanic veterans out there.

Undergoing a basement reno + new oven for mothers day, Im left with a scrap functional over and an old wash tub.

Coincidentally Im also building a bobber!

I plan on spending up to $200 on powdercoating some items, but I read around and found I can probably build my own for close to the same price.

Im willing to bet that washtub would fit nicely with a little modding on the stove area of the oven. A little fabbing and you could probably come up with a cool mini sandblasting/powdercoating station.

Kinda got me thinking, so heres a little quick photoshop demo of what I mean.

Ive already thought a lot of it out.

Sandblaster
Plexi glass top
Some sort of interior lighting
Sandblasting Gun
Hose to bottom of tank for media
Air connections
Gloves
Media

That should probably cost me in the area of 100-150, depending on where and how I shop.

Powder Coater
This ones interesting since I dont know much about them. A little research proves that all you need is a little electronic gizmo that plugs into the wall, and grounds on your item to electrically charge it. Then you need a powder coating gun, the powder, and spray the item evenly. Then you bake the sucker at about 400c for 10 minutes and its done.

Powder Coating Gun
Electronic Thing
Powder ($20/lb?)
hangers, masking tape, silicone plugs.

I figure this could all be done with $300-400 and you'd have a pretty solid station for powdercoating small parts.

does anyone have much experience in this field and if my ideas make sense?

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sillydilly Full Member Offline SuzukiSavage.com Rocks! Posts: 231	Re: DIY Sand Blaster + Powder Coating? Reply #1 - 05/09/11 at 12:43:17 there, didnt even need a photoshop mockup.
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DangMan Senior Member 2005 No Login Offline Thump thump thump Posts: 327 Denmark Gender:	Re: DIY Sand Blaster + Powder Coating? Reply #2 - 05/09/11 at 12:56:51 I dont know anything about powder coating but if you want to make a sandblaster then a preassure pot is they way to go I made my own ! http://suzukisavage.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1303927566/5#5
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crackmonkey

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Re: DIY Sand Blaster + Powder Coating?
Reply #3 - 05/09/11 at 19:19:45

how hot does the top of your stove get when the oven is on? dont want it to melt your tub.

even if it were to get too hot you could always make mounts to lift the tub off the surface a few inches to allowgood ventalation.

also i would fip the tub on its end (open area facing out towards you) piano hinge on top with a cloth covering the inside of the hinge. attach the hindge to some thick plexi (not the 1/8 inch stuff it is too flimsy for a good seal) make the plexi come about 2/3 of the way down the front . on the last 1/3 secure a piece of plywood with holes cut out for the arms. now take an old pair of jeans and cut the legs off. sew some work gloves (from Home Depot for less than 5 bucks) to the ends and attach them to the holes. also cut a hole in the bottom of the tub just big enough for a shopvac hose. and another hole for the blaster. use duct tape for sealing all the joints around the glass and hoses. get some clear contact paper to put on the inside of the plexi (keeps so you dont ruin the plexi the first time you use it... you can replace the contact paper every few times you use it.) put your part in. seal the edges with the tape. turn on the shop vac (keeps the dust down and makes it easier to reclaim your sand. may want to tup a piece of old screen on the opening if your are blasting really small parts) and go to town.

several years ago i made one out of an old cabinate that collapesed into itself so i could use the top as a work surface when i wasnt blasting. worked really well. only thing else i might do differently if i made another would be to add some holes for incoming air with a filter of some sort.

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sillydilly

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Re: DIY Sand Blaster + Powder Coating?
Reply #4 - 05/09/11 at 23:36:03

Thanks Crackmonkey, but between this post and when I started this thread I had already hit up Princess Auto, and Im pretty pleased with what Ive come up with.

Vers, Im going for the cabinet style, not quite that kind.

Heres what Ive came up with, about $60 ish from Princess Auto.

Pretty cool little unit. At first, that pressure gauge was just for show (hey, $4.99 you cant go wrong!) but Ive found an extremely useful use for it. Its similar to a tachometer in terms of blasting. I found that around the 80PSI mark is where the most sand comes out, so possibly the best setting to use while blasting.

spent more on the steel beads than I did material Roll Eyes

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verslagen1 YaBB Moderator ModSquad Offline Where there's a will, I want to be in it. Posts: 28884 L.A. California Gender:	Re: DIY Sand Blaster + Powder Coating? Reply #5 - 05/10/11 at 00:10:21 sillydilly wrote on 05/09/11 at 23:36:03: Vers, Im going for the cabinet style, not quite that kind. Was I thinking that loud? Must of been the smoke. Actually, pretty close to what I was thinking. a box for the grit to fall into, maybe a plastic curtain to keep it out of your ears.
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sillydilly Full Member Offline SuzukiSavage.com Rocks! Posts: 231	Re: DIY Sand Blaster + Powder Coating? Reply #6 - 05/10/11 at 01:13:47 Sorry, its been a long night in the shop and I was tired when I typed that!! Of course I have further plans with it tomorrow. The left one is obviously how it sits now. Right side is how I plan to finish it. Internal lighting, plexiglass enclosure, glove system.
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topgunz1 YaBB Newbies Offline SuzukiSavage.com Rocks! Posts: 34 Baton Rouge, LA Gender:	Re: DIY Sand Blaster + Powder Coating? Reply #7 - 05/10/11 at 06:53:03 I hear Harbor Freight's Chicago Electric powdercoating guns are good, there is a coupon for them in one of the current Motorcyclist or Sport Rider mags for $50, regularly they are 75 or 80.
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sillydilly Full Member Offline SuzukiSavage.com Rocks! Posts: 231	Re: DIY Sand Blaster + Powder Coating? Reply #8 - 05/10/11 at 10:22:43 So these little guns, all you do is plug them into the wall, fill em with powder, ground the part and spray? once sprayed, bake?
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EJID Serious Thumper Offline Work to ride and ride to work. Posts: 1536 Pocatello, ID Gender:	Re: DIY Sand Blaster + Powder Coating? Reply #9 - 05/10/11 at 10:51:47 sillydilly wrote on 05/10/11 at 10:22:43: So these little guns, all you do is plug them into the wall, fill em with powder, ground the part and spray? once sprayed, bake? That's my understanding, but I've never tried them since I'm not willing to use the regular oven to bake the parts.
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topgunz1

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Re: DIY Sand Blaster + Powder Coating?
Reply #10 - 05/10/11 at 12:18:00

basically that is my understanding, but the gun needs a low pressure air source, around 30psi i think. you also have to prep the parts well which may be my limiting factor. A gun is $50, powder is cheap, ovens can be had on craigslist cheap, but I dont know of a cheap sandblasting setup minus the homemade version described here.

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sillydilly Full Member Offline SuzukiSavage.com Rocks! Posts: 231	Re: DIY Sand Blaster + Powder Coating? Reply #11 - 05/10/11 at 13:46:46 I hope to have the sandblaster up and finished within the next few days here.
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sillydilly

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Re: DIY Sand Blaster + Powder Coating?
Reply #12 - 05/10/11 at 23:08:57

Got it put together pretty sloppy, running into a few problems.

Im using steel shot pellets, which are fairly heavy, so its hard to get a really good flow of solid bead.

But when Im at 150 PSI and I spray it, it shoots and cleans very well. Only problem is my 25 gallon compressor isnt quite big enough.

Ill do some tweaking and show some pics tomorrow.

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justin_o_guy2 Serious Thumper Offline What happened? Posts: 55279 East Texas, 1/2 dallas/la.	Re: DIY Sand Blaster + Powder Coating? Reply #13 - 05/11/11 at 06:08:43 Every Home Built project takes tweaking.. Design flaws have to be corrected, Sometimes,, things just dont work out, even after tweakin, looks to me like youll win it, if the compressor can swing it.
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sillydilly

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Re: DIY Sand Blaster + Powder Coating?
Reply #14 - 05/11/11 at 12:49:53

Had to scrap the auto-loading design where the tube drains back into the gun. I think with steel bead it is just much too heavy to draw it up through the tube. I then designed a gravity feeder, which is basically a funnel up top with the tube that feeds down into the gun.

Good idea, but again, too much bead. Ended up clogging the whole system and there was probably 5lbs of beads in the tubing. Bottleneck effect.

So I went back to the stock idea. The sandblasting gun came with a little funny looking bent up tube that lies in the bottom of the blaster and just sucks as it needs. Strapped her down to the bottom, and as long as you dont bury it completely it will suck as needed.

Here's a demo of how it works. Unfortunately the entire video is my compressor going from 150 PSI to about 70 PSI.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rq-vZui8rH0

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