Harbor freight sand blasting cabinet front load door modification

When it comes to compressors Roy, you find the biggest one you can afford. THEN buy the next larger one! lol
I'm serious, but you really can never have too much air especially when it comes to sandblasting. Sand blasting really eats up the cfm's and if you have a tiny tank, you'll only blast for 30seconds and then have to wait a couple of minutes for the tank to build back up. SO it depends how fast you would like to get the job done.

I have a 60gallon and it will actually keep up with my little sandblaster. It will let me sand blast about 5mins, then it will flip on and run for say a minute and shut off. That's the power of a big tank and powerful pump... If budget is a concern, REALLY try not to get anything that is OIL-LESS, they are stupid loud and have short lives. An old school compressor that has an oil sump will always last much longer than junk reed valves. Good news is compressors are relatively cheap. I paid 800bucks for mine back in 2004! I change the oil in it once a year and buy it new air filters every few years.

Here is an off the wall idea, https://www.harborfreight.com/air-t...-cast-iron-vertical-air-compressor-61454.html Now here is a dirt cheap unit that will do some sand blasting, but might be a little on the slow side, but here's the kicker. BUY 2 of them and attach them together if you find one of them sucks for you. But one should do the job for small work if you are patient.

Now I DO NOT like the sandblast guns that come from the hazard fart. Here is my gun. I shit you not, I bought this kit back in 1988 and still use it today! Looking at the price, I don't think they changed anything and it should not be from china that's for damn sure! https://www.tptools.com/Build-Your-...t-Trigger-Operating-System,7200.html?b=d*8039
Yes it is much more pricey than HF, but mine works a dream, doesn't clog and as long as the straw is buried in the glass beads, I'm shooting material. If you do order that gun, tell them to get you some ceramic tips. They last way longer than the steel ones.

 

I sandblast with my little 4 gallon (3.5CFM@90 psi). It's acceptable for small pieces, but runs out of oomph quickly. Need to clean off a small part of 20 or so square inches, its fine, but if you want to sandblast say a fender? Better have some freetime and patience.
I was honestly amazed it works as well as it does.
My kit is the lowest end sandblaster you can get at Horrible Fright, I don't use it often so didn't see the point in spending a lot for a tool that rarely gets used. For the money I paid, I have no complaints; it works.

 

As we say... Time, Money, quality... PICK TWO! Cuz, ya ain't getting all three!

 

You can get by with almost any compressor size but you'll have to stop and wait for the tank to fill between blasting. I used a home depot pancake compressor for years but there's nothing like being able to hold the trigger down and have your compressor keep pace without stopping. Need about 16.5 cubic feet per min of air to do that tho. I got my big compressor for about 350 used it came with a 60 gal air tank. Love the thing. I finished hooking airhose all over my garage to use air at the lathe to blow chips, to my sand blaster to my bending brake to my work bench and a few other spots.

I was thinking of getting a 1500 gal tank and filling it up with rain water. I was looking into water pumps. Seems for about 200 bucks I could hook up a house water pump and use it to run water drip lines all over the garden for veggies, flowers etc. I did the calculation, with just half of my house roof (never mind garage roof too which is huge) I could fill 2500 gals if it rained 1 inch during a rainstorm. So it seems I shouldn't have any issues keeping the tank full especially since I get 55 inches of rain per year here. I have no idea how much water it takes to water a garden but I can't see it needing more than 1500 gals between storms?

 

Zap the best lawn irrigation setup I've seen to date is underground drip for lawns. We go months here with crappy rainfall amounts and people here have amazing lawns. Your tank and pump setup would be perfect for this.

 

The laws regarding water rights vary a lot from one jurisdiction to another and in some cases are pretty bizarre. I know this sounds absolutely insane but in some areas of some states, it's illegal to harvest rainwater even from the roof of your own home. I'm pretty sure this is only an issue in areas where rainfall and surface water is scarce and so shouldn't apply to Zap in Va.

 

I set up a rain collection system at our remote cabin.
Put gutters on the barn with screens, ran it into a roof washer, into a thousand gal. tank, 12v DC RV water pump, battery, solar panel.
To use it for drinking, ran it through a Pure water filter. Even had a flushing toilet and hot shower.
I finished the system the weekend before the remnants of Hugo blew through. Filled that sucker up.
Every spring and late fall I dumped a quart of bleach in the tank.
Started out with dipping 5 gal buckets out of rain barrels.

 

Yeah Rocco I've heard that goofiness. They claim the run off belongs to them and not you, but it's usually a ploy to SELL you water. Its usually better to ask for forgiveness than for permission when it comes to dealing with greedy cities and municipalities. Mine can kiss my ass and bark at the hole!

 

I tend to just plead ignorance, I'm surprising good at it considering I'm usually a bit of a know it all.

 

Yup.. dumb looks are still free. My wife can play that game, I suck at it, I get stupid and run my mouth.

 

That makes less than no sense. Who made these rules?! Where do they think the water goes when its used from the rain barrel?? The same place as the rain. Back to the municipality...

 

In my town years ago (I'm not sure if it's still like this) it was illegal to put roof runoff water into the sewer system. My town has two different types of sewer systems. One for household waste and the other one for runoff. The runoff from roof water can run down your driveway and into the city sewers. These are diverted to open retention ponds in almost every neighborhood. The pond slowly drains into local creeks ending in Lake Ontario with no filtration. They fluctuate depending on the season. My town doesn't care if you collect water from your roof. But, sending a roof water Down your sewage drain they don't like. It is really hard on the not very well built sewage system. At one point they used to drop smoke bombs down into the sewers and wait for smoke to come out the top of somebody's eve trough downpipe. They would go and give them a city fine, and to fix in the next 30 days or it will be fixed for them at city cost billed on top of their property tax.

The town I live in is so old some people are still on septic and well, some people are on city water with a septic, (and they get a discount) and some people are on both city water and sewage water.

 

I have a sandblaster the harbour freight cheap bench style. I picked it up off of somebody's front lawn on garbage day. It is a POS but, I got what I paid for, and it works. I used to run it on a 5 gallon air compressor and sometimes 2=>5 gallon air compressor's. About six years ago I built an 80 gallon air compressor from scrap parts. Got the tank for free, the pump for free, the motor for $40, the Vfd I had in stock, the air chiller I built from an old dehumidifier. In the end I spent about $400. But it is variable speed all off sensors. The lower the pressure gets in the tank the faster the motor starts turning. It has a single stage 3 piston pump maxing out at 17 CFM @ 90psi. This Compressor has no problem keeping up with sandblasting at full tilt running maybe 50% of the time. Blasting nozzle is set to 90 psi, but the tank fills to 156 psi. My air compressor can keep up, but it is still hard on it. And it's pretty hard on the electrical bill. I have calculated it's over a $1 per hour in electricity.

One thing is, I also have a shop vac sucking the fine dust out of the air into a HEPA filter. This keeps a clean viewing of blasting. I also use laminating plastic for the inside of the viewing glass. I replace this every couple hours. It saves the glass big time. Another thing, you really want pretty dry air. I have an air chiller a water separator and I have a pretty large tank. I empty the tank weekly. It's not fun getting too much moisture into your air.

Here’s a picture of my Black and copper babe,

 

My set up is almost identical. Compressor keeps pace well. Upgrading to 3/8" hose lines helped a lot.

I like your compressor paint. Did you custom paint it?

I installed a metering valve at the bottom of my cabinet but I'm not totally sold on it. Doesn't seem to suck out as much sand as my home made siphon. Not sure if it needs adjusting in some way...? Anyone got experience with metering valves?

 

it is a custom paint job. The tank came from Campbell housefeld, the piston pump I don't know and the motor is Baldor off of something.

I got the pump because the reeds we're gone and I replace them with metal strapping material. But still works great.
This is what it look like just before I start putting the pieces back together.

 

Metering valve? Yeah put it in the f-it bucket. You dont need it. Set you air to 90psi and try that.

 

Getting rid of the wingnut valve bleed and going to a ball valve bleed helps a lot too. About once a week I get a quarter cup of water.

 

At the same time, why not get stupid and make this air compressor portable? Instead of giving her just three locking wheels, why not give her six. She would like it better. LOL

Edit; I'm trying to upload some old pictures and having difficulty because the file is too big for this website.

 

I have to ask... WHY is your compressor on wheels?? I left mine on the mini pallet it came with. When I moved it, we pulled the pump off and slid the tank around then reinstalled the pump. It weighs almost what I do. It's pretty hard for me to install it by myself, but I've done it.

 

There's only two reasons for wheels and they are a big waste of money. One reason is it makes it easy to move around my shop when I re-organize. The other reason is it is self dampening, exactly the same reason you have yours on a wood skid. If I did not have it on a wooden skid or rubber wheels, I would bolt it to the ground.