Under $10.00 homemade sand blaster

[us56456712]

YouTube has instructions on building a sand blast gun from an air duster gun. I got my gun from prime for $8.99. I used beach sand. You need a cheap Harbor Freight blasting hood, unless you like eating sand. My 1.3 hp compressor never lost the blasting stream for the ten minutes it took to get the really tight spots on my frame clean. It also cleaned up rust. It’s slow, but I plan to use my 10,000 rpm angle grinder with a wire wheel to speed up the easy to reach spots. I think the steel nozzle will erode as commercial blasters have ceramic nozzle. This will make paint stripping on a frame a lot easier for me. It needs more blasting to get the little paint that remains off but
it is 11 degrees F out and my hands got cold, so I quit and put everything away. I used 3/4 of a bottle of sand to do this amount of strip. I’m sure masonry sand from a builders supply would work just fine, but I wanted to spend as little as possible, just to see how well it stripped a frame.

 

[Vroom]

YouTube has instructions on building a sand blast gun from an air duster. I got my gun from prime for $8.99. I used beach sand. You need a cheap Harbor Freight blasting hood, unless you like eating sand. My 1.3 hp compressor never lost the blasting stream for the ten minutes it took to get the really tight spots on my frame clean. It also cleaned up rust. It’s slow, but I plan to use my 10,000 rpm angle grinder to speed up the easy to reach spots. I think the steel nozzle will erode as commercial blasters have ceramic nozzle. This will make paint stripping on a frame a lot easier for me. It needs more blasting to get the little paint that remains off but
it is 11 degrees F out and my hands got cold, so I quit and put everything away. I used 3/4 of a bottle of sand to do this amount of strip. I’m sure masonry sand from a builders supply would work just fine, but I wanted to spend as little as possible, just to see how well it stripped a frame.

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That is great low cost way to remove the paint from those hard to get at spots. I have a cabinet blaster but frames do not fit and this looks like a good way to get the job done on a budget.
Keep up the great work

 

[pebblewurm]

A propane torch and a wire toothbrush do the job for me. And no compressor blasting in my ears!

 

[hamqqea]

7.2 amps @ 2200 rpm. Obliterates paint in seconds, nothing can hide from it. Takes down big Schwinns NP. Not suitable for soft alloys.

 

[us56456712]

7.2 amps @ 2200 rpm. Obliterates paint in seconds, nothing can hide from it. Takes down big Schwinns NP. Not suitable for soft alloys.

At the moment I’m using a flapper disc, which for me works way better than a wire brush in my angle grinder. The most effective thing I have found is the firm style of the ”clean and strip” industrial metal cleaning disc for a high speed angle grinder. The soft version can even be used to strip paint from fiberglass. They are expensive, but safe as no wire shrapnel comes off. Mine wore out so I have three more on order. Hand sanding, grinding and brushing don’t get into tight spots. Heat or chemical stripping in tight spots leave a residue that requires a lot of fine work to clear out, unless you aren’t looking for a first rate paint job with high quality automotive paint sprayed in a ventilated and filtered booth. The frame I’m stripping has many tight spots that a wheel or sandpaper can’t get into. Ten minutes of spot blasting strips these hard to get at spots of paint and rust. Clean as a steam whistle. This works OK but. $3000 Ingersol compressor and blaster would be ideal. Here is the frame I’m working on. Where there is paint are the areas that large and small discs can’t reach. This frame is particularly nasty with hard to get at spots. Lugs on frames are also are more easily cleaned with a spot blaster.

 

[MattiThundrrr]

Twin top tubes, extra stay, I spy a mixte build! Nice looking brazing too, whatcha making? And what's the bracket between the top tubes for?

 

[us56456712]

Twin top tubes, extra stay, I spy a mixte build! Nice looking brazing too, whatcha making? And what's the bracket between the top tubes for?

I had this bike frame for many years. I bought the whole bike cheap because it had a Shimano 333 three speed rear hub that was blown. I dismantled it for the frame so I can’t remember what the bracket was for. Today I cut out the one piece BB and tacked in a three piece BB. By 4pm it was too dark for me to see well so I quit. Before quitting I put the caliper to it and it is off in one plain by .23 mm. I’ll have to put it on a table to see what tweeks will be required after that. It’s off side to side but I don’t known about up and down. It will be after Christmas before I look at it again. It had a one inch fork but I have a light weight Cromo 26 inch BMX style fork that is 1 1/8. The head tube inside diameter is 33 mm. I have facers, readers and threaders so I think it could be enlarged to accept 1 1/8 cups. The problem that I don’t know is that when the cups are pressed into the enlarged head tub there might not be enough clearance for the steerer. There isn’t much room between the head tube and the 1 1/8 steerer. I don’t remember what make it is. I seem to recall it was a department or hardware store brand. I’m just fussing around, not sure what I’ll come up with, if anything. It may end out in he volunteer fire department scrap drive.

 

[us56456712]

So, I haven’t squared the bb I tack welded in yet. It’s out of round from all the vice work to remove it from the old frame. I’ll have to see if I can re tap it. I did spend ten minutes today reming and facing the 33 mm old school bmx spec head tube out to 1 1/8. Not very much difference but the fork tube will most likely not clear. We’ll see. Lots of meat remains on this head tube, so reaming will not be dangerous. The whole thing, including the blaster is experimental. Can I blast hard to reach areas on a frame with a homemade blaster, can I weld in a different BB and can I put a 1 1/8 inch fork into a frame that takes an old school BMX head set?

 

[us56456712]

The welded in BB was a bust. The tack welding and vice work made it impossible to re thread. I cut it out. I’ll try again but this time I’ll leave the cups in so it doesn’t turn into an oval.