I did determine it was time to swing by the storage unit and pick up my pressure blaster I bought...way back when...when I thought I would make more progress on the car...and when Harbor Freight gave me a big discount coupon and they marked it down. I grabbed it for about 40% off. I haven't seen it as cheap. So it was a good deal. That's what I'm saying and I'm sticking to my story.
Also...way back when...I got a deal on the Eastwood conversion kit to change a pressure blaster to a soda blaster. There is still "some assembly required" but it is in the garage and ready for said assembly.
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| This is the Harbor Freight media blaster. |
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| This is the Eastwood conversion soda blaster kit. |
The newest toy added to the arsenal of my tools is a blasting cabinet I just happened to come across on Craigslist the first hour of the listing. It's a Harbor Freight unit and included a stainless steel cart that appears to have come from a restaurant or similar business.
The whole shebang was $70! I called and texted the owner and cut the deal. I picked it up on the way home. The "extra" was that it was already filled with glass bead media. And the guy had put in extra lights. And he threw in a large 2x4 foot piece of plexiglass to put a cover over the lights. That's a deal in my book!
OK. So you know what happens next, right? I had to try it out as soon as I got home. So I grabbed one of the shock tower mount and gave it a shot...or blast. In 5 minutes, I ended up with a really nice, clean part. Here's the comparison of "before" and "after."
So I would say it was a successful day. I have high hopes that this little tool will help me immensely in the future restoration of good ol' Eleanor.
Nice! Regarding that HF blast cabinet; I wish I could have stopped you before you put media in it, but you will probably want to seal the seams with RTV, Silicone, or whatever you have. Also, you could benefit from a dust-collector of some kind. I've used a shop-vac for the past few years but the grit has gotten in the bearings and it's not long for this world. HF sells a reasonably nice dust collection for around $104 after 20% coupon so you could save yourself some mess that way. It's gonna be awesome but I don't have much faith in the soda blaster. I can't wait to see it in action though. I hope I'm wrong. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteThe cabinet already had the media in it so there wasn't much I could do about it. I'm probably going to replace it with black diamond somewhere along the line to work on the suspension parts. I have an ancient shop vac from my wife's grandfather that's got the motor separate from the blower. So it should work with no problems. I too am a little skeptical of the soda blast kit, but I figured it was worth a shot. I'll be sure to post the results when I get that far. Thanks for your input.
DeleteDennis - I would also suggest, since you have gone the step of getting a sand blaster, is to spring for Eastwood's cheapie powder coat gun. I bought one and have been extremely happy with the results. I went so far as to go back over my car and re-strip previous painted parts so I could powder coat them instead. The stuff is bulletproof and nearly impossible to screw-up. The plus is that is sticks to newly sand-blasted parts like grim death. I built a cabinet from some Lowe's plywood in an afternoon, added a light, hooked up my shop vac to it and never looked back. Be warned though - you'll be everybody's new best friend when they find out you have one :) Oh - and start looking for an oven that someone is throwing away. I can tell you from experience that wives don't appreciate finding shock tower caps baking in their kitchen ovens :/
ReplyDeleteMy wife has found stranger parts in the oven. LOL! I've thought about the powder coating. It would work nice on the upper and lower control arms that are painted black. I'll have to watch the Eastwood emails since I get the buyers club each year. I intend to drive my car since I'm not a "trailer queen" kind of guy. So the tougher the coating the better. Thanks for the suggestion.
DeleteNow your in it DEEP Dennis! Tools are the finest addiction in this hobby and you've got more to work with. So much of what the next year or so will encompass will soon center around these very tools. Go get 'em!
ReplyDeleteSven, in my book DEEP is GOOD. What I may have to do is convince my wife it's time to buy a bigger piece of property and put up a Morton building to house all of "our" toys. (My wife has a plethora of stained glass equipment.) The nice thing about the blast cabinet is I can put someone on it cleaning parts while I work on other parts of the car with little fear of ruining something...for the most part anyway.
DeleteWives are good sand blasters. Good at details, small hands, patience of the saints. Promise them an ice cream cone at the end of it and you typically can get a good 2, 2 1/2 hrs out of them :)
ReplyDeleterj
RJ, My wife just smiled, batted her eyes, and didn't say a thing when I read your comment. I think that's a good thing.
ReplyDeleteAwesome! I use the black diamond media. Works well. My media cabinet only has a 12x12 viewing window and I would use Lexan to replace the old plexiglass window. Then I found this plastic film sheets that fits over it. Saves me from constantly replacing the window. Maybe they make it for your cabinet size window. Alex is right about the vac. Really cuts down on the dust while blasting. Great work! Looking good!
ReplyDelete