I bead blast very small parts and made my own "cabinet" as well. I had
purchased a small blast cabinet fron HF and it was hard to hold my
small parts with the gloves, plus it leaked the glass bead media and
made a mess.

Next I purchased a blast gun that has a threaded nozzle and mounted it
with a rubber O-ring to the side of a 5 gallon plastic paint bucket.
The gun has its own canister for the media - it looks much like a paint
sprayer. On the bucket lid I added a 2' long exhaust pipe made from
PVC pipe and and two 'L' fittings. The 'L' fitting inside the bucket
points to the bucket wall, not directly at the gun. That way the air
pressure gets released without loosing much of the media.

To get my small parts in the line of fire, I added a 3" ID threaded PVC
fitting to the lid. A PVC mating cap glued to a 1' long PVC pipe drops
in through the fitting on the lid. My parts attach to the opposite end
of the 1' long pipe.

To use my blaster I unscrew the cap, attach my part to the end of the
1' pipe, and screw the cap on the lid. I crack open my garage door and
stick the 2' long exhaust pipe outside. I wear a mask for good
measure. As I blast the part, I rotate it 360 deg by unscrewing the
cap one turn. It's a blind operation, but I get much better results
than with the old cabinet. It's clean and I lose much less media too.

Ed




Thought I'd share this, it may help some one.

I was looking at cabinets but even the cheap ones weren't in my
budget.

Thought I'd share this, it may help some one.

I was looking at cabinets but even the cheap ones weren't in my
budget. Next, I considered making one, but there's a lot of time and
fabrication involved ...... then I saw it, siting right there in my
garage! One of those oversized Tupperware storage bins, about
30"x24"x18" and vaguely see-through (sides & lid) to boot.

I cut a hole that would just be big enough to gently squeeze my hand
through, (the glove is put on inside the box) 2 holes in the base for
air and sand lines and a larger one for the sand return.

The trick is, I only have one hole for my hand, the other hand lifts
the lid to postition the gun in the correct place, close lid & pull
the trigger. You're effectively blasting blind, but repositioning your
hand takes seconds.

I sandblasted a cylinder head from a 250 cc dirtbike and it came out
beautifully (using the sand from my daughters old sand box). I did
this in my garage because of the cold, and the spill was negligable
and the sand recovery was good. The best part is that it's space
efficient, light and can still be used to store stuff in and then
stacked.

Now, only problem is, to explain to the wife what happened to her
storage box!

P.S. A good dust mask is a must.