1976 280Z Restoration Project

[Mark Maras]

Rusty mess? That would qualify as rust free on Craig's List. Actually it looks pretty good to me.

[wheee!]

The clutch master dumped its guts all over the pedal box and inside of the drivers side floor. The corrosion was pretty bad all over where it spilled. I will blast it all clean and start fresh.

[wheee!]

[wheee!]

So I have realized that the bigger the sand blasting cabinet, the better. Mine is quite large but a 4-5’ cabinet would definitely be a much better asset. It’s hard to turn the larger objects to sand blast accurately and the light is less evenly spread in a tight cabinet. Lessons learned!

[Namerow]

I have a benchtop-size cabinet and have the same opinion.  Bigger is better.  The makers of my cabinet were clearly focused on their bottom line, because there is not even a centimeter of excess air hose length provided between the siphon tube and the gun.  As for there being any visible lighting inside the cabinet, I gave up on that hope long ago.  I do all my blasting now by feel.  It's impossible to see through the cabinet's hatch window unless I replace the plastic-sheet overlay for every job (no thanks).  The puny little fluorescent light provided by the manufacturer doesn't do much to help.

All that aside, the blast cabinet is w-a-y more effective than sandpaper or wire wheels when it comes to de-rusting steel parts and getting them ready for primer and paint.  Does a nice job on aluminum castings, too, provided you're careful to mask off any machined surfaces.

[Patcon]

I added some sealed halogen floodlights in the corners of my blasting cabinet. Also I spaced the glass and mylar sheet up about  a 1/2" with a double mesh of metal window screen below it. It helps deflect the media and it stays clear much longer. I would love to have a larger cabinet but the cost escalates quickly with size. another trick is to blast with the shop lights off.

[wheee!]

Good tips! I use a powerful led flood light on top of the viewing window looking in from the outside. Works fairly well. I have run out of the plastic protector sheets... time for more!

[wheee!]

Here is a shot of my setup from a while ago.

[rcb280z]

Looks like a Snap-on led shop light on it. I love mine. 

[Patcon]

I also made some other modifications to my blasting cabinet. I siliconed every seam I could. I built a dust cyclone out of two 5 gallon buckets which are connected to a shop vacuum. So my cabinet never clouds up. The only downside is the vacuum could be quieter. When the media seems low I just empty the cyclone back into the cabinet. The filter sees very little dust because of the cyclone...

[Namerow]

17 hours ago, Patcon said:

I also made some other modifications to my blasting cabinet. I siliconed every seam I could. I built a dust cyclone out of two 5 gallon buckets which are connected to a shop vacuum. So my cabinet never clouds up. The only downside is the vacuum could be quieter. When the media seems low I just empty the cyclone back into the cabinet. The filter sees very little dust because of the cyclone...

hmmm...  I tried just hooking my shop vac up to the cabinet so as to help reduce media 'air pollution' my workshop.  It didn't seem to work very well, so I dropped the idea and switched to setting the cabinet up on a workmate in the back yard.  It never occurred to me that that the vacuum hookup might also serve to reduce clouding inside the cabinet, so thanks for the tip.  I think I'll continue to only use the cabinet outdoors, though.  I've done enough damage to my lungs over the years without adding silica dust to the mix.

[wheee!]

Almost ready for powder! Whew..!