Preamble:

I fully restored a 1964 Honda CA95 motorcycle a few years back but have always wanted to build/convert and electric motorcycle. A few weeks ago, I was browsing 'Instructables' when I came across someone who had converted a Honda CA95 frame.

(see https://www.instructables.com/id/Electric-Motorcyc... )

Since I have two of these frames, I decided now was the time to build one myself, but not quite the same way as in the person did on that instructable.

Because all the motorcycle parts need cleaning (restoration), I decided to construct a sandblasting cabinet to make cleaning easier and the one that caught my eye is on https://www.instructables.com/id/Homemade-ShotGrit...

However once again, it doesn't quite fit my needs and so I constructed the sandblaster presented here. While this is not a true 'Instructable' with a detailed video, it is a guide to what can be done without elaborate workshop machinery. It is mostly photos of the construction progression and I have included measurements of the various parts, which may or may not be appropriate for someone else's build. Note; although some of the photos show the 'glove' tubes projecting inside the cabinet, the final assembly puts them on the outside of the cabinet. I also fabricated the sandblasting gun using plumbing parts and an ordinary blow gun and is also shown here. It works very well, however, I forgot to take photos of its construction. I may take it apart and upload it sometime. If you do build a cabinet for sandblasting, be aware that more often as not you don't need 90 psi + since this level of pressure can damage the surface you are attempting to clean. Sometimes 35 psi is enough.

Since I have used sandblasters before, I am well aware of the dust that gets out of a cabinet and settles on everything in the work area. So, on a separate Instructable, I will be showing my construction of a cyclone vacuum cleaner complete with motorized blower. Inspiration was taken from this engineer:-

I have used several 'professional' sandblasting cabinets and a common problem is that the viewing glass becomes covered in dust very quickly making it difficult to view the piece your cleaning. With mine, the air being pulled out of the chamber causes air to be sucked in all around the edge of the glass lid and keeps the glass relatively clear.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkRSObkOgn8

Of course, since I don't have access to the type of machinery and equipment this builder has, so I fabricated it using different materials and methods.

Okay, here are the photos of the Sandblaster cabinet:-

I used an old plastic laundry tub, some plumbing parts, a grill from a fluorescent fixture and a modified glass cabinet door. In use, the sand or other medium is under the screen and is sucked into the gun nozzle due to the lower pressure across the top of the medium tube (known as the Bernoulli effect).

The gloves were purchased from Dhgate.com at a very reasonable price

http://www.dhgate.com/wholesale/search.do?act=sear...

I will make an effort to answer any questions you may have.

Step 1: Post-construction Notes

The first photo shows the Sandblaster and the Thien/cyclone dust separator operating together. The 2nd and 3rd shows what a few minutes of medium crushed glass will do. However, 50 PSI was okay for soda blasting, but I really need 90 PSI with a better flow rate for the crushed glass to work properly and cut down on the blasting time.

Do not allow the gun to blast beads directly at the cover glass or at the light strips. To do so will 'frost' them very quickly and reduce visibility of work-piece.

In those first few minutes, I noticed a few crumbs of crushed glass on the top cover glass which needed investigation of how they got there. On the small 'shelf' at the rear of the cabinet, there was quite an amount of crushed glass and saw that it was coming through slots in the upper back of the cabinet. They would bounce around with a small amount lying on of the top glass cover. Like this, If something were placed on the glass top, the crushed glass particles could severely scratch the glass top.

I was so glad that I did this outside and not in my workshop because there was also some crushed glass on the ground.

The offending slots were covered with a strip of plastic glued in place.