Influence High Efficiency of DIY Sandblasting! Recheck of Suction Pipe Shape

This time, it is commonplace to be able to purchase large blasting cabinets from online retailers and tool stores.
Cabinets that you assemble yourself at the time of purchase have become widespread, but there was a time before when only products from specialized manufacturers or tool brands were available, and sandblasting cabinets could never be said to be widespread. But now, things are very different! Here, we have explored the customization of a commercial sandblasting system to make it even more highly efficient.

The basic premise is that each piece of equipment is operating properly.

My preferred blast guns and nozzles are made by Snap-on. The nozzle is made of tungsten, which is highly resistant to abrasion against media. The general products on the market are made of pink-colored ceramic.
Even tungsten nozzles wear out over years of use, so when you notice wear, replace the nozzle before it damages the gun. Since tungsten parts are expensive, I used to cut the nozzle out of tempered material and press it in like a bush, but it wore out in no time. The best gun specs would be what is easy for you to use.

Can be made by yourself with an inexpensive "PVC pipe".

The suction pipe, which used to be a metal pipe, was completely self-made using PVC pipe for water supply.
Since the type that sticks into the sand does not allow air to flow in smoothly, it was changed to a V-shaped pipe specification to suck in the media in the airflow. Three chamfered holes were machined on the gun side.
A collar was installed on the gun side of the V-pipe to smoothly pull the media that accumulates at the bottom of the siphon shape into the suction hole. I made this specification with reference to the main air bleed of a carburetor.

Efficiently absorbs media

The collar, which feeds media smoothly toward the hole, has a stepped structure and rotates freely.
The inside of the upper end of the collar on the left above is tapered to facilitate media flow.
The media will not flow smoothly unless there is a certain amount of clearance between the inside diameter of the collar and the outside diameter of the pipe. When the media can flow smoothly into this gap, the cutting ability of the suction-type sandblast is surprisingly enhanced.

V-shaped design to match cabinet shape

I connected the blast gun to the V-pipe outside the cabinet, pressed the foot switch, and felt the inlet negative pressure generated in the media suction hole of the pipe with my fingertips. While checking the adjustment, I taped off the other holes to see how the suction negative pressure was generated, and the difference was really interesting! Is it an improvement or a modification! Definitely an improvement this time. We have tried various hoses in the past to connect the V-shaped PVC pipe to the injection nozzle (gun).
As a result, the Tetoron braid hose, which is inexpensive and easily available, was the best. The outside where the hose curves gradually become thinner as the media flowing inside rubs against it, and by the time you notice it, it has a hole and loses its cutting ability. You may notice a hole and no longer have the ability to cut.
Check the hose and replace it with a new one if it has a hole.

Surprisingly hard-to-fall blast media

It is best to set the V-shaped PVC pipe so that the corner of the pipe is slightly above the bottom of the siphon-shaped cabinet. When setting this intake pipe, it is best to always remove the media before doing so and to feed the media in while checking the pipe setting status. Falling media during the operation may accumulate and not fall even on the inclined surface of the siphon, so during the operation, a rubber hammer can be used to pound the outside of the cabinet siphon, or a concrete vibrator can be thrown in to further improve the efficiency.

For prepping parts before painting, for cleanup and sparkling finish of aluminum ground engine parts, brake hubs, etc.
Also, when you want to remove carbon from combustion chambers and piston tops during engine disassembly, or when you want to remove dirt and rust from crankcases for a beautiful finish, etc., the SandBlast is the tool you want to use in such cases. When you want to clean the inside of disassembled engine parts, there are also various know-hows such as lowering the air pressure and using glass bead media.

I'm sure there are numerous Sunday mechanics who would like to introduce full-scale direct-pressure blasters and wet blasters as well, but before the infrastructure is in place, an attractive moped two-cycle model is introduced and the decision is made to increase the number of vehicles! What a lot of things happen!
In the end, it seems that infrastructure development often takes a backseat.

The sandblasting cabinet I'm currently using is already user-friendly to my specifications!
We have modified it, and it works unexpectedly efficiently, so here is the layout of the media intake pipe, which we recently refreshed. Many commercial cabinet intake pipes have specifications that simply stick the pipe end into the media. However, that will never improve the work efficiency, so if you want to make the blasting system work efficiently, let's try this kind of modification of the suction part.

Sandblasting cannot work even if the cabinet itself is present.
Compressed air = compressor is essential for the installation, and moreover, the higher power compressor can do the job more efficiently. However, for small parts or engine covers, a 1-horsepower compressor with an AC100V household power supply can do the job. When using a small compressor, try to improve the workability by preparing a surge tank separate from the compressor body.

The continuous operation causes moisture to mix with the compressed air. That moisture turns dry media into soggy, heavy media, and cutting capacity drops dramatically. Installing a water drain in the air passage to the cabinet and the air passage coming out of the compressor + surge tank allows work to proceed in a good environment.