How do you sandblast? [LG. PICS]

[FORDification]

I was taking some pictures in my shop tonight while killing a few minutes, and got a few of my sandblast booth. While sitting home this evening reviewing the pictures, I was curious what some of you are doing in this area. I thought we could start a thread specifically about what each of us who sandblast are using. Pictures would be great.

Here's my setup:

First of all, I build a make-shift sandblast booth in a corner of my shop, out of 2x2 lumber and plastic sheeting. The booth is up against the back door of my shop, so I can open the door to get some air circulation going when I'm working in there. You can see there's a squirrel-cage fan blowing in at the front at ground level into the booth, and out the door. There's also an upright floorstand fan along the right side, blowing in through a hole in the plastic. When I finish off a tank of sand in the sandblaster and am ready to start sweeping up, I turn off the squirrel-cage fan but leave the upright fan on for air circulation. You can also see the air compressor just to the left of the booth, with another squirrel-cage fan on the workbench blowing up onto the compressor pump and motor, just for a little additional cooling....and it does work pretty well.



This next picture shows the basic interior of the booth. I have two 55-gallon drums....one for a worktable and the other is my sand-sifter.



....and here's a closeup of the sand-sifter. All I did was take a 55-gallon drum and cut the top 1/3 off. I then cut out a section of the top leaving a lip around the edge to attach some attaching wire grid chicken-wire stuff. Obviously this is too coarse for sifting sand, but it'll hold up the finer door-screen material used for the actual sifting. I then just bent the top edges of the lower 2/3 of the drum in a little, to allow me to flip the top over on top of the bottom. I lay some window screeen down into the top part and drop my dirty sand into it, where it gets screened. The good sand drops down into the bottom, and then I can lift the top section off and dip out the cleaned sand.



Just curious how others did this, and thought maybe I'd pick up a tip or two, or at least share one with you.

[crazyace99million]

thats a nice setup you have everything coverd. what do you wear for personal protection?, i've seen some people wear full painter clother w/ resperator. just wondering what you had in mind?

[FORDification]

I wear a 3M painter's respirator, the inexpensive kind with replaceable filter cartridges. After I put that on, I put on a regular knit ski-mask (the kind with just eye-holes) and it slides down over the top of the respirator's filters, and then slip on the face-shield. I do still have to be careful about getting sand in my eyes, since although there isn't a direct route to my eyes, any grains of sand that may bounce can come in from around the edges of the face shield.

Here's the kind of respirator I use. These are $25-$30 at most auto-supply stores and have

[FORDification]

In another thread recently I made a reference to the canister-type water filter/separator that I use to ensure all my air is clean and dry. I remembered it today while at the shop and took this picture:



This style of canister filter can use rolls of toilet paper for filters, which is what I use. I just buy them in bulk and replace frequently.