Vapor Blasting Cabinet

I hope all of you have seen the fairly new concept of Vapor Blasting or Vapor Honing.

If not, here's a video of the premier US company:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfi-FlNQBjg

Basically it's a sandblasting booth that uses water to move the media and introduces high pressure air at the nozzle. It's incredible. I have some friends that have a vintage motorcycle shop and cleaning/polishing the aluminum parts is truly a pain. So, a couple other buddies of mine gave me a restaurant sink/counter and a bunch of 3/16" stainless sheets from a demo job. The first thing I thought was, I'm building my own Vapor Blasting cabinet. I don't have $12,000 to buy my own and I want one big enough to put an entire motorcycle frame into (why build small, right?). So, I hope to have it finished soon.

So I started with an idea of what I wanted based on the items I had at hand. A sink/counter out of an old IHOP and a bunch of stainless sheets a buddy of mine gave me.

Attachment 15613

just a few more of the materials and the start of the build.

Nice Project Archimeech! Look forward to seeing your build. Was shocked at the CFM (15-20) requirements of the commercial machines and all their models use that spec. Also couldn't seem to find what medium they are using and what grits are available.

Thanks for posting this! ~PJ

Thanks!

Yeah, it's a high CFM, but I'm using a sump pump that gives me about 1/2 that and restricting it down 75%. I'm also using more pressure on the air side.We'll see. Might need to go with a larger pump.

The blast media usually is glass bead. If you want to scour aluminum oxide off that's really crusted on hard, you can go with a crushed glass instead.

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Originally Posted by PJs

Nice Project Archimeech! Look forward to seeing your build. Was shocked at the CFM (15-20) requirements of the commercial machines and all their models use that spec. Also couldn't seem to find what medium they are using and what grits are available.

Thanks for posting this! ~PJ

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Thanks!

Yeah, it's a high CFM, but I'm using a sump pump that gives me about 1/2 that and restricting it down 75%. I'm also using more pressure on the air side.We'll see. Might need to go with a larger pump.

The blast media usually is glass bead. If you want to scour aluminum oxide off that's really crusted on hard, you can go with a crushed glass instead.

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Originally Posted by PJs

Nice Project Archimeech! Look forward to seeing your build. Was shocked at the CFM (15-20) requirements of the commercial machines and all their models use that spec. Also couldn't seem to find what medium they are using and what grits are available.

Thanks for posting this! ~PJ

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Interesting, never heard of this before. There's quite a few folks DIY'ing this with some interesting results. There was a site that talked about abrasives:

Abrasives | Vixen Wet Blasting

It sounded like walnut hulls and olive stones are particularly interesting in that they work a low pressure. Is there some reason you can't use a regulated down pressure washer for the water pressure? I'm a noob here so just asking. There were several schemes to put then media into a slurry to be I would assume, siphoned into the pressure stream. None of which looked so sophisticated one of us couldn't hack it :)

I like the idea of no dust, but the OP has it wired in that he has all that stainless to work with. I'm definitely going to keep an eye on this to see how it goes. Thanks for posting.

I've looked through a lot of builds and also the commercial booths. I settled on what I could find, scrounge, or dig up. To date, I probably have around $500 invested in parts, Argon, cutting wheels, pumps, lights and what not. I like to think of it as Karmic Tool Fabrication. Whatever I can get my hands on goes into the pile and then I see what comes out the other end! lol

C-bag. A lot of folks use a pressure washer for their power, but I found a gun and hose that uses a lower pressure water/slurry and introduces compressed air at the gun to increase pressure. The bottom of my build isn't in the drawn down hopper configuration so we'll see how well the slurry is agitated. I may need to introduce a secondary pump to keep it all mixing down below.

I wonder how this differs from the Abrasive add on I purchased for my pressure washer it when on the end of the gun without a tip and drew in the SAND and I used it to blast the entire bed on my old truck. I only paid about $30 from Walmart at the time for the add on. and worked great. NOT the smooth finish I see in the video though.

Yup, sand is good for taking off paint in a hurry, but it is not a smooth finish though. But I'll bet it was great for putting bed liner on to though. The link I found and posted was interesting to read through about the different media and the finish they provide.

How did your Wally World set up feed the sand Ed? Was it like a drip cup attachment or? I wonder how your setup would do with glass beads? BTW is was pointed out that the glass media HF sells is really crushed glass so does not provide the finish real beads do. As with all things,the devil is in the details.

Ed, your list of trucks is making me jealous. My son wants an old F1

The attachment for your pressure washer works great, but isn't a finishing process and you sacrifice the blasting media. with the booth, I'll be able to take it to a nice finish and reuse the glass bead till it crushes.

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Originally Posted by C-Bag

Yup, sand is good for taking off paint in a hurry, but it is not a smooth finish though. But I'll bet it was great for putting bed liner on to though. The link I found and posted was interesting to read through about the different media and the finish they provide.

How did your Wally World set up feed the sand Ed? Was it like a drip cup attachment or? I wonder how your setup would do with glass beads? BTW is was pointed out that the glass media HF sells is really crushed glass so does not provide the finish real beads do. As with all things,the devil is in the details.

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It was 15 years ago that I did this and was always wondering why no one else talked about this procedure, no heat no warping and I just used plain sandbox sand for just a couple of dollars or so for a 40 lb. bag. and just brushed the sand when dry to the dirt around the driveway. from what I recall I just put a metal tube in a 5 gallon bucket of sand. worked perfect not problems. I tried the large pressure blaster I had, worked but was concerned about destroying the metal. I did watch a couple of videos on this now and they are a little beefier then what I had, but far a large item this seemed like a very safe way to do this without breathing in all that silica. I have good size blast cabinet maybe 2.5 x4 ft. but not big enough for this project.

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Originally Posted by Ed ke6bnl

It was 15 years ago that I did this and was always wondering why no one else talked about this procedure, no heat no warping and I just used plain sandbox sand for just a couple of dollars or so for a 40 lb. bag. and just brushed the sand when dry to the dirt around the driveway. from what I recall I just put a metal tube in a 5 gallon bucket of sand. worked perfect not problems. I tried the large pressure blaster I had, worked but was concerned about destroying the metal. I did watch a couple of videos on this now and they are a little beefier then what I had, but far a large item this seemed like a very safe way to do this without breathing in all that silica. I have good size blast cabinet maybe 2.5 x4 ft. but not big enough for this project.

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Interesting it could pick up the sand by just siphon if I get your meaning. My medium size HF blast cab works on siphon and is not to my liking.

Everything has a price and there is no free lunch. I don't do big stuff and don't have room to store something huge so I see no need to go this route. But it's really interesting and caught my attention. My next jump will be to get one of the smaller HF pressure blasters ($70 on sale)and mod the bottom of my blast cab to dump into the pressure bottle. Seal back and do a run, rinse and repeat(no water:). I also have a cyclone I made for filtering the dust so there is no dust hazard.

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Originally Posted by C-Bag

Interesting it could pick up the sand by just siphon if I get your meaning. My medium size HF blast cab works on siphon and is not to my liking.

Everything has a price and there is no free lunch. I don't do big stuff and don't have room to store something huge so I see no need to go this route. But it's really interesting and caught my attention. My next jump will be to get one of the smaller HF pressure blasters ($70 on sale)and mod the bottom of my blast cab to dump into the pressure bottle. Seal back and do a run, rinse and repeat(no water:). I also have a cyclone I made for filtering the dust so there is no dust hazard.

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I have the Dust Deputy and I really like it, BUT I found what seems like a smaller unit at Bangood.com for under $20 that makes it worth buying versus making. I had an old broken stainless steel vacuum and I put a plate over the top and mounted the cyclone on that and it opens easily to empty. I have collected water with it and other than being bulky is a great addition to the blast cabinet.

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Everything has a price and there is no free lunch. I don't do big stuff and don't have room to store something huge so I see no need to go this route. But it's really interesting and caught my attention. My next jump will be to get one of the smaller HF pressure blasters ($70 on sale)and mod the bottom of my blast cab to dump into the pressure bottle.

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My son picked up one of the $100 media blasters at HFT when we were doing the front end on his 65 Malibu SS and tried various media (glass, ALO2, & walnut) to get the finish we wanted. It worked great for all the pieces but messy as heck and uses some CFM...6 was barely enough. For that type of stuff I suggested a portable/folding frame of PVC tube and covered with visqeen or maybe some of those Sale tarps they have to make a 3-5 sided booth. Most of the parts including the sway bar and springs came out ready for powder coat but did have some wire wheel/scotch brite disc work around the recesses & A arm bushings holes (taped off).

I have an old Craftsman siphon feed set up with a small canister for the gun which runs on reasonably CFM and low pressure with the canister. It has worked well on small stuff but a bit unwieldy because of the hoses.

The nice idea of this build to me is the re-circulation of the wet slurry keeping the dust level minimal. Also If I understand properly it bypasses the nozzle and mixed with the water pressure at the tip so the tip should last a long time with better/finer atomization?

Archimeech; You mentioned an argon bottle and it shows in the pics...are you using this for your pressure somewhere in the system?

Thanks, ~PJ

Argon is for the Stainless Mig for the cabinet. I've run through quite a bit of it stitching all the sheets together.

Rare build! We only have two other homemade vapor blaster builds listed in the encyclopedia. Here they are for ideas:

Vapor Blaster by Luders on KR-1S.co.uk

Vapor Blaster by Roger-SA on TriumphRat.net

Good ones Jon. I like the idea of using 55gal drums but would use metal ones instead of the plastic. Still both were more detailed about the build and not about the specifics of the agitation and the pumps. One guy said he used a pool pump but like my main concern, had to replace the seals all the time. It's an interesting proposition how you would keep everything from clogging and deteriorating. Glass beads are tough to get completely clean and I don't use them on anything that's going to have oil circulating because I've seen first hand what a minute quantity can do to an engine. Turns them into a boat anchor in minutes. Any way you do it, it's gonna be messy :)

Vapor honing is an offshoot of "ExtrudeHone"; pressurized abrasive slurry to perform contoured metal removal, to form, size, deburr, polish. aka Abrasive Flow Machining. Home - Extrude Hone

Most stunning demos intake runners and cylinder head ports. There isn't an actual nozzle per se', the slurry 100% fills and moves through the opening/s/, following original or desired contours. Compared to porting with a die grinder; are no flats, divots or axial facets. Also operates externally, ie gear polishing.

Another process called 'Vibra-Hone' uses formed ceramic stones, mild detergent and water. Like a rock polisher on steroids, but instead of rolling, an upright tub vivivivibrates about a vertical axis. Works on all kinds of material, great on steel and aluminum. On something like an engine case, sealing surfaces would require final machining.

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Originally Posted by C-Bag

Good ones Jon. I like the idea of using 55gal drums but would use metal ones instead of the plastic

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Wouldn't wet media be cleaner in a poly vice ferrous container?
And far as pumps go, what are materials for seals, cylinder and vanes in concrete pumps?

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Originally Posted by Toolmaker51

Wouldn't wet media be cleaner in a poly vice ferrous container?
And far as pumps go, what are materials for seals, cylinder and vanes in concrete pumps?

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I would think that a concrete pump would be too large and costly. Also, they move too much volume, unless you know of a very small one. The portable trailer pumps start at around 300 yards/hour which converts to 135 CFM. the vapor honing machine only needs around 1/10 of that. (15cfm)

Nice, Jon.
I'll keep everyone in the loop and if it works, get some video on here or a link to some once I'm using it.

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Originally Posted by Jon

Rare build! We only have two other homemade vapor blaster builds listed in the encyclopedia. Here they are for ideas:

Vapor Blaster by Luders on KR-1S.co.uk

Vapor Blaster by Roger-SA on TriumphRat.net

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Originally Posted by archimeech

Nice, Jon.
I'll keep everyone in the loop and if it works, get some video on here or a link to some once I'm using it.

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The devil is totally in the details and for some reason fascinate me. What is a useable amount of concentration of glass beads/water Like how long does a useable amount of glass beads stay in suspension? How much water pressure do you need at the nozzle so that when you air blast it doesn't back into the pump? All these different details would determine to me how I would do other things.

One guy mentioned in the previous builds that he used part of the pump pressure redirected back into sump to agitate the slurry with. Make me wonder if the bottom of the sump was waffled or v'd with bars with small air holes might work. Not so much make roil, but let the bubbles do the agitition. A centrifical pump if done right would not have the valves etc that would clog and die. I wonder if the pump could be suspended in the solution with the drive shaft long enough to keep the motor outside the sump and then you wouldn't have to worry about seals etc? Do used glass beads turn into a solid after they are used and settle for an amount of time? Can it be be re dissolved or? I'd hate to let it sit after a project and like an old cement mixer go to use it and find it turned into a solid :)

Dude, I think that's more questions than I've had the entire process, thus far. lol

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Originally Posted by archimeech

Dude, I think that's more questions than I've had the entire process, thus far. lol

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I agree but those are the things rattling around in my noggin too...but that is the nerd in me. Some things pop up and in during the build but if you can create a base of the trickier things like seals, type of pump that will survive, creating/agitating/recycling the slurry, etc. it gives you clue what to look for to do the job. The development of the nozzle is foremost in my book as it will be a key in CFM and the actual mixing of slurry without destroying the nozzle and to the quality of the cleaning/polishing. As for longevity and usage, it's a DIY project from recycled parts not a commercial product so failure rates will be higher. I can live with that and if I only use it once every 6mo. I would definitely clean it up before storing it for next use and seal the pump I/O.

As for Jon's post (good one Jon) the plastic barrel build was quite well done in my book, particularly using a mig tip (which I had seen for something else on YT) and readily available pool pumps for a cheap and cheerful budget. He didn't give much detail to the venturi siphon system for the nozzle but think that is the direction I might pursue where the mixing is done at the outlet or just inboard of the tip...angle of entry will need to be played with I think. His nozzle assy looked a bit clunky and difficult to hold and maneuver but works obviously. Another thing he mentioned on his want list was silicone gloves. I was thinking Milking gloves are heavy enough and long enough to work for quite a while and fairly inexpensive and liquid tight.

One other thing to consider is venting.

Great posting so far, looking forward to your progress. ~PJ

Well I'm glad I'm not the only one with questions! When something strikes my fancy I start looking at what I have and what I'd need. So I can't figure out either until I have some questions settled in my head. Once all those things are lined up then I can start hunting the stuff I don't have and that usually means as I'm doing my craigslist searches I have to add those criteria to my wanderings. Some guys do on the fly builds/experiments or draw things out. I do brain sim's and as I was trying to picture this all these questions came up. Sorry.

No worries. I thought of the same questions.

I actually have a spray gun that I found rather inexpensively that is designed specifically for this purpose.

The pump is a Harbor Freight sump pump, so it's not expensive and I expect to sacrifice it to the project.

I don't have the typical hopper style due to the items I had on hand, so we'll see how well the slurry mixture is agitated in the bottom of the sink. I may need to add a secondary pump of some type for this purpose.

I'm an ADD Architect, so I don't have a specific style to my tinkering. Sometimes I work the problem to death in Autocad and in sketches. Other times, I just start building from what I can see in my mind. All with varied results.

So I now have the door reinforced at the viewport and hinged to the body of the spray booth. It's taking a bit longer than I expected to finish this build. It was freezing the other weekend and I had shoulder surgery this past week. Kind of cuts down on my free time to work on it.Attachment 16133Attachment 16134Attachment 16135Attachment 16136

Yup, that my experience of all my big projects. I get the basic broad strokes done then it's the those details. And they seem to take way longer than the main part. It's cool you have so much stainless to work with. I don't know how I'd get anything done until the shoulder heals up though. Good luck and thanks for posting your progress.

Thanks, C-Bag. I've recovered fairly quickly so far. I had the procedure on the 11th and by the weekend I was riding my motorcycle again. I hope to get more of it done this weekend.

Good luck archimeech, with the project and the healing. My wife had hip surgery recently and I guess joint surgery has came light years. My brother had rotator cuff surgery in the 90's and they literally almost killed him. He's a mess now, while my wife is doing better and better everyday.

I also have to thank you for lighting a fire under me to get my HF bench blast cab out of the shed and get it squared away. I'm not going to be going water blast (yet ) but am going to mod it and still run air.

This whole project reminds me of when I was working for a fruit farm/packer. They had a pull behind spray rig that the pump had been kapoot for years, but the rest of the rig was all stainless. I don't know squat about the engineering of it, but the pump was this rediculous little cast iron thing that they wanted like $3k for and in looking at the specs I didn't see why I couldn't use a similar volume vane pump that was like $150. It also had this rediculous multi belt drive system for the fan which could not be tensioned and I redesigned that too. Nothing fancy and just using plain logic and to the bosses surprise not only did it work good, it put out a finer spray than it had new. Which doesn't surprise me because all this stuff would get wet from the spray and with no tensioners on the fan belts I'm sure they slipped like crazy.

My point being, I think you are on to something and not everything is rocket science even though some companies want you to think so. And sometimes even rocket scientists are over thinking it:)

Thanks for sharing your progress.

Thank you for the kind words. I keep telling my kids, "All we need is 1 simple idea; then we can all retire..."

Good luck with that. I'm lucky that I came up with something and manufacturing it myself is helping me not have to punch a time clock for somebody else. I have no retirement except SSI so I'm grateful for a working retirement, doing what I want. Making a modest living, not a killing.