# Best Homemade Tools >  diy home made vapour blast wet blast cabinet

## Mrjoshovhull

sorry for the delay and lack of info , thanks for all the replys , 
i built this blast cabinet for home restoration of parts off motorcycles and cars , since then i have purchased a second hand but verry good vapour blasting machine to use for buisnes use , check out parts i have blasted :facebook vapour blast hull:, i still use the one i built at a friends workshop and he uses it every week most days and its still running as good as ever, i will post a new write up and step by step build soon of a new but smaller wet blast cabinet im building for another friends garage at home, this cabinet was built using only cheap osb board then fibre glassed for a solid and water proof finish , at first it was just a project to see if it was possible for it to work with good results , and it did, the key to making this cabinet work so well is to get the right amount of media /water/air all mixed correctly, the media and water needs mixing in the hopper and agitating evenly to work well. i use the 1000ltr a min pump split into 2 pipes , one pipe to the gun and one back into the hopper to mix the slurry, it took me a while to dial in the best way to get things mixing well. trial and error, i use a supper fine glass bead media and i purchase it from a uk shop called machine mart, unsure of the mesh but its the only size they sell. typicaly the media will only last around 10 hours before the parts that are being blasted start becoming duller , i then change out the media and replace it, i dry out the old glass beads and reuse them in the dry blast cabinet , so i get good use out of them, as for dust , there is 0 dust as the water containes and particals, just above the water line i have an outlet tube what runs to a settling tank, any particals of used bead or dirts from parts usualy floats to the top, so as im using the rinse hose the water level rises and excess water flows out through the outlet and into the settle tank, an easy was to flush out dirt and muck and helps keep the water inside verry clean, i offten run the pump and leave the rinse gun on for around half an hour to clean out any crud and clean the water , water leaves the settle tank and down the drain with 0 partics exiting into the drain, the settle tank has baffles in between to catch any crap from escaping.. the compressor i ran was 28cfm , you need allot of air , i also used a windscreen motor and wiper from a car to keep the window clean, also works well, any more info just drop me a message 3 blast vids also at youtube Mrjoshovhull

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bigtrev8xl (Mar 27, 2017),

chy_farm (Apr 6, 2018),

Jon (Mar 23, 2017),

JRock (May 16, 2018),

kpetkoff (Feb 12, 2022),

Moby Duck (Mar 31, 2017),

mwmkravchenko (Nov 9, 2022),

Paul Jones (Mar 27, 2017),

Rangi (Feb 12, 2020),

Seedtick (Mar 28, 2017),

thoms_here (Nov 19, 2017),

VegeKev (Mar 27, 2017),

Vyacheslav.Nevolya (Mar 31, 2017),

yvonf (Nov 9, 2022)

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## Jon

Hi Mrjoshovhull - welcome to HomemadeTools.net  :Welcome: 

Great first post! We'll get your build indexed and added to the encyclopedia, credited to your name. Can you give us more details on the build process?

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big o (Jan 13, 2019),

Mrjoshovhull (Jan 9, 2018)

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## DIYer

Thanks Mrjoshovhull! We've added your Vapor Blasting Cabinet to our Cleaning category,
as well as to your builder page: Mrjoshovhull's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:















Vapor Blasting Cabinet
 by Mrjoshovhull

tags:
vapor blaster

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## tonyfoale

There are many types of feed system used with vapour blast systems, including pressure fed, pump fed and others.
It looks like yours is like a wet version of the normal suction type dry blasters. Is my interpretation correct?
That would mean that you pre-mix the abrasive and water slurry, what proportions have you found to work best? What blast media do you use, glass beads or something more aggressive?
Do you do anything with the used slurry to separate out the dust from still usable media?
I guess that you don't need an extractor system but does the slurry tend to find its way out anywhere?
I have been thinking of modifying my dry cabinet to a wet one, which explains my interest in yours.

What is the dirt bike in the back ground of one of the pix.?

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Mrjoshovhull (Jan 9, 2018)

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## skypilot

The results look fantastic. I have been contemplating building a vapor blaster as well. I hadn't thought about the wood and fiberglass approach. I have a plywood dry blast cabinet that I built about 15 years ago and it's held up fine.

Steve

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Mrjoshovhull (Jan 9, 2018)

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## connan

Very nice job.Would you tell us something more about it.

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Mrjoshovhull (Jan 9, 2018)

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## C-Bag

> There are many types of feed system used with vapour blast systems, including pressure fed, pump fed and others.
> It looks like yours is like a wet version of the normal suction type dry blasters. Is my interpretation correct?
> That would mean that you pre-mix the abrasive and water slurry, what proportions have you found to work best? What blast media do you use, glass beads or something more aggressive?
> Do you do anything with the used slurry to separate out the dust from still usable media?
> I guess that you don't need an extractor system but does the slurry tend to find its way out anywhere?
> I have been thinking of modifying my dry cabinet to a wet one, which explains my interest in yours.
> 
> What is the dirt bike in the back ground of one of the pix.?



Yup, I'm with Tony. The pics are great but while it all makes sense to the OP, there are a ton of questions on the details. A while back a member took a run at building a wet blast cab and while he got the cab done, he had surgery and hasn't posted any progress about details of how to make it work since.

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Mrjoshovhull (Jan 9, 2018)

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## Moby Duck

Got interested after reading this and went looking. Here is a link to another DIY one that looks good and simple to me.

http://www.triumphrat.net/members-re...ml#post2382349

He mentions that the drums tend to sag because the walls are fairly thin. In NZ we import sausage skins from the USA (Hog Casings) in barrels with thick walls and solid screw on lids that may be better. Pick them up for around NZD30 each locally. They only use them once.

I have seen some Baking Soda blasting done to remove rust from the upper deck of a ship. It worked well but the baking soda got literally every where, inside watertight light switches etc etc., and they never used it again. 
I also saw Dry Ice blasting used to clean ships main generators that were heavily coated internally with oil, mixed with carbon dust etc. The contractors arrived with a large ice chest full of dry ice and blasted all of the grime out in situ. The oil and grime just "disappeared" or vapourised and the contractors said that it was removed by the ships normal ventilation system. Everything was left clean, no damage to varnish or insulation and was electrically O.K. on completion. No problems with CO2 settling in bilges either. I wish that I had watched the process closer to see how the applicator machine worked. It certainly worked very well and was gentle on the parts.

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## tonyfoale

> I have seen some Baking Soda blasting done to remove rust from the upper deck of a ship. It worked well but the baking soda got literally every where, inside watertight light switches etc etc., and they never used it again.



I have used Baking Soda for delicate parts and those with small passages because you can wash an wayward media with water afterwards. I am very surprised that it was chosen to remove rust from a deck. It certainly does get everywhere. Generally I use glass beads.

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olderdan (Mar 29, 2017)

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## Moby Duck

> I have used Baking Soda for delicate parts and those with small passages because you can wash an wayward media with water afterwards. I am very surprised that it was chosen to remove rust from a deck. It certainly does get everywhere. Generally I use glass beads.



The Baking Soda was not actually used on the deck. It was used on the underside of the catwalks and on deck machinery and pipes fitted on a tanker. There were many small hydraulic control lines, valves, winches, junction boxes etc that needed the Baking Soda blast to minimise damage. The deck itself was UHP Water Blasted to SA 2.5 standard. That's at 50,000 psi to 55,000 psi and it gets it really clean. It would destroy most bike bits though.

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## Jon

Congratulations Mrjoshovhull - your Vapor Blaster is the Homemade Tool of the Week!

We had a strong week here with homemade tools, but you won this one by building a rare tool. There still aren't many homemade vapor blaster builds on the net. That will change (years ago, there were few table saw sled builds on the net!), and it will be because of the handful of early builds.

As is internet tradition, later builders will heavily rely on these early builds for ideas, while of course simultaneously criticizing them. I can see this build on YouTube and Facebook; feel free to post some more build details here, and we'll accelerate that process.  :Smile: 

Excellent week. Some nice picks: a Lathe Keyway Cutter by Vyacheslav.Nevolya, a 4 Bolt Compound Clamp by LMMasterMariner, a Poor Man's Lathe DRO by bobs409, a Steady Rest Modification by Christophe Mineau, and a Small Mandrel by astroracer. There were also two good mill table LED light builds: a Mill Light by Ralphxyz and a Mill Light by Christophe Mineau. Plus a hat tip to Woodgeezr for his digital caliper silver oxide battery suggestion, that, while technically not a tool, received a mountain of Thanks votes.

Mrjoshovhull - you'll be receiving one of our official HomemadeTools.net T-shirts:


Please PM me a mailing address, black/white color choice, and size preference, and I'll get it mailed out shortly.

And, we've added the wrench-on-pedestal award to the awards showcase in your postbit, visible beneath your username:




Congrats again and nice job!  :Thumbs Up:

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## tonyfoale

This morning I was driving down the road when I spotted a large fibre-glass sand filter tank for a swimming pool left next to a roadside rubbish bin. Instead of seeing it for what it was I only saw it for what it could be - a wet blaster cabinet. Once I got it home, and safely hidden from "her indoors", I had a closer look and realised that it is ideally suited to the job and will have no corrosion problems which I would have had if I tried it with my existing dry blast cabinet.
I expect that it'll form the subject of a post here when I get around to doing it, but before I get to that I have some engines and bikes to build.

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## Mrjoshovhull

thanks allot . i have updated the post

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## Mrjoshovhull

> Hi Mrjoshovhull - welcome to HomemadeTools.net 
> 
> Great first post! We'll get your build indexed and added to the encyclopedia, credited to your name. Can you give us more details on the build process?



 cheers jon , i have updated the description

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