DIY Sandblaster Experiment

Thought I'd have a go at making a small, DIY sandblaster from a plastic bottle and an air blow gun.

The bottle needed a large screw top, so I got some Innocent apple juice from Tesco for £4.10, which went on the shopping budget. More than I usually pay, but the plastic cap was perfect. I had previously rummaged through the neighbourhood plastic recycling, which is all put outside our house for ease of access for the recycling waggon, but there was nothing suitable (I usually have a good rummage and it's surprising what people throw away - I've liberated a lot of useful glassware and plastic from the recycling).

I also bought some 2 pack, epoxy putty from B&Q for £7.28 with which to affix the blow gun (which I already had) to the plastic screw cap. I could have used car bodyfiller, but it's not quite the right consistency and is a bit too loose.

I cut a small, finger-width channel into the long nozzle of the blow gun to create a hole through which the sand in the bottle could flow and sealed it to the plastic cap, into which I'd drilled a corresponding hole. I also screwed a couple of screws into the cap to create a key for the epoxy putty.

As you can see from the piece of metal at the top, and the exposed metal on the GT6 bonnet by the scuttle louvres, it's great at removing surface rust from bare metal. However, I tried to remove some of the car paint - and it was next to useless - it cleaned the paint, rather than removing it en masse.

Here's a short video of the result.

So, great for small, fiddly bits of metal, like manifolds or linkages, where the large sandblaster would be overkill, but pretty much useless for everything else. 

Here's a photo of the carbs and inlet manifold, which I gave a short, one minute blast. 

Great where you need fine control and it doesn't send heaps of sand into the air, although a sandblasting cabinet would improve it and enable recycling of the sand.

The concept is sound, but I need to give more consideration to the stability of the bottle of sand and its adhesion to the smooth nozzle of the blow gun, as it's heavy and falls to one side of the gun if you don't hold it upright.

I have two Lidl, hand-held sandblasters, but neither of them work - no blasting media comes out of the nozzles.