I am restoring an old 1937 Neptune Gas Pump and had a few parts to sandblast. Sticking to my New Year's resolution, I wasn't going to overspend on an item I didn't see myself using too often. So... I wasn't willing to spend the $130-150 for a sandblast cabinet from Harbor Freight and would have to deal with the fact that I was going to do a bit of sacrificing with my home-built version. After a few internet searches this is what I came up with for $19. ($11 clear container at walmart, $6 gloves at Harbor Freight, and $2 vent/drain plug from Lowe's to prevent over pressure) I also bought a $15 sand blast gun from Harbor Freight, and already had the yellow air hose. Also the glass beads were $8 from Harbor Freight.

The verdict is, that gun sucks. lol It would only last about 20 seconds before all the beads were out, but I was willing to deal with it since I saved over $100. I had to put a seal in the container too since the glass would come out a bit. Also, I attached the gloves with wooden ring circles I cut with a saw. Lowe's had some pvc/medal options in the plumbling department, but they only had one, not two of a certain type I needed. All in all, I got my parts sandblasted, and exactly as I predicted, now it sits, so I don't feel guilty having something I might use in the future. For those of you who would need to sandblast more frequent, this might not be the best option for you.

She's pretty dirty from red paint and rust being sand blasted off my parts.




Once I looked at some of my parts that were rusty, I told myself there's no way I would do 20 second intervals to get them done with the amount that was on the surface. Here's where I tried out electrolysis. $.90 for Baking Soda, 4 or 5 table spoons per 5 gallon bucket. $4.70 for a throw away sheet metal plate from Lowe's. (You may have some rebar or any other metal around the garage which would be free.) Hook the positive to the throw away plate, negative to the part you want the rust to be removed from, and the car charger to keep the current flowing. There are precautions here since Hydrogen is a bi-product so do it where's there no open flame. Also, don't use stainless which gives off a bi-product as well. You can read on-line for a better list of instructions.

After 1 minute, when the bubbles start:

After 15 minutes:

After 4 hours:


Here is a picture of the piece on the left that went through the electrolysis, the right that didn't. That's only after 4 hours. If I left it in longer, or over night, I'm sure she would sparkle.



Well, there it is, my adventure in keeping it cheap and keeping it interesting.

 

loving the poor man's theme, I may try it out on my smaller bits, as far as the electrolysis, you may want to see this guys Poor Man's Ultrasonic Cleaner it's a link to a Microsoft Word document for some reason, but it's safe

http://www.terminus-design.com/freef...poor%20man.doc

 

I want to try the electrolysis on a couple of parts. Great pics and description.

 

FoMoJoe thanks for sharing, I had read about that electolosis but seeing the results have me thinking about doing it to a few of my parts. Do you think it will work in a large tank with the same equipment?

 

Seems easy enough to build but he didn't say what to put in to use as 'Ultrasonic cleaning'? Anyone know off hand or do i need to search? Is this like the tumblers Eastwood sells or do you use liquid for ultrasonic?
http://www.eastwood.com/buffing/vibr.../tumblers.html

so does it use Rust Cutting Media and Dry Shine media or?

I need to do ALL of my bolts/nuts to put my front end back on and wire wheeling them one at a time is getting OLD!

Thanks for posting FOMOJOE, I had forgot about this easy process for my larger parts like bumper brackets, I take it a smaller charger (2amp - all I have at the moment) will just take longer and the piece of blank metal is the sacrificial part is just to get the electrical circuit going.
Jon

 

This process will work in a larger tank as well. Some of the write ups on-line I had read showed the importance of placing your throw away metal in certain areas to keep a consistent current between rusted part and throw away metal. Some put multiple throw away metal parts hooked to the side to give even electrolysis through the water. When doing that, you have to run a wire from one piece of throw away to the other for current purposes. I had rotated some parts around from time to time. I used a 12 amp car charger, which stayed at about 2 amps through out the process.

I also read that when getting rid of the dirty water, it's okay to pour it on the grass and that the soupy brown substance is actually good for the soil. Like fertilizer... Now that was one guys finding because hsi grass grew more in that area where he poured it. I did the same, and it's been a couple weeks with no problem yet. Definetly wear latex gloves and I found it didn't hurt to brush the surface a bit every other hour to help it along.

If wanting to do multiple bolts, create a metal tray to put all the bolts in then hook the negative to the metal tray which will allow the current to flow to the bolts. After you dry everything, you want to immediately prime or oil any metal to prevent further rust.

Make sure you sand down the rust off your part where you hook up the negative clip so that there is a good ground to the part.

 

love the sand blast cabinet im going to try that

question what is the hole on the opposite side of the gloves hole?

 

Harbor Freight is junk. You put your life into the hands of inferior chinese workmanship just to save a few bucks. I wonder what your thought process would be if a hunk of metal from an exploding pressurized Harbor Freight air gun had penetrated your skull? I love the idea, but hate the fact you went with such crap.

 

That should be the pressure vent I think you see - "and $2 vent/drain plug from Lowe's to prevent over pressure"

I almost skipped over that part in the list of pieces too, you need that so the container doesn't overpressurize and blow the lid off or split the box.
Jon

 

Well, seamed like everyone had some positive words until the Jack *** joined the conversation. Seaming how I wrote this for a specific "end-user" called the "poor-man", you can call my ingenuity of the unit and products chosen as "crap" if you like, however it did the job safely that I wanted it to accomplish with out resorting to overpaying for anything that was unnecessary. That was the whole purpose. You can assume I don't put safety first, or maybe you could assume I do and was able to accomplish actually blasting parts in the end for next to nothing. I'm not hitting my mid-life crisis so my attitude is a bit more positive.