Building a DIY vapor blaster THAT WORKS

In this video I present you the DYI vapor blaster I built. I bought a regular sand blasting cabinet and converted it to a vapor blaster to clean engine parts etc.

And it seems to work very well.

I use glass beads as blasting media. I am still experimenting with air pressure and glass beads ratio to have the best finish.

chapters:

0:00 - setup presentation
2:54 - removing valve cover for testing
3:42 - vapor blasting
6:42 - amazing results

I will use this machine on future restoration projects so subscribe if you don't want to miss that.

Leave your questions or remarks in the comments below I will be happy to answer them.

Thanks for watching!

[hennybutabi]

I am very happy with the results. Let me know what you think in the comments below!

[TAShannon]

Thank you so much for sharing. This vid contributed to my motivation/inspiration to build my own. I just got it up and running 2 days ago and have since been working out kinks...

I used:
- Harbor Freight cabinet
- cheap 3d printed nozzle
- 1 tube of silicone
- a cheap pressure regulator
- 5/8 water hose
- 3/8 air hose
- LED waterproof boat lights
- 5 gallon bucket
- 1/8 hp Submersible pump that I already had collecting dust
- 80grit glass bead from Harbor Freight

I spent $484 on the setup

My nozzle is supposed to be a 10CFM nozzle however it is at a stalemate with my air compressor. My compressor is a 20CFM compressor at 60psi.

I have a splitter on my water hose with one hose dedicated to coagulation of the sand and the other hose running to the nozzle. Because of the way it is set up I would say that 30% of the pumped volume makes it to the nozzle the other 70% is applied to coagulation.

In the bucket my mixture is 75% sand 25% water. At the nozzle it is reversed. It comes out to 25% sand 75% water. I run it at 60psi

All in all I am EXTREMELY impressed by the unit. Before building it I had a very high expectation for the level of productivity to begin with. With that being said, the machine surpassed my expectations. It is seriously about 2-3 times as fast as I thought it would be.

I have a small business where I build/rebuild powertrains for Cummins engines. I build/rebuild specific manual transmissions, light-medium duty Cummins engines, fuel injectors and turbos. This vapor blaster is now my number one tool in my inventory. It is absolutely invaluable. When we pull these diesel pistons they are totally covered in carbon/spent diesel particulate. It takes 2-3 hours to clean a set of 6 Cummins pistons by hand and you can't even get them that clean. With the vapor blaster it takes less than 10 minutes and get's them literally perfectly clean. It takes them back to brand new it is just incredible.

All in all for a Long Block that I sell we have 6 pistons, aluminum rear main housing, and the front aluminum gear housing that we have to clean for each engine. The total cleaning time is about 4-5 hours in total and like I said it doesn't even get that clean. now total cleaning time is about 15-20 minutes for everything and brand new looking.

Phenomenal investment

[gascho]

You just gave me some ideas. I'm sick and tired of the dust in my blasting cabinet. Thank you a lot for this great video.👍‍‍👍‍‍👍‍‍

[pecilijevelicanstveni]

Perfect idea! To always have clear view of what you are doing, put the car windshield viper with some clear water to spray to the viper and to the glass to clean them. Sorry, English is not my native language but I think that you understand what is the idea 🙂

[RoMiguens]

Very nice machine, with awesome cleaning, and washing solution, but how do we build it? 😀 it is a diy yes?

[jamesbarr]

I have stripped out the stainless steel box from a dishwasher which I will convert ta a blast cabinet

[AaronWalker-nh]

Bypass the float switch…. Easy as a couple of crimps to make circuit continuous 👍

[smoointhesnoo]

Super idea as always!! I was wondering, why are there 2 gloves lying around in the box 😆😆

[bartmaenhoudt]

perfect video, thanks ; is an normal flood pump ok, or do you need something 'special' to feed the agressive medium ?

[bobbys]

what media and grit size are you using for the polished look

[darranmorrison]

What media did you use in this media.. have you found better since.. thanks

[barnycanuck]

Looks good. I guess the one question I have is does the cabinet rust very quickly on the inside?

[Akya]

Does your printed splitting valve use the Venturi effect to pick up the glass beads on the bottom of the tank? It was unclear to me.

[motorsonny]

What kind of pump is that exactly can you link it perhaps and what was the total cost of this DIY setup ?

[HAMILTONBG]

It might help it's a video showed how he did it

[kevinlewis]

From the video I watched you do most of the work with soap and water and then air blow it dry with the straight air and then put it in a fine glass dry blast at about 90 psi for most of the work, and then use the same fine glass in water at about 27 psi just to polish it to give it the like new shine. Im not trying to correct what you have shown, just suggesting how you might perfect your process to make it come out closer to perfect.

[andha]

Is it only powered by the pump? No air compressor as in regular blasters?

[Mrusdad]

What type and size compressor did you use?

[polirpm]

Hello friend, Cordial greetings, what is the abrasive you use??
❤

[cyrielgaemers]

Amazing can you help me building one machine like this?