Ready for a long, twisted story? One containing some slightly incriminating info about me? Its kind of a when life gives you lemons, make lemonade story.
Several weeks ago, when it was nice and cold here in Northern California, I was painting the Patrol's front hubs. But to make sure they look halfway decent despite the cold weather, I warmed the paint and the part in the oven. Yea, I know, I know, not a good idea, but it's one that I've done dozens of times in the past. You see, our oven would happily run at just 100 degrees... less that what our summer sun provides!
On this particular day, I put the parts and paint inside, set it to 100 and got back to work (I work from home most days). The plan was to pull them out at lunch and get a couple coats of paint on them... See! Nothing surprising for a Patrol owner to do! Who's with me on this?
However, this was an at-home day for my teenage son... Yea, the one that eats twice his body weight daily. He decided to cook a pizza in the same oven. He simply dialed in 425 degrees to let the oven pre-heat -- then wandered off -- Never noticing that the oven was on and that there was some stuff -- weird stuff at that -- already in the oven!
I'm guessing that somewhere around 250 or 300 degrees the pressure in that paint can just was too much and...
BOOM! Luckily, it exploded sideways -- it put a huge dent in the side of the oven. The door flung open, then immediately slammed shut from the pressure wave. But, it was open long enough to allow the aerosolized and warm paint to spray all around the kitchen... Doh!
(But, I do have an awesome wife!)
Check out the paint-can-shaped dent in the side!
We got most of the paint cleaned up -- the hardwood floor has some black speckles... but we were already talking about when we'd need to refinish it. That oopsie made the decision for us -- summer project!
Luckily, it's a double oven -- both ovens actually work fine, but the upper oven emits a distinct paint smell, so we've only been using the lower oven while shopping for a replacement. Last weekend, I found one! 5 years old, high end model, in mint condition, and inexpensive! Jay and I darted out and grabbed it --Within 2 hours of it arriving, that new oven makes our kitchen look fantastic!
So, when one has a spare, working oven, what does one do?
They order an Eastwood Dual Voltage Powder Coat gun of course! (and some powder coat powder and accessories) It's scheduled to arrive on Monday!
Today is Saturday -- Since I can't powder coat yet and now there is no reason to paint
, I decided to upgrade my Harbor Freight Sand Blaster! There are dozens of videos from folks who have done the upgrade.
Here are the improvements I did:
Replaced the glass. One sheet of 1/8" with a sheet of 1/4" double-strength on top. The 1/8" is really a consumable. The top was also sagging a little, so I cut out a piece of 16-guage steel to double up & reinforce the top layer and attached it.
Dang, it's dusty already! (but only dusty, not scratched!)
Ditched the in-cabinet siphon tube and moved it to the hopper drain. Created an air-sand manifold with adjustable airflow. Another benefit is that it requires far less sand in the hopper to function well!
Moved the air inlet tube and place the sand-tube on the non-door side of the cabinet
Put a piece of sheet metal on the door to keep sand out of those little pockets (you know the ones!
They dump a ton of sand whenever you open the door!
Made a frame and put the blaster on casters -
I mean, who doesn't want to sandblast on the move!?
OH MY! IT WORKS SO, SO MUCH BETTER!
Admittedly my air compressor is way undersized, but even as the pressure drops it continues to work AND I don't have to futz with that stupid sand pickup tube! Today -- The air compressor cuts-out at about 140 psi, but I have the air compressor regulator set to 100psi. Blasting is really aggressive and will take off paint and hard-to-remove stuff well when it's above 90-ish. As it passes around 80psi, it seems to move more sand -- really, a higher volume sand flow (weird, but that's what it's doing!). At this pressure, it clears the metal quickly and thoroughly (but not the hard to get stuff). It seems to continue to work down to 60-ish psi, then kinda putzes along kinda working, but not super well. I mean, it just doesn't clean the metal well. The sand feed is still better than the original system. My compressor will keep it between 45 and 50 psi indefinitely, so I have to stop after a 5-ish minutes and let it rebuild pressure.
The one with paint remaining only saw the pressure at starting at 75-ish psi -- then I ran out of time to finish -- tomorrow it will finish being prepped for powder coating!
I also want to make a few more mods to the sandblaster as well in the near future...
- There are some gun mods that will increase the sand consistency without increasing the airflow
- Adding a screen at the bottom to filter the crud out of the sand before it enters the mixing manifold
- Adding a catch below the air inlet -- if you burp the line (blocking the air-sand nozzle to cause the sand tube to back-flush), it spritzes sand onto the floor.
- Put plywood in the rolling frame to create a storage shelf
- The new hoses are quite stiff. I'm wondering if smaller, more flexible lines would hurt the flow too much... I may do some "research" on that!
- Lastly, and, perhaps, most importantly, I'm already shopping for a larger air compressor!
Have a great Sunday!
j
