DIY vapor blasting cabinet

[Colin Aitchison]

Some time ago Garry and myself decided to have a go at a DIY vapor blasting cabinet, after watching many YouTube videos about cabinet size, gun type and glass bead size, budget for this project was set at £200 as Garry purchased second hand cabinet for £100, my task was to purchased the other bits and bobs including a cheap dirty water sump pump, this where as you can imagine, the problems started, at first the principal of the cabinet worked, but not very well, the cheap gun you can purchase from Ebay, needed a longer barrel and reducement in bore diameter, I have a friend with a lath and alloy barrel was soon made, this did help, but trying to find the sweet spot for all the variables in the gun with air supply, water flow rate and amount of glass bead in the mix took some time, lets not talk about seeing in the cabinet when using it, as ours still needs an internal wiper, also need to be used outside because it leaks, both of these point are for the future as we need to make it work first, if you are not aware the main thing to clean in a vapor blasting cabinet is alloy, small bits are best like warm up regulators, thermostat housings and engine mount arms, I have done a 4 cylinder inlet manifold and cylinder head, both clean very well, I removed a 5 cylinder oil pump from a scrap engine, internals looked ok but externally dose need a clean, see photo below.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RiU...ew?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KCK...ew?usp=sharing

As you can see the external of the oil pump is in need of a super deep clean, internals are Ok for a 40 year old pump, but a wee clean will not do it any harm.
Next photos are of 2 hours work in four 30 minute stints.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MpO...ew?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mx9...ew?usp=sharing

Now I picked this cleaning project because I knew how hard it would be to clean an oil pump with all its crooks and carnies, the cleaning flow works best with direct cleaning jet against the dirty area at 90 degrees, indents and holes with webbing are harder to clean due to the angle you are working, Yes the oil pump is not super clean, could be like my school report card "could do better" I would think I have removed 99.9% of the dirt.
Internal phot of pump below.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1H3V...ew?usp=sharing

I will upload other photos of other parts as I have them.
The budget of £200 ended up at around £250 and two wet feet every time you used the cabinet, but the wet feet were free.