my next project just happens to be a sand blaster, any chance of flicking some ideas over this way m8?
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Yeah, buy a good one.
I used an old kitchen sink, built a ply box around it used a perspex lid and bought a cheap blasting gun. Cut holes in for may hands and used car inner tube with X's cut into them over the holes. But you could staple some long industrial rubber gloves in there. I let the sand run out the bottom of the sink into a bucket that I had the sandblaster hose in. It worked okay for bit's and pieces, then I upgraded to a bench top unit. Then one birthday I bought myself a freestanding one with built in vacuum.
I'm bad with timber. I've scavenged a fair bit of hardwood over the years and like the steel, I will spend all day trying to find an off cut somewhere because I don't want to cut a piece off a full length. The irony is I have all this timber I've hoarded that will probably never get used. It's always "Oh, I'll save that for something better." I've even gone and bought cheaper timber so not to use the good stuff. You can only laugh at yourself.