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This is my collapsible sand blasting station.
It consists of two sheets of plywood. The first sheet cut in half and then each half hinged to each end of the full piece of plywood. This way you cannot only stand it up, but fold it up and put it away when it's not in use.
In order to keep the dust, sand or whatever media you are using from blowing over the back side, I placed a cloth paint drop cloth over the top and stapled it to each end with a few staples. This helps a great bit and if you are out in the hot Texas sun such as I am, in a crude way, gives you a little shade.
A few other things I have learned about
blasting are... Have a big compressor with a bunch of cfm's or in my case,
I have two 20 gallon compressors pushing 7.0 cfm each. With both
compressors linked together, they have plenty of air and in a way, cheaper
than buying one big one to do the same thing.
With a mask and eye protection... a pain in the butt.
I have a fresh air system for painting but can't see spending that money again for a system that would work the best, so again, I am compromising. Not with my health and safety, but with what I am willing to pay for.
The first time I started blasting, I used a simple little dust mask... Does not work and should not be recommended. The second mask I tried was a cartage filter mask which works great for a little bit. After a hour or so in the dust, the sand that gets along the edges of your mask and next to your face, gets pretty irritating. As for the hoods, they only keep the dust off of you and don't protect your lungs. As for eye protection -- Regardless what I have tried, they all fogged up and got blasted quickly. So why blast something costly.
So
what I use for my mask is nuisance dust mask from Harbor Freight... I know
it is not the best thing for me, but then again I am not using silica sand.
I am also not recommending anyone to use one unless you want to take the
same chances I am. Use your head and do your own research to find out what
is best for you.
As for my eye protection, the best thing I have found is cheap little swim goggles... Yes, swim goggles.
While I was sitting on the couch with my wife watching the Olympics, it hit me.... Why not try some swim goggles...
After a quick trip up to Academy where I found $4.00 swim goggles with the inexpensive foam padding instead of the molded rubber for water protection, I was set. (The foam padding is more forgiving when it comes to rubbing sand into your skin.)
I now keep on hand 5 to 6 pair of goggles. This way, after a few tanks of sand has been used and it is time for a water break, I can put on a clean pair without worry about chewing them up too bad by wiping them clean... That I save for the dishwasher.
This here is a zinc electroplating package I bought from Eastwood. As for recommending it... I wouldn't. It is not worth the money.
This here is an idea I did get from the zinc plating package I did buy... Except I run the batter polarities in the opposite direction. This way instead of adding to the metal, I am taking it away.
This idea came to me when I had a friend
bring to me his air cleaner off of '72 Harley. He wanted to see what it
would look like to powered coat it with a high gloss black powder. The
problem was the chrome was pitted and to sand off all the chrome would take
forever. If we sandblasted it, once we got through the chrome, the aluminum
would get eaten up quickly... So the idea hit me... What if we buy some
battery acid from the parts store for $12.00 for five gallons, would we be
able to reverse electroplate the chrome?
So we tried it and it worked great. And to my dismay, it works pretty good at cleaning up galvanized parts off my truck. "Pretty cool."
Details: Five gallon Home Depot bucket with a lid, an old 12volt battery on a constant battery charger, an old piece of metal stock (angle iron in my case) and some wire. Hook one wire to the part and the positive post on the battery and another wire to the angle iron and the negative post on the battery. Keeping in mind that the wire will get hot and if you rest it against the bucket, it will start to cut into it... Also, be careful with the acid and be smart -- Don't drink it or lock yourself in the room with it. It probably won't taste good and fry a few brain cells if you breathe it for too long.