I took a large old propane tank I got at the junk yard for 5 bucks and, after filling it with water to be safe, modified it with the torch to meet my needs. Then I rummaged around in my shop for ells, tees, valves, hoses and gauges to plumb it up into a functional sandblaster. The great thing was that all the parts I needed were right there under my shop roof. It's not the money I saved doing that, it's that it vindicates me from all the "pack rat" accusations I endure over the years! Check out the cool cart Imounted it on so that I can roll it to the work site http://seamule.blogspot.com/2009/03/de-cart-gets-its-bearings.html
Yesterday I hooked it up to my air compressor, a 100 cfm brute mounted on a trailer. I trust my welding skills, but I gotta admit that, when I powered it up for the first time, I hid behind the air compressor. Hey, 120 lbs of air pressure in an old tank just makes me a bit nervous. It held air fine, but one hose section blew, which really was my fault as I had used heater hose. I changed that over to some very stout stuff and now it works fine.
Well, to be accurate, it holds air fine. I gotta go get some sacks of sandblasting sand--I'm thinking 30 grit masonry sand--and then we'll really see how it performs.
Once I have it working well, it's time to start stripping paint and rust off the boat hull.
