tools & products for restorations

[Red911]

Hello all,

I don't know about you, but sliding my fingers on sharp steel has resulted in unnecessary cuts.

I use a tool that de-burrs steel that is rough. I purchased this one at Ace Hardware.



Happy restoring, Tom

[JTR70]

Thanks Tom! Great tool to have.

[Jbrooks]

Great to have the forum back. Now to figure out the format
NOW HYDRO-BLASTING Cabinet.

I have foot locker full of cylinder heads I need to clean and rebuild. I tried parts washer but was not p;leased with the outcome. I looked at Hydro Blasting Cabinets but they were too expensive at $3-5K for a small one. So Bob and I made my one from a Hazard and Fraud sand blasting cabinet. It is pretty simple design, you can change out the media in 2-3 minutes and still sand blast in it if you need to. Under $300 complete.



We started with the standard HF $150 blast cabinet. Spent some time on assembly to insure it sealed up well with urethane seam sealer. and NAPA fender welt tar strips. They look like 1/8" licorice strips, used to seal the glass window. I bought the smallest sump pump I could find on EBay. Used a 6 gallon storage tub for water and blast media. I bought a 40 pound of 40 micron glass spheres for media to mix with water, (40 micron glass ball make baby powder look huge). We took a 3/4 brass pipe T with a garden hose to pipe adapter into a reducer to 1/2" hose up to the HF gun. Put a 3/8" pipe in the middle of the T to bypass the gun back into the slurry tank. The bypass stirs up the media into a slurry and sends it to the gun, add air flow and go to work.


The basic cabinet is OK. Lots of modifications from STOCK to make it work properly . We modified the dry media pick up, it will run all day on a box of baking soda, or 2 cups of sand. Will post that separately . To change the media size takes a couple minutes. You need a tank for each size wet media you want to use. You lift out the pump, drain and put it in a new clean tank or bucket of clean water. Turn it on and rinse down the inside of the cabinet collecting the rinse in the old tank. The slide the tank out put in the new size media tank, drop the pump in the new tank and you are off.

I can can not say enough about how well it works. I used 3 gallons of water to 2 quarts of glass spheres at 20 - 60 psi air. When done, you let the spheres settle out of solution , syphon off the dirty water down to the media layer , then let the beads dry out, put the tank up on the shelf. Add Fresh water next time you need it.

The tank on the right is the wet media side of the blast cabinet

[JTR70]

Interesting concept and it does seem to do a really nice job but what are the advantages of this wet system versus dry soda or sand; does it cut quicker? Great job converting that unit BTW. Justin

[Jbrooks]

Interesting concept and it does seem to do a really nice job but what are the advantages of this wet system versus dry soda or sand; does it cut quicker? Great job converting that unit BTW. Justin

Yes is is much faster, that head is 2-3 minutes of cleaning. Going to do some 3rd pieces and cases shortly. The dry blast side does soda but this is 20 times faster and leaves a shinny surface , not the dull cloudy look from sand or soda. all the photos were from just testing it after we put it together. The head came out of a parts cleaner and was Ok but not really that clean. ( it leaves the black anodize on S-90 heads) The tiny glass balls get into every nook and cranny of the material. They are very small and do not have much mass, but really work. The water carries the dirt and stains away and most of the removed contaminates stayed in the water. The head felt slimy after the blast due to the glass balls sticking to the material and they are smaller than tiny. but a good rinse removes them. THe glass balls settle to the bottom of the tank on 10 minutes and leavse a 3/4" layer,. You siphon off the dirty water, and let the dry out for reuse.

I just built it and have not had allot of time to mess with the setup. I have 3 grades of sand. all three work OK but the larger material is a little rough for aluminum. I am still playing around with the pressures and flow rates, but it worked as well as the S5000 commercial machine I looked at. I have a foot pedal for the water side but have not plumbed it in yet. I have 50W LED spot light that I just sit on the window to illuminate the work inside. The HF cabinet is fine, their media pick up lacks allot and is not adjustable, There are several YouTube videos on modifying the cabinets. I recommend cutting down the bottom screen so the internal working volume is greater, Putting a diversion rail on the inner bottom of the door ( it will leak) and get a big work light.

Basically its just a sand blaster with water as a carrier, this media is so small you cant see a single ball. when its running the glass balls are in the solution, looks like milk or slightly muddy water. NO dust but a wiper inside the glass will be nice. Its just a plastic storage box, the smallest sump pump I could find, some plumbing fittings and 1/2 plastic hose. You don't need a bunch of flow or pressure on the water But I am into this for under 300.00, and it works.

John

[Jbrooks]

Hydro blaster dry (SAND) side

The HF cabinet is OK but the media pick up and siphon make it operate like a HF tool. It has no adjustment and varies on the delivery. We tossed it and redesigned a media feed. We removed the lower flapper door and drilled a 1" hole in the door, bolted a 3/4" plumbing floor flange to it . Then a short 3/4 nipple into a 3/4" T, Plugged the bottom and put another short nipple into a 3/4 T. The bottom plug allows you to change out the media, The second T has a 3/8"pipe threaded inside for a 5/6-18 bolt. we cut a 1" long V in the side of the pipe #30 hole at the bottom and 1/4 at the top and milled out between the holes. Unscrewing the bolt reduces the vacuum in the pick up and c=varies the media flow from a stream about the size of a pencil lead to a full hose. The end of the T goes up to the gun



Next we covered the left vent hole with a Hat channel so the exhaust air would have to travel up and hidden from the media stream. We bought a cheap Chinese Cyclone separator hooked it up to a vacuum source ( old carpet cleaner). Bolted a Costco nut can to the separator. I could not believe how this reduced the dust when blasting and the rust dust and paint chips end up in the nut, can not the vacuum.



So the cabinet metal parts are OK , gun is medium , pick up is poor We changed the inlet and outlet air flow, put wheels on it to raise it up to a comfortable working height. Modified the media pick up and put a dust collector. Now it works on a couple cups of sand ( see photo ) or a box of soda, no dust, easy to change media and the wet side is there in storage under the cabinet. The media feed is the big improvement and the $10.00 cyclone dust collector really works, all the junk goes in the nut can.



Note: the white layer in the right tub is the 40 micron glass spheres, they have settled out, the water holds dirt for the Cylinder Head I cleaned..

[JTR70]

Thanks for the info John and really nice job with the conversion.

[Jbrooks]

Couple more hydro blaster photos. Started a set of old mag wheels. They were pretty ugly. Came out fine, I will clear power coat it and see what it looks like. First photo is before and after. Second is the wet side, media is in the bottom after drying out since last use. third is the solution of water and media. The circulation of the tank is shown . The down pipe does a very good job of keeping the glass spheres in solution. When the water got dirty, I just shut down for 5 minutes, let the balls fall out of soultion, siphon off the water and re fill with fresh water.

The dry media feed is on the lower right of the plastic tub, photo 2. You remove it entirely, slip on a farmers rubber boot cuff on the discharge outlet into the tub. I am going to add a 1/4" rinse hose and nozzle inside the cabinet that hooks up to a gardern hose. That way I can rinse the parts after blasting.
.



Took about 30 minutes to do one wheel. The pits and surface corrosion gone, was pretty ruff, but it all blew off. This seems to be pretty good on aluminum. I have done the lug nuts and washers, knocks off the rust and oxide stains, did not effect the chrome. I think this is a good investment for a home shop. It was 10% the cost of a vapor-blaster. The finish is amazing, I will powder right over the blasted surface with no more polishing .

[JTR70]

That really did a fantastic job of resurfacing those old Mags.

[Jbrooks]

Started a new project, a larger powder coating oven. I have a couple wall kitchen ovens in the shop. They will do a wheel, but as I get more larger things to coat. The set of mags turned out OK with a clear coat but my oven was just a little tight for a wide wheel. I have a bunch of fan shrouds and engine tin to do and I would like to do 4 wheels as a set in the future, So we are off.

I need to increase the oven volume. So Bob and I are off on another construction adventure. The inside is 48 X 35 X 60. Scratch made except for the heaters and controllers.

3" of Rock wool insulation and more sheet metal for the outer skin. not all that heavy so far and it will fit in my El Camino,

We will use PID controllers to operate solid state relays, to control some big relay contractors to the heater elements. Mocked up one loop and it will hold to 1 Deg C. Will have several controllers so and can operate the heaters in pairs. Selective logic for the controllers will allow us to hold the heat very even inside and switch which elements are on depending on the thermal load required. Using a combination of Type K thermocouples and RTD's to monitor the temperatures. It sounds complicated but its really not.

Liner together and squared up. Buck worked well to clamp the sheet metal to. Once its is square the spot welded together, zillions of spot welds. we left a 1/32 all the way around to slide it into the front frame. That went so well I could not believe it. Only had to relieve the front corners where the doors close and it fist like a glove. Once the liner was fitted and trued up it was spotted to the front frame, the rest of the liner floats inside to allow for expansion when hot.



Interior is 18GA spot welded to an L bracket. Came out pretty nice but there is enough spot welds to put in several 356 floors. The panel spotter workes great for this. the tips did heat up t over 100C after about 100 spots, but this is so much faster than plug welds, i am looking forward to the next floor and longitudinals

[JTR70]

Very Cool! Personal use or will you be offering your services? Can't wait to see the finished oven.
Justin

[badsix]

cool project, I've started and stopped on mine several times this might give me some motivation. what are you going to use for heating elements? I have planed to build mine at apr. 30" x30" x 72" high. I also wanted to use a separator so I could just heat up a 30x 30 x 30 space on the upper half of the oven. this way I could do a few small parts without having to heat the all of the oven. spot welder looks like the same old lenco I have.
Jay D.

[Jbrooks]

JR. I plan to use it the shop, if you need something coated let me know. It's mostly for me and the local club members. Doing stuff that's larger or multiple items like a set of wheels at once.

Badsix. Yes that's and old Lenco. I am using electric oven elements. The bigger the better on ovens. I already have a pair of wall ovens, but I can get a Hood in this one. There is 8 total in the enclosure. But they run in pairs. I bought some PID controllers off EBay. If you try them there are two kinds. One use Solid State Relays (SSR), the other is regular relays. They also come in deg. C or both C & F. They are programmable and very accurate holding a stable temp. They also come 115 and 220V. I chose 220v SSRs version of the PID from MYPIN, The PID controller and SSR heat sink and TC was about 25.00 per set. . I was going to run the heater elements with the SSR, but decided to use big contractor relays switched by the SSRs. They use Type-K thermouples I have 5 mounted in the oven. If you go to UTube ans search "PID programing" there is a few dozen videos on the controllers.

I will use a timer and manual switches to turn off and on the PID controllers output. . I plan to put a toggle switch between the SSRs and the PID output. All the PIDs will be on and a timer or switch will arm the SSR, it will close the relay contacts turning on the heating elements. The mock up worked well we ill see when I get this all wired. Each of the PIDs will monitor a separate TCs located in the box. There are three at the top and one mid and another low in the oven. This will give me an idea of the temperatures inside top to bottom and left to right. I hope this will allow me to move around the heater power to make the internal temp equal.



Today was fitting the doors and trying to figure out how to incorporate an glass window in to one oven door. But it came together and is with 1/32' true plumb and square. Ran out of angle iron, so it will be next week before I get back to this. But its a process, NOT as much fun as fixing a 356

Here is a link to a typical controller, ( Deg C) they are cheap, but they do work
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fro...D+SSR&_sacat=0

[JTR70]

Thanks for the offer John! I'll keep you in mind. Thanks for sharing this build BTW...interested to see how it performs for you.

Justin

[Jbrooks]

Got both doors fabricated today, now for the wiring. Doors are 3" of insulation cover with 18 Ga. the window is a commercial oven door fitted inside, this worked well. Back up on the wheels now so I can move it around easily


. The doors are hinged with welded pins so the can be removed easily by just lifting straight up.



Lots of spot welds, but faster than rivets. The larger door outer skin is on with screws so I can access the oven glass if it ever fails. Spent a lot of design thinking how to separate the inner liner from the frame and outer skin. The liner is only touching the frame around the doors, the rest sits on 3" of RockWool (mineral wool) insulation. This will allow minimum thermal transfer to the outer skins. After the insulation batt is installed, power wiring to the heaters. I will wrap the entire package with Orcon "Kapton Film" as an outer moisture barrier. the put another layer of sheet metal.

[Jbrooks]

Couple photos that exceeded the 5 per post Doors on, back on wheels

Doors on, static balanced

[JTR70]

Looking great John! I realize its still a box but a lot of fab time in this. Nice work!

[badsix]

thanks for the reply, its a cool project. I'm following you closely. I want to finally start on mine this fall.
Jay D.

[roy mawbey]

Thats a very nice looking bit of kit there and will be so useful.

Roy

[Jbrooks]

Started insulation and instrumentation today. Lit off one element and took the oven to 100C in about 15 minutes. Slapped together a quick PID, SSR TypeK TC and volt meter. Used another PID with a RTD to double check the internal temp.


Bad six. Here is the kluge to test the system. PID has the red numbers, SSR is white in the center with the red light. Uses a type K TC to feed the PID. That modulates the heater element via the SSR. The PID has about 40 programmable functions. This is a little confusing but after a few attempts its gets easier. It accepts all thermal couples as well and voltages ad current inputs. All are selectable with programing. I also got a Volt meter and a CT amp gauge. But this in the CT is not working. In the final install I will be able to see the line voltage and how many AMPs the oven is drawing.


Another PID monitoring the temp, closeup. green is target temp, red is current temp. These have about 40 parameters you can set, High temp alarms, decimal points, and an auto tune function. when they get close to the set value the on and off signals start to modulate the set temperature value SV and measured temperature PV. This can be set to a band and max and Min temps can be programed. . It also has a Cold junction built in so you can all be calibrate the inputs. If you have two TC with a different reading you can adjust a +- value to the inaccurate TC. this way you can ICE down the TC and Set the ZERO and then dip them in boiling water to verify the scaling.. The SSR with vary the current based on the spread between SV and PV .




The oven will have four PID controllers, each will control 2 elements. I put a switch between the PID and solid state relay (SSR) so I can manually turn them on and off to control the electrical load. The plan is to set all 4 PIDs to the same set value (SV). Then switch them on and off based on the thermals inside the box. I was pleasantly surprised with how fast it heats up. Final configuration will have a ring thermonuclear that will measure the component temperature when powder coating. I can attach it with a magnet, I believe this will insure the cure time after the wheel heats up.

[Jbrooks]

Started building up the control panel, but a clutch change and a quick muffler repair for a friend got in the way . But it's for a tub, it needs to be on the road, not sideline for a clutch.

[JTR70]

Nice looking T6 coupe!

[Jbrooks]

Started building up the control panel, the PIDs are in the center. each will control a pair of heating coils. The switches will turn on and off the heaters manually. The timer is in the upper right. Volt and AMP meter will go on the lower left to monitor input power. The row of red lights will let me know which heaters are on. It gets three or four more light for over - under temp alarms and a couple more switched to control the instrumentation power. The project progresses.

[JTR70]

Coming along nicely John! Looking a lot like the dash of a certain DeLorean from the year 1985. Great project.