The never-ending saga that is owning a sandblaster…
I had been playing with the air intake of the unit for the last week or so, as I’d noticed that the vacuum wasn’t ‘sucking’ right. I have tried to clear out the dust collectors before, but it had never actually released any material. Funny.
Turns out to release a torrent of dust, I had to unclog the vacuum evacuation downpipe. Using the end of a mini wooden spoon, after judiciously deciding that putting my fingers up the spout could be a recipe for disaster, or at least spiders, I cleared a plug of fairly pristine looking sand/grit that was set into the tube.
A binful (you’ll find that a handy unit of measure, though I might have to give it up myself once I hit Seattle… trash-can-full is not quite the same) of greyish dust poured forth, once I had done a little percussive maintenance (shaking the whole machine and hitting the side of the vacuum disposal chute with a mallet). It was closely followed by plumes of the stuff wafting towards me. I remembered to put on the mask, just after after I started, but before the great grey floaty plumes. That’s the point where I reached for my protective glasses.
Barring replacing complex parts, I think my sandblaster has given over its final maintenance secret… Til I find a new problem, I guess