purchases

 So yeah, as I hinted at in a recent post, I will soon take possession of a couple of new, and long-awaited, tools for the shop.

 Tool Numero Uno is a blasting cabinet, designed to contain the mess created by what was once (and still is, among filthy casuals) called generically sand-blasting and is now more properly known as 'abrasive blasting'.  And to be sure, sand certainly was used for this operation for a long time... until we found out that silica dust - which is what sand disintegrates into when you shatter it - causes cancer.

 Today, a wide variety of different blasting media are used instead; each having different useful properties and applications, ranging from aluminum oxide (very common), glass beads (also common), hardened steel shot (for shot-peening), crushed glass, crushed walnut hulls, and more.

 I will use this primarily for removing mill scale from pieces which will be painted or which need a fine finsih, as well as removing rust from cheap surplus-yard steel stock; which comes in two flavors, usually: "surplus" (left out in the weather, and therefore rusty AF) and "new" (market prices, mate).

 Tool The Second is a "3-in-1" sheet metal machine.  These 'compromise' sheet metal working machines have all the necessary bits in one item to perform three different sheet metal working operations: shearing, bending, and rolling.  Without such a compromise machine, one would need to buy three different machines, and in a professional setting, you would.  I have neither the floor space nor the money.

 So this combination "slip roll", "shear", and "brake", weighing three-hundred and thirty-seven pounds stark raving naked, will arrive on a truck in two weeks - probably on a custom skid, possibly, and hopefully not, on a generic pallet, but who knows, this is chinesium alloy stuff coming from a well-known importer and they don't observe the tender niceties.  But hey, at least I can get service and parts for this brand.

 The blasting cabinet has turned into a hassle before it has even arrived.  So, first off, the plan I am following is all over YouTube, many others have done the same, this is sorta "Standard Practice" among most garage-level bodgers, to wit: it is cheaper to buy one of these chinesium cabinets, AND all the parts needed to make it work properly (and be a joy to use rather than a chore to use) than it is to buy a high-end unit from someone who builds it right the first time.

 If you were doing this professionally, you'd mark up the price 2X after the upgrades to have a decent profit margin... and voila: that's the market pricing for this stuff right now.  So one replaces the gun, the media metering valve (a crucial part), even the light inside the cabinet, and one adds a dust separator (vacuum cleaner, sorta) to keep the pea soup air in the cabinet clear enough to see through, and a cheap little baffle which drastically reduces media lost to the vacuum cleaner, I mean dust separator.

 My current hassle began wherein the dust separator that arrived isn't even the right color (tan vs red; I mean, I'm not picky as a rule, but WTF), and it was damaged in transit to boot.  So I'm all up in that vendor's grill ATM, and then, AND THEN...

 The little baffle thing arrived and it's basically thinner than it oughta be, but it will serve.  Now here's the thing: the profit on that little bent sheet metal part is enormous, given what they charge for their shop time to make them.  And steel - the material - is dirt cheap.  Yet they chose to cheap out on the steel.  So that probably takes their margin from $20 on a $25-priced item up to a sizzling $20.03 margin. Wow. Such profit. Ahem.

 Anyway, the LED system I bought is the only saving grace / enjoyable experience in this entire enterprise so far.  It's basically four unusually bright cool-white LED strips joined together in a rectangle which mounts inside the cabinet around the window, making it nearly shadowless from the user's perspective.

 And it is bright AS. FUCIK*.

 I'd recommend him to you but he's out of the business.  He made up 40 of them to lower his own cost to make one, then he sold the rest as kits on eBay.  I got the 2nd- or 3rd-to-last one, and he last one sold a couple of days ago.  

 EDIT 4-26-21: he still has the last one for sale, apparently.  Maybe I was confused, but regardless, this excellent, but slightly spendy, solution - if you need it - can be found [here].

 It's a very smartly-engineered product, it uses a proper LED driver, and it is worth the somewhat inflated (over the cost of the materials) price I paid.

 So Project One is now "Put The Blasting Cabinet Kit Together", more or less, once it arrives, and Project Two will be "How The F Do I Get This Beast Off The Skid And Where The H Do I Put It In The Shop?"

 That project name might be a little too long for my Gant chart.  I will probably need some kind of stand for the 3-in-1 machine.  Preferably, one made of steel, light weight, on wheels, and relatively affordable... hmm, if only I knew someone with a metal shop.

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*you know; Julius Fucik?  The famous Czech composer?