Blast It!

I went to work on the sandblasting cabinet. I drained all the old glass bead out and repaired the gun. I over tightened one of the set screws when I was trying to get it to work when Surly was here. I welded up the old hole and built up the area a bit higher so there would be more threads. I drilled and tapped it for a 10-24 set screw. It's a little smaller than the one that was in there but I would imagine that one was a metric size. I've got some metric taps but not metric drill bits so I usually have to fart around a bit figuring out what the closest inch size is to the required metric size. Most of the standard sizes I know off the top of my head. 10-24 needs a #25 drill bit. I've got a drawer in my tool box that has all of my small taps and drill bits in it so it only takes a minute to find the tap and the drill. One of these days I should either buy the proper metric tap drills or figure out the equivalent standard sizes and make up a chart. Might be such a thing already exists if I were to do an internet search.

I received an e-mail from Harbor Freight. The new gloves for the cabinet are on the way but the glass bead is back ordered. I'll get the new gloves installed and if I need to blast something before the glass bead shows up I can get some silica sand or Black Beauty. Since much of what I blast is aluminum, I prefer the glass bead. It cleans things up well without pitting the aluminum.

The weather is cooling off. The weatherman said July was the 4th hottest July on record. We didn't get any 100 degree days but had a bunch in the 90s. I can function in the hot weather once I get acclimated but at my age and with my medical history, it really doesn't make much sense to bust my ass in the heat if I don't have to. Now that it's going to be a bit cooler, I hope to get more done in the shop and start back on my physical training in earnest. I walked three miles yesterday. I'll get back on the bike and do some strength training. I'd really like to have an event to train for to keep me motivated but as my old man used to say: "And people in hell want ice water."