April 6th, 2010 by Ron Branch

Booth-building series Click this link to read from the beginning post.

When I was hired on at Mercury Glass (I think it was about 10 years ago), Bob was wanting to bring his sandblasting operation indoors, and so once again the timing was good and I was set to the task of building another new booth. He already had great ideas on how it was going to work, but he left the details to me. By that point in time I had a pretty sizable wish-list of things I would want to build into the perfect booth, and he let me do most of it. It marked the first time I put black carpet on the entire working wall – This allows maximum visibility for seeing the effects of your work, and also helps prevent “bounce-back” of the abrasive, thus eliminating the need for masking off the back of the glass.

What? Carpet on the walls?

I think people imagine ‘shag’ or something when I say that. No no, it’s that really thin stuff, like what musicians have on their road cases. It actually looks really sharp if you do it right.

Bob’s concept of moving the air was perfect. I was already looking for another squirrel cage, but he said no, opened up a catalog and showed me a high powered in-line fan. It was a bit pricey, but I now know that it is worth the investment – it’s designed in such a way that the motor is completely isolated from the dust. (to be continued)

dust, glass art, sandblast booth