Prototyping Again:

Have several truck wheels to blast and paint so put this together this afternoon from old stuff around the shop. It is powered with my shop portable hydraulic pumping unit and is variable speed. Once a wheel is mounted up it can be blasted, primed, and painted without being removed or handled. This is a prototype only and I plan to build five more that are double ended to really ramp up production. Tack welded to either a bench, or steel 55gl drum they will be at about the correct height to work with. This is only for the "Budd" style wheels and I'll fashion adapters for the later "unimount", and Dayton styles.

Slow speed:

Fast speed:

Old wheel mounted up and rotating about the speed it will normally operate at:

I'll make a guard that will cover all the mechanics of the operator and keep media out of the chain couplers and bearings. This is heavier than the finished product will be but using what I had around the shop to test the theory.

I have a portable tent that erects easily kinda/sorta like the vendors use at outdoor flea markets and such if blasting remote from the shop. With the sides installed, the mess is contained easily. Also have this portable automotive shelter purchased from Menard's a couple years back and it too works well but not so easily erected quickly. These are from a subdivision sign I did a couple years back:

Shop vac easily picks up the media leaving a clean jobsite behind.

I blasted the sign board, pillars, and lamps, (unshown) in the tent and the letters back at the shop. Same with the painting as the sign was painted in the tent and letters back at the shop.

I will most likely power this with an AC motor through a VFD for variable speed eventually. I think it can be made physically smaller, and without the pumping unit required. These are all items unused around the shop, so pressed into service. 

The hydraulic pumping unit is an "OilGear" brand, pressure compensated, and originally used with my portable line boring setup. As shown in the videos, and even with that wheel moving at very slow speed, you would not stop it by hand. I use it routinely to test hydraulic motors, valves, cylinders, etc. as so compatible with operations.

There are a lot of things I do that are not "politically friendly"; hence my shop is not in the city. Blasting can be messy, but doesn't have to be. For remote, and/or large items my tent structures keep this down to a minimum and I always leave a clean jobsite behind. The tumble blasters and rotary table in the larger cabinet are used often for smaller things. 

My blasters have a "blow off" feature which cuts the media flow and allows full air flow through the hoses. This will rid residual media for the most part, but final cleanup is always required/needed.

Seems to do as it's supposed to do. Makes it quite easy to get primer and paint into the nooks and crannies of the rim(s) smoothly and evenly.

Had some fasterners from an A-C to clean up for no particular reason. I do a lot of this type work for the antique car, and furniture world where the correct fasteners, clips, pulls, etc. are NLA and originals must be reused. These fasteners are actually from my 11B dozer that mount the floor plates into the tractor. They are crusty and the photos are 20 minutes apart being before, and after a quick run in a small tumble blaster:

Nice work.  A lot of wood turners do something similar with wood turnings, they use a BBQ spit motor that turns real slow, to let the wood turn, as the finish dries...

I'm kinda getting a little old to be busting tires any longer but nobody else volunteered so had to do it. Tires mounted up easily on the freshly painted rims and look pretty good reinstalled onto the truck with new inner and outer nuts on the rears, and new nuts on the fronts, along with all new valve stems. 

Cousin's truck and I didn't ask if I could put the photos online so blanked the signage out. He probably wouldn't care but all the same. Going to paint the front bumper tonight and probably start on the trailer rims tomorrow as supposed to be cooler. They are open center Dayton style on the trailer so won't need the spinner as access is easy.

Hope it wasn't you. Nobody around but him and I and I didn't rat on him.

Ready to work. If I have time before being called to harvest I'm going to do the trailer wheels but their just surface rust and the tractor now shames them:

Trailer has new leaf springs at all corners so should be ready to haul again.

Cousin decided the rusty wheels on the trailer and hubs need blasted and painted too. After steam clean using actual steam, the hubs are currently black and rust. Wheels were either silver, or gray. Trailer is staged to jack and remove tires tomorrow.

I'll use my 600# pot for this job so don't have to stop once started.

Tomorrow's weather forecast calls for a beautiful day for blasting.

Another early start this morning. Removed the front axle tires, broke them down, and staged for blasting later this afternoon.

Even feels like the Olympics around here:

All this stuff will blast clean later this afternoon as I have some administrative tasks to tend to first.

Coming around:

Harvesting around the shop:

Will get the trailer wheels blasted and painted tomorrow for remount on Sunday, or Monday as my harvest starts shortly.