Making your own sand blaster

While reading English Mechanics, I couldn't help photographing this delight - instructions for making your own sandblasting set-up using a grinder fitted with a wire wheel.

Basically, you drop the blasting medium down a funnel onto to the wheel which flings it at the item to be blasted. Health & Safety isn't forgotten with a see-through panel to protect the operator. I bet he needed it too - the media will get suck in the bristles and be flung out everywhere that the wheel isn't guarded.

The thing that strikes me about this is how incredibly messy the process would be. Did anyone every try this ?

Nowadays we do the whole thing in a sealed cabinet using compressed air. The mess is contained and the media can be reused until it wears smooth. Still, it shows ingenuity which is what made this nation great !

Making money

Last Sunday, at the Living History Fair, I made some money. Well, a King Edward the 1st Penny anyway. It's not a lot but it's a start.

Making the coin was easy, pitch up at the Grunal Moneta stand, hand over a pound coin and the man gives you a pewter disk. This is placed on a die, a tube placed over this and then a second die put in her. Belt the combination with a hammer. Once.

Then take the dies apart and remove the coin. Simple.

The coin I made would have been half a days pay for an English archer, so worth quite a bit more than the quid I paid for the pleasure of stamping it. Mind you, I need a time machine as the local shops don't seem very keen on medieval coinage.

The dies are interesting as they are hand carved. That means someone whittling steel to produce the incredibly tiny patterns for each half. If you feel the need, the nice man will produce your own coinage for you so it's possible to sit and stamp out your own at home. This probably isn't a bad idea what with all the "real" currencies heading toward worthlessness at the moment.

Visit the fascinating Grunal Moneta website.