Sandblasting Stabilizer and Rudder

 I always had trouble with the plastic window developing a electrostatic charge and attracting dust.  It doesn't harm the plastic but your visibility quickly dims with all the dust.  To reduce the creation of the charge on the sand I grounded the sand inlet tube and the gun, as well as the screen the sand falls trough returning to the sand hopper in the bottom.

To reduce the static charge at the window I installed a piece of 1/2" hardware cloth which I grounded.  The idea is that any sand passing near the grid will be discharged and any charge building up on the window can discharge to the screen.  It works, it takes much longer for the window to collect dust.  It might work better with 1/4" screen but I was worried about seeing through it.  You quickly get used to the screen being there and don't notice it.

I also noticed that because of all the grounding, more of the dust now leaves through the vacuum port.  The air in the box is less filled with dust than it was.

 We're blasting the joints on a 10 foot stabilizer in a 2 foot box.

Working on just the end is easy.

Once you tip the stab to move the end out the front of the box, like on the elevators it becomes more awkward to work in the box.

 The rudder has a balance tab which fit perfectly sticking out a side hole while blasting the main part of the top of the rudder.

Because the rudder is old and lightly rusted there is a lot more to be cleaned up than just the joints on the new work.