def·i·ni·tion

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

Actually, in the beginning there was no booth. At the studio where I had first been employed as a glass artist, I had worked outdoors in a vacant lot. They had been doing it there for I don’t know how many years, and so it was like standing amongst blinding white dunes of silica. Thinking back on it has that same surreal quality as remembering that there was a time when people smoked aboard commercial airline flights or while shopping for groceries – just doesn’t seem real but it was, you know?

The other place where I was blasting back then was under a roof attached to an old shed, but still basically without walls. I came across this photo from 1987 that shows me working at night out behind a place I was renting in Chandler Arizona. I was also using the inside of the shed for building stained glass windows. As enjoyable as it can be to work outside, there are many disadvantages to deal with, such as the little gifts that cats leave for you in your sand.

The next time I was setting up, I decided

Often the search queries that bring people to the websites of sandblasters look something like this: “How to build a sandblast booth” Here is a sample from this week alone:

– “build a sand blast booth”
– “large sand blast booth”
– “pictures of sandblasting booths”
– “sandblast booth”
– “sandblasting booth for glass”
– “walk in sandblast booth”
– “walk in sandblasting booths”

If this is the type of question that has brought you here and even if this means that you are “the competition” – I am more than happy to share what I know so far. I think the first one I did was in 1988 or 89. Since then I’ve built five others, improving as I went along. I’ll start back at the beginning and recount the whole learning process, which is on-going I can assure you. There is always more to learn, so if anyone reading this has any tips or suggestions I would certainly appreciate them. I’m going to have to break this epic tale into multiple posts, I had know idea it was going to be so long. To pull them all together simply click on the category tag at the bottom “sandblast booth saga” or follow this link to the next post.