Customize your holiday gifts with a cheap, homemade sandblaster
If you’re a DIYer, then the holiday season is the perfect opportunity to flex your maker muscles by creating one-of-a-kind gifts for your friends and family. Whether you’re making a piece from scratch or upcycling an existing item, adding a unique message or image is a great way to differentiate your present from the sea of wrapped boxes under the tree. But if paints and stencils aren’t quite your style, then leave your mark on your gifts this year with a DIY sandblaster. In a recent video, YouTuber The King of Random demonstrates how to turn an empty water bottle and an air compressor into a sandblaster that can etch glass, mark steel, and even engrave wood.
About the Author
Alexis GajewskiAlexis Gajewski
Senior Content Strategist
Alexis Gajewski is a manufacturing writer and editor with nearly 20 years of experience covering the people, practices, and technologies that keep industrial facilities running. For more than a decade, she served as Senior Content Strategist for Plant Services, creating content for plant managers, engineers, and maintenance professionals on a variety of industrial topics.
During her tenure, Alexis worked to develop the brand’s digital strategy and helped launch and produce Great Question: A Manufacturing Podcast. She also created The Lighter Side of Manufacturing, a weekly blog that explored the inventive and sometimes humorous side of the industry.
Alexis co-founded Influential Women in Manufacturing, a recognition program that honored 49 women in its first two years, earned an industry award for Best Product Launch, and received a proclamation from Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and a commendation from U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth.
She also led newsroom operations and development at a large media company where she set editorial standards, developed training curriculum, and helped support AI adoption for more than 150 editors across 80+ brands spanning manufacturing, industrial processing, automation, and more.
Additionally, Alexis works as a freelance writer and editor, and her areas of interest include continuous improvement, the skilled workforce, and the role of emerging technology on the plant floor.
Connect with Alexis on LinkedIn