I made mine 25 years ago from plywood. I bought a kit from TP that included gloves, foot switch, gun, suction tube, etc. ($95 back then) I generally followed the plans but made it slightly wider. I was doing flat work development at the time so it was easy to lay out the bigger hopper on the bottom. (simple trig) I made the support frame out of welded angle iron and also made it slightly taller. I'm about 6-1 and generally make my benches and similar stuff a couple inches taller than normal so I'm not always bending over. I use a TP cabinet at work occasionally and it's just too friggin' short. I mounted a 2 ft fluorescent light in the roof, had a hunk of shatterproof glass cut at a local shop, and casters from an old abandoned office chair from work. (I'm a founding member of the CBC, Cheap Bastards Club) One switch box on top turns on the light and shop vac simultaneously. I bought an extra $5 shop vac attachment from Sears, cut it off, and attached the stub to the upper left side for a shop vac hook-up. I scrounged a wire grid from somewhere to support the parts inside. I also made an extension that screws onto the end opposite the door that's held on with removable screws. My garage space is tight so I only put it on if I'm doing long parts like driveshafts. I roll it out of the corner when I need it, and roll it back out of the way other times. I use beads or sand, depending on what I'm doing. Just open the hopper door on the bottom, drain the media, and fill it with whatever.
Does it work? Hell yeah! As good as the real TP blaster because I used their working parts that are still available by the way. I'm careful not to blast the insides directly and use a sheet metal blast shield on the back wall. With the scrounging I did getting free stuff, it was less than $150 total.
