blast cabinet question

[70bee]

Does anyone use a cheaper one from like harbor freight? the 100 to 150 dollar ones.

[Phil V]

I bought a Harbor Freight blast cabinet on sale for $200 that is an excellent cabinet. I would recomment it based on my experiences with it. The blast cabinet comes with a fluorescent light. There is a switch on the cabinet that turns the light on and off, that switch failed almost right away so I just bypassed the switch and straight wired it. The cabinet came with at least 10 lens protectors of clear vinyl that stick to the underside of the viewing window (very handy to have). My cabinet is all steel and stands on steel legs as opposed to a bench top type blaster which most are made out of plastic. Also mine is side entry as opposed to the top lifting up to gain access. Side entry is much better in my opinion. Wait till you go to buy 40 lbs of glass bead media. sticker shock would be an understandable reaction. Its usually around a dollar a pound. You can use regular sand in the cabinet but it breaks down very fast and ends up so dusty that you can't see what you're trying to sandblast, so sand is a poor choice for a blasting cabinet media.

[SamG]

Bee, I have a 99 dollar cabinet that I bought at one of the roving tools sales that anually come through our area. Actually they were cheap enough, I bought two. It's probably the same unit that Phil V is talking about. I find that it works very well considering the cost. It was a pain to assemble, and leaked dust awfully, but after cleaning it up and some foil ducting tape, it's better than new. The flourescent light is not bright enough for me, but that's about my only real complaint (and easy to rectify).

SamG

[Stan (in NC)]

:) I have the same cabinet that Phil V has. I had to replace the light in mine and just got one of those shaded lights and cut the side out and installed it in the side of the cabinet. The gun was pretty sorry, so after it locked up completely I got one of the Campbell Hausfeld Siphon gun kits at Home Depot and adapted it. My next improvement will be to get a foot feed for the air. I remove the big plug in the back of the cabinet and hook my shop vac up to the small plug and go to work . Works great for me.

[Barry]

Yup...got mine from overstock com a year ago(free shipping and lots cheaper than other places)...light was the first thing to fail. I like the side entry, plus i use sand in mine, hook my big shop vac up to the side and blast away. I leave the side door cracked alittle when i have the shop vac running. takes all the dust out. Ofcourse its a pain to put togeather as stated above...and after a few sand blast jobs, i also ended up taping all the seams. BUT........it sure works great...

Barry

[Steve_P]

I have two of the HF one piece orange plastic cabinets with incandescent bulbs. I like them. They're big enough to do almost all of the small parts you'll encounter in restoring a car. I use a shop vac for dust collection- just be sure to clean the paper filter regularly or you'll burn up the motor if you get lazy like I did.