Blasting cabinet

[grandpa Love]

Anyone use the harbor freight version? Love, hate, good , bad? Something you use often? Hand held better? My wife is pestering me to buy her the cabinet blaster

 

[Scott 730]

I have the HF cabinet like the picture. It works OK for what I do after some mods. Youtube has many videos of recommended mods.

 

[kencombs]

I have one too. Works ok for occasional use. I’ve done a couple of mods to the siphon tube. Lots of info on utube

 

[T.R.K.]

I have one. I use it to remove paint from vintage toys. My biggest problems are light-not enough inside the cabinet-and stoppage of the flow.
(the siphon doesn't tolerate flaky paint well and won't do flaky powder coat. gives it fits.) I ended up leaving a kitchen strainer inside so I could dump the debris clogging the nozzle into it and not let it fall back into the hopper.
I also added a dust cyclone on a 5 gallon bucket and a 5 gallon vacuum to catch any dust that exits the cabinet. I intend to add more light inside 'someday'.
There are lots of Youtube videos on 'improvements' to the Harbor Freight blast cabinet. That is where I got the idea for the cyclone and the vacuum.

 

[Glenn F.]

Anyone use the harbor freight version? Love, hate, good , bad? Something you use often? Hand held better? My wife is pestering me to buy her the cabinet blaster

They are pretty light duty (19 gauge steel) require a lot of caulk in addition to the sealing strips provided, and the actual blasting gun and hoses are very poor quality/short lived. I have heard of people spending upwards of $200 in upgrades to get a good working machine. I read a lot about the HF units, talked around, and opted for a home made unit off our local Craigslist which isn’t as pretty but much more robust for $60.00. Whatever blaster you end up getting the bigger your compressor the happier you’ll be.

Glenn F.

 

[kencombs]

They are pretty light duty (19 gauge steel) require a lot of caulk in addition to the sealing strips provided, and the actual blasting gun and hoses are very poor quality/short lived. I have heard of people spending upwards of $200 in upgrades to get a good working machine. I read a lot about the HF units, talked around, and opted for a home made unit off our local Craigslist which isn’t as pretty but much more robust for $60.00. Whatever blaster you end up getting the bigger your compressor the happier you’ll be.

Glenn F.

The key to stopping leakage is not so much sealing, but use a vacuum big enough to actually keep a vacuum in the cabinet. So air flow into, not out of the box thru those leaks. I also get much better results with Black Beauty coal slag than any other media. But it does break down into dust fairly quickly.

 

[Swittig]

I have one as well, made some mods to the siphon tub so it will pull off the bottom run a vacuum on it and put a different light in it. Make sure you have enough air to operate it. It works good for small odd shaped objects.

 

[Walston]

I have a blast cabinet I bought at Eastwood. it works great, but the most important thing in the vacuum. Being able to see in the cabinet is determined by how well you get the small dust out. I modified a Harbor Freight dust collector to drop the big stuff in a drum and it then vents outside. This makes using any blaster a breeze. Without good vacuum, any blast cabinet gets to be a cloud you can't see in.

 

[Walston]

I did something very close to this: I use this for carpentry work and for the blast cabinet.

 

[Keith True]

Anyone use the harbor freight version? Love, hate, good , bad? Something you use often? Hand held better? My wife is pestering me to buy her the cabinet blaster

I bought one of those in 04.I did make a couple of mods to it.I took out that little light and replaced it with an outdoor spotlight.I removed the plastic ring that holds the glass,and replaced the little nuts and bolts with studs.Actually just screws put in from the bottom with a nut on top.Then I replaced the plastic ring using wing nuts.That way I can remove the glass by just taking off a circle of wing nuts.I bought a roll of cellophane from an art store and I tape a sheet of it on the glass.When I can't see through it anymore I just change the cellophane.I buy cheapie siphon guns when the guns wear out.I wear them out more than I should,but that's my own fault.I;m too lazy to plug the regulator in,so years ago I took to just plugging my air onto it and blasting away.150 pounds of air pressure is a little hard on the guns.

 

[drsportster]

Truman has plans to make one from plywood I think 1 4x8 sheet is all you need My cabinet is pretty big .My dad mostly made the box and I welded up the legs .

 

[TheOldHokie]

Anyone use the harbor freight version? Love, hate, good , bad? Something you use often? Hand held better? My wife is pestering me to buy her the cabinet blaster

I have two including that one and both are basically fine. Only complaint with them is thevcheap gun and spotty siphon pickup. Add one of these inexpensive metering valves and you will fix the pickup problem.

VALVE, METERING ASSEMBLY, W/RUBBER CAP, UPGRADE FOR HARBOR FREIGHT BLAST CABINETS

VALVE, METERING ASSEMBLY, W/RUBBER CAP, UPGRADE FOR HARBOR FREIGHT BLAST CABINETS

idsblast.com

A good gun is significantly more expensive.

Dan

 

[Scott 730]

I don't have any big issue with the HF siphon pickup. Maybe I'm the odd lucky one IDK. But I only use crushed glass, glass beads, or walnut shells for media. Tried Black Diamond, hate it.

 

[Butch(OH)]

You will like having a cabinet blaster. The cheap ones have a few pitfalls for more than occasional usage but will blast away from and rust same as an expensive one. mine is used a good bit and after going through quite a few shop vacs and waiting for gun parts I drove to TIP Tools and got a Scat Blast with a foot operated valve. Never been sorry about what I spent, but as I said it's for more than occasional hobby usage

 

[TheOldHokie]

You will like having a cabinet blaster. The cheap ones have a few pitfalls for more than occasional usage but will blast away from and rust same as an expensive one. mine is used a good bit and after going through quite a few shop vacs and waiting for gun parts I drove to TIP Tools and got a Scat Blast with a foot operated valve. Never been sorry about what I spent, but as I said it's for more than occasional hobby usage

I did not pop for a ScatBlast but I did add a foot operated valve and upgraded gun to my HF box.

TOH

 

[1948CaseVAI]

Anyone use the harbor freight version? Love, hate, good , bad? Something you use often? Hand held better? My wife is pestering me to buy her the cabinet blaster

Keith Rucker, Vintage Machinery dot org has a youtube video of how he upgraded his Harbor Freight blast cabinet to make it better. IIRC it did not take him long or cost much but was a good upgrade. You can proabably fing it on youtube but it is a few years old.

 

[Hobo,NC]

Anyone use the harbor freight version? Love, hate, good , bad? Something you use often? Hand held better? My wife is pestering me to buy her the cabinet blaster

I don't use one as much as I thought I would but I don't have to fight a hand held one anymore. I kept a eye out for a nice one on Cracklist one day I was the first to call and got a nice set up for $500. It already has all the upgrades along with a good vacuum set up.