Blast Cabinet - Is this a good deal?

[kurtwwalters]

Harbor Freight has a free-standing blast cabinet on sale right now. The working dimensions are 33'' W x 22'' D x 14'' to 22'' H. It has a 40 pound capacity and comes with 1 ceramic nozzle. It has access though the side door and has a light. It is $179. I can get it locally at the store so there would be no shipping cost. I know HF generally has cheap stuff, but this seems like a great deal. Anybody have one of these? Here is the link:

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=93608

Thanks in advance...

[jmortensen]

I think that is a good deal. I got one that is similar but without the stand from HF a couple months ago. It was big enough to put all of the suspension pieces in, which was what I was looking for. I think it's basically the same unit. What I was looking for was one that is big enough to put control arms and other suspension pieces in. I have used it quite a bit now, and I'll give you the cons of mine.

1. Dust. Lots of dust. I hooked my shop vac up to the vent hole and that helped a lot.

2. The seams of the cabinet leak abrasives on the bench.

3. The gloves are a little short, so it can be hard to rotate larger parts around in the cabinet.

4. The gun leaks air, so I found that I couldn't open the door without disconnecting the air supply.

5. The air hose for the gun and the siphon for the abrasive come from opposite corners of the cabinet. Makes it hard to aim the gun in some directions.

6. I didn't read the directions so I bought a 40 lb tub of abrasive with the cabinet. The directions said it should need no more than 10 lbs of abrasive I think. When I put in the specified amount it wouldn't feed properly. I overfilled it and solved that problem.

7. The one I have didn't come with a light.

Other than those minor issues, the thing works pretty good and I was able to clean and paint all of my suspension pieces without too much hassle.

[moonpup]

As far as I'm concerned, it's a great deal for the money. I've got the same unit (8 yrs. old) and am very happy with it. Looks like they moved the lighting to an outside mounted enclosed unit verses one mounted on the inside like my older one. I added a shelf and casters on the bottom to move around if needed.

[SuDZ]

The leaking is something that is known with the HF setups. What I have seen a lot of people do to take care of it is caulk the lines of the unit on the inside and upgrade the gun. Those two things usually take care of 90% of the issues.

SuDZ

[Zs-ondabrain]

I have one from HF and it's similar but it also dumps abrasive out when you open the door, easy fix or solution is to spray the gun near the door before you open it to blow 99% of the media away from the seam.

MAKE SURE TO GROUND THE UNIT!! Everytime I spray the glove with the Aluminum Oxide, if my face or any part of my body is too close, I get the crap shocked out of me. So I highly suggest grounding the cabinet somehow.

The plastic Bench top one that I own does almost the same thing but running a wire thru one of the holes and onto the grill above the media, slows down the Static shock" factor.

Other than that, I love them. I only paid $80 for the larger one (brand new floor model) and the smaller bench top cabinet was free cause a friend was moving into an apartment and had to sell off everything. He figured I could use it for free.

Dave.

[jmortensen]

The leaking is something that is known with the HF setups. What I have seen a lot of people do to take care of it is caulk the lines of the unit on the inside and upgrade the gun. Those two things usually take care of 90% of the issues.

That is a really good tip, thanks. Before I use mine again I'm caulking the crap out of it!

[geezer]

I am in the market for a blasting cabinet and have looked at a few. My first impression was, they seemed to be too small, but after thinking about what I need it for, it will accommadate most pieces. Speaking of problems such as leaking, dust, etc, the other complaint I have heard is the sight glass becoming etched and too cloudy to see through. I wonder how hard it would be to adapt something like a rolling or replaceable tear away film on the window?

Back to the original question. I think $179. is a fair price for that one. I was considering building my own, but don't think I could do so for less money. The shelf & casters is a good addition Moonpup and thanks for the headsup on short gloves Jon.

[moonpup]

...snip...The air hose for the gun and the siphon for the abrasive come from opposite corners of the cabinet. Makes it hard to aim the gun in some directions...snip...

I was frustrated with that same problem. I solved it by increasing the length of both the air supply and siphon hoses, adding springs over the hoses at kink points and zip-tying it all together. Problem solved!

[Zs-ondabrain]

I am in the market for a blasting cabinet and the other complaint I have heard is the sight glass becoming etched and too cloudy to see through. I wonder how hard it would be to adapt something like a rolling or replaceable tear away film on the window? Jon.

Actually, Mine came with 3 adhesive backed "tear away" Sheets. The only problem is finding replacements for it. The adhesive runs along the edges of the acrylic? sheet.

Dave.

[d240zx2]

You wrote: "Speaking of problems such as leaking, dust, etc, the other complaint I have heard is the sight glass becoming etched and too cloudy to see through. I wonder how hard it would be to adapt something like a rolling or replaceable tear away film on the window?"

A very simple fix to keep glass un-frosted from media bounce is to cover the glass with wire window screen. The media hits the screen and deflects, thus keeping the window from being etched. If you can configure the screen to stand off the glass 1/8 - 3/32", that will give you best results.

Regards,

Frank

[geezer]

Hey, great tip Frank. I can relate to that working well. Before they built up this area and I had no close neighbors, I used one of those cheap screened dining tents for sandblasting parts outside. It contained the sand but allowed the dust to escape. In a blasting cabinet a simple hinged, sealed around the perimeter, screened device would work great I bet.

I wandered into Princess Auto today, and a blasting cabinet comparable to the one Kurt pointed out in Post 1, had a price tag of $249.00 CND. I couldn't check to see if the gloves were long enough because they were not assembled yet. I didn't buy one but came home with lots of other crap.

[jmortensen]

That gloves not long enough shouldn't be a deal breaker. It's a minor inconvenience at worst.