So I have a Harbor Freight blast cabinet. It is probably 15 years old or older. I have wanted to do the Tacoma Company upgrades to it for years but I've never pulled the trigger because the timing was always bad. I finally bought the pieces last month.

https://www.tacomacompany.com/

The original cabinet

Cut the bars out from under the frame

New funnel adapter on bottom of the cabinet

 

Drilled a hole in the left leg for a new air regulator

Two new holes for the air and media for the gun

Regulator

Cut the lower shelf back

New box that covers the air intake on the left side of the cabinet

Air flow is reversed in this new setup

I had to silicone the screws at the glove cuffs because the static from the cabinet would shock the fool out of you

Cut the spring steel screen down and wrapped it with metal screening to prevent little parts falling down in the cabinet

Added a foot pedal for the cabinet versus a hand trigger

New gloves inside and a fresh piece of glass

I have a switch on top that cuts the LED's on in the cabinet and start a vacuum that sits outside the shop door

I finally got the air all hooked up today. It's a totally different cabinet now!!

I can see and it cuts really quickly. I have some new Bufferfly screws for a quick change glass setup

Man I wish I had the space for a blast cabinet...  I would use it all the time.  A few more years until the kiddo is out of school and I'll be looking for a place with a shop.

My next place is gonna be about a 1200 sq ft cabin and an 8000 squ ft shop. My 1000 squ ft shop is nowhere near enough and I want inside storage for all my cars

Exactly!! I've had the same discussions here. Not that it'll ever happen, but... 

Lets see some before/after shots 🙂

Wow, that Tacomacompany stuff is top notch. I’ve made all kinds of mods to my Harbour freight/Princess Auto cabinet over the years, and it woks pretty well, but I see the advantages to almost all of their products. Will be upgrading the feed and vacuum controls for sure.

The one huge thing I recommend is to make the top glass area into your access door rather than the big door on the right. My compressor is right there, never able to get bigger parts in there anyway

And use plexi sheets instead of glass. I buy a 4x8 and chop it up into 16x24 pieces to fit my frame. Disposable and cheep.  I use cheap LED strip light strips  ringing the entire inside top of the cabinet for lighting. They are surviving just fine.

What really amazes me is the amount of sand that makes out of my supposedly sealed seams….

21 hours ago, Patcon said:

My next place is gonna be about a 1200 sq ft cabin and an 8000 squ ft shop. My 1000 squ ft shop is nowhere near enough and I want inside storage for all my cars

Man, I'd give anything to have any kind of shop...  😉

 

12 hours ago, Captain Obvious said:

Exactly!! I've had the same discussions here. Not that it'll ever happen, but... 

We have formulated a plan. We'll see how it goes....

6 hours ago, zKars said:

Wow, that Tacomacompany stuff is top notch. I’ve made all kinds of mods to my Harbour freight/Princess Auto cabinet over the years, and it woks pretty well, but I see the advantages to almost all of their products. Will be upgrading the feed and vacuum controls for sure.

The one huge thing I recommend is to make the top glass area into your access door rather than the big door on the right. My compressor is right there, never able to get bigger parts in there anyway

And use plexi sheets instead of glass. I buy a 4x8 and chop it up into 16x24 pieces to fit my frame. Disposable and cheep.  I use cheap LED strip light strips  ringing the entire inside top of the cabinet for lighting. They are surviving just fine.

What really amazes me is the amount of sand that makes out of my supposedly sealed seams….

I have sealed my cabinet well but I still have a number of leaks too.

I used strip LEDs in my cabinet too. The waterproof type inside the rubber rib.

I buy cheap glass from Home depot for the view area. I think glass might be cheaper than plexi these days. I got some tee handle screws in for making the glass quick change.

My next upgrades will probably be the shields that help prevent the media collecting on the ledges inside the cabinet