Harbor Freight Sand blast cabinet

[dwcsr]

For those that were thinking of buying a Harbor Freight $229 Sand blast cabinet. Prior to filling with media and parts you will have to brace up the CHEAP A%^ legs on it. Its hold 40 lbs of sand (not much) and parts. If you try to move it even as much as 6 inches it will lay down like a camel. It was the strangest thing I've seen in a while.
The cabinet was to close to the wall so I tried moving it out 6 inches and the front legs folded under. While trying to lift it back up to fix the front legs the back legs folded under. So there it was like a camel in the sand legs sticking out all over the place and damn heavy. I fixed the legs and braced them up with some angle iron.

Its a good blaster for the money with a light and all but just brace up the legs before you load it. Get a desicant snake for the air line so it doesn't shoot mud at the parts and get their $99 dust collector which works nicely so you don't have mud in your lungs.

[byrd]

We have the same one and did the exact same thing with it, although we braced it before, my step dad is mr. overkill, but he was right this time. I like the blaster and the collecter nice combination for the $$ and we have used it a bunch, and while the blaster is not all that quick, but is cheaper than paying to have your parts blasted.

BTW-Great story

[7T2]

I'm not sure which one they sell for $229, but I have two of the ones that are regularly priced at $299 (often on sale for $199).

What I did was wait for them to go on sale when I also had a 15% off coupon, and got them for $170 each. (If you haven't signed up for the mailing list for www.harborfreightusa.com do it now. They send you coupons in the mail and online, usually for 15% off one item or 10% off your entire order. This is on top of whatever the sale price is as well! Note that it is harborfreightusa.com, NOT harborfreight.com. Same company, but the better discounts are through the usa one.)

What I did was join the two cabinets together with a two foot section I fabricated for the middle. Now I can blast long parts like bumpers and grilles without having to go out in the driveway and get sand in my shorts. Be careful if you are going to do this, as there are two nearly identical models that they sell at this price, but they are different shapes and one of them has a side that is welded on. You want the one(s) that have a plastic door on one side and a metal side attached with screws on the other. Simply take off the metal sides, and on one of them move the door and hinge to the opposite side. Join the center together with wood or sheetmetal and you have a "double blaster" for less than $400! You can join them right to each other, but the finished product would only be 6 feet long.

I will have to look into this leg issue. I haven't tried to move mine with the sand in it yet.

[dwcsr]

Nice ideaa. I often run into the cabnet being to short.

[dwcsr]

I have a tip for those using the harbor freight dust reclaimer. The filter is a special order item $22.00 and takes 4-6 weeks to get. It pretty much is packed solid with dust after 3 hrs of use. I got tired of nasty job of cleaning it and wraped it with one layer of the blue paper shop towels. It acts like a prefilter and keeps the grit out of the filter media. put in on with some packing tape top and bottom and down the seam and just peal it off to change it. Clean the filter every 3rd or 4th change of the shop towel

[babyJay]

HA HA, that's the funniest thing I've heard all weekend!
I've been considering this purchase and this info is VERY useful. Thank You. I'll definitely beef the legs on the one I buy, as real estate is an issue in our garage. We have NO room for lazy camels to lay down!

[dwcsr]

I should have taken a picture of it. It looked way funnier that it sounds.
FYI if your using the reclaimer pictured an STP SA8037 air filter will work just as good a the one that comes with it. The original is a 4 - 6 week order from china and it a few $ cheaper than the harbor one.

[AuggieStyle]

funny thing when at harbor freight I tried to move the cabinet and it danced around a bit and I thought to myself that is gonna be bad once i put 40lbs of sand in it. But i bought it any way because i had the 15% coupon and it was on sale for a hundred off so it made a great deal. And I kinda had a plan all along, I bought a snap on bucket fed blaster a while back on eBay for like the opening bid of five dollars, and it is great it has the non kinking hose and large trigger and ceramic tips so i traded that for the nozzle in the cabinet, and made a special blend of different medias and I have some of the nicest products come out of my garage because of it.

[dwcsr]

I use a mix of steel grit from tp tools and glass bead from harbor freight.
one part ssteel to 3 glass bead. cuts quicly and leaves a nice paintable finish.

[67dragtruck]

I have the one that's normally 300 and mine's solid. I usually only put 25 lbs of material in it, but it is solid as a rock. I must have gotten lucky, but I've had mine for about 4 years so they may be different now.

Glass beads are really only good for aluminum. For steel, try aluminum oxide. Cuts much better and quicker.

Tom

[Blue_71]

can you use aluminum oxide with just any sandblaster? i have one of the $30 wal mart guns with two hoses, the silica sand im using takes forever to blast anything!!! luckily its cheap though...

[BAGGERSOCAL]

Ive had mine for a few years and works pretty good .
would like to replace the gun and buy an up right compressor.

[brans72]

Any tips to make them better? I plan on cleaning mine out tomorrow to seal up and maybe try to find bettter light for inside. Got any others tips guys?

[dwcsr]

For the lights I used 2 small painters lights outside the box shining through the view lens. Once I braced the legs and used a different light it works fine. I did get a bigger vacuum unit for it.

The lights I used are the utility lights with the clip on and an aluminum shade. Painter use them

[68Timber]

A friend welded a nut in the corner of each leg and installed casters. Works well and the work height is improved. We've used aluminum oxide in it for almost a year now but switched back to sand. The aluminum oxide does work better but it makes a mess in the shop.

[Cordless57]

Just used my HF media cabinet for a couple hours. I simply wrap an old tube sock around the suction end of a shop vac and stick it in the exhaust port opening. Works quite well.

My cabinet legs did the kneeling camel act so I bent the legs straight and screwed them to 4X4s. I made the legs an extra 16 inches long because I am 6' 6" and don't see any need to stoop over in my own shop (you oughta see short guys 6' or less try to use the blaster though. I keep a stool nearby for them.)