Media Blast Cabinet (Glass Bead Cabinet) Build/Experience

I bought a Harbor Freight Abrasive Blast Cabinet Item #93608 thinking that it would work. Silly me, no, I always need to fix the design before the item will work. Full retail was $299.99 and it was on sale for $209.99 and with a 20% off coupon it came to $168 plus tax. Not bad for a metal cabinet, a light, and a window. I assembled it and tried to blast some paint off a project I was working on. It didn’t want to flow any glass beads. I went to the HF site and saw some reviews. One stated that the feed tube was a welded seam tube full of weld splatter and that it prevented it from flowing properly. Yah, right, what a bunch of hooey that was. I read another review and they stated that the only way was to buy an improved pickup tube for $100 and that would make it work. Yah, right… Then I found another site that sold an upgrade that included a better gun, a foot peddle control, a pressure regulator, and a much better media mixer. The mixer is the real secret. It allows air flow to occur as it needs to be. It can be best explained like a vacuum cleaner that is dead headed. Lots of vacuum, but no flow. If you have a venturi that allows flow and it will pick-up the media. I hooked up my shop vac thinking that I could use it rather than buying a mounted and dedicated vacuum unit. After the initial trial trying my shop vac with you original media pick-up tube I found about 10 pounds of media in my shop vacuum. So I purchased a HF Media Recovery unit Item #94275 for $149.99 and 20% off equals $120.00. It worked great and it doesn’t loose much media. I didn’t like the idea of hoses running through the side of the cabinet using a grommet so I bought some aircraft bulkhead fittings and it works great. I also added an air only nozzle to clean off the parts. I think now the unit is working as it should have.
So for just over $600 with tax and shipping the blast cabinet is working well.

Cabinet $168.99
http://www.harborfreight.com/40-lb-capacity-floor-blast-cabinet-93608.html

Reg/gun/venturi pick-up upgrade $198.00
http://www.ebay.com/itm/UPGRADE-KIT...TROL-Sandblaster-Blast-Cabinet-/261072777583?
pt=Sanders_Sandblasters&vxp=mtr&hash=item3cc926716f

Vacuum Media Recovery $119.00
http://www.harborfreight.com/blast-cabinet-reclaimer-kit-94275.html

Fittings $60.00

I finally got the files uploaded, problems with cellphone.

Last thing I plan to do is seal all the seams with RTV. They really did a bad job from the factory. The RTV is just coming off in 6 inch strips.

Can you post pics of how you set your cabinet set up?

? prices must be different in va. but i bought cabinet for 109$, dust collector for 55$. from hf, and media was 10$. ca must have shipping increases!

alberto said:

Can you post pics of how you set your cabinet set up?

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I will, check back tomorrow.

uniballer said:

? prices must be different in va. but i bought cabinet for 109$, dust collector for 55$. from hf, and media was 10$. ca must have shipping increases!

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You owe me $100, yes? LOL

I'm glad I only paid $75 for my "Clarke" unit froma scratch and dent section. I 'm using a small 2 gallon shp vac and have never had a serious amount of sand in the bottom of it.

I'd guess you have the vac on the side hole and the back hole open for the air intake ?

I would offer 150. for it but got mine workng and don't have room for another.

NUTTSGT said:

I'm glad I only paid $75 for my "Clarke" unit froma scratch and dent section. I 'm using a small 2 gallon shp vac and have never had a serious amount of sand in the bottom of it.

I'd guess you have the vac on the side hole and the back hole open for the air intake ?

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Yes, I was using the wrong port, the one on the back has a shield that reduces the direct airflow and only picks up the lighter weight pieces.

I just upgraded my gun with one from TP Tools.

http://shopngarage.com/2012/08/harbor-freight-blasting-cabinet-upgrade/

Hm.... interested in one of these TP Tools kits for my cabinet now, Sounds like you are very happy with the upgrade?

Stephenw said:

I just upgraded my gun with one from TP Tools.

http://shopngarage.com/2012/08/harbor-freight-blasting-cabinet-upgrade/

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mayday0017 said:

Hm.... interested in one of these TP Tools kits for my cabinet now, Sounds like you are very happy with the upgrade?

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I think the one with the bottom feed is better.

How well does the HF dust collector work? I need to add one but will probably look at TP Tools.

930dreamer said:

How well does the HF dust collector work? I need to add one but will probably look at TP Tools.

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Works pretty well, it adapted to my model with out much fuss. It ***** the glooves in like a pro and it collects the media well. The media that is collected is not the dust. The dust (powdered glass beads) is collected in the paper filter. I have not cleaned out the filter yet.

The only problem I have with this whole setup is that the cabinet and the recover unit both leak media on the floor.