Sand blasting cabinets

I'm in the market myself. From what I have found the harborfreight ones are the most cost effective and work great with some little mods.
 
How big? TP Tools makes a nice one for a reasonable price. Had one where I used to work. Came with the vacuum unit for around 8 bills. If you don't need a whopping big one, the bigger harbor freight with the plastic door is a copy of my scat blast, and should work pretty well. Get the biggest thing you feel like you can afford, though. You'll find a use for it. No matter how big you get, you'll eventually come across something that makes you wish you had a bigger one.
 
This is the dilemma I'm finding. I need to find that balance between budget and what I want to do. I'd like something between 5 and 8 if possible.

Edit: anyone have any experience with Eastwood? Found one that was $500 for $380.
 
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catfishblues said:
How big? TP Tools makes a nice one for a reasonable price. Had one where I used to work. Came with the vacuum unit for around 8 bills. If you don't need a whopping big one, the bigger harbor freight with the plastic door is a copy of my scat blast, and should work pretty well. Get the biggest thing you feel like you can afford, though. You'll find a use for it. No matter how big you get, you'll eventually come across something that makes you wish you had a bigger one.
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Was it like this one?

HOBBY PRO HP-75 Blast Cabinet & Vac-40 Vacuum Kit
 
I don't like using a shop vac for the exhaust, although I am right now. It's hard on the vac, as the filter isn't fine enough to filter out a lot of the dust that makes it through. As a result, the motor on mine is getting noisy, and it will spit very fine dust into the air that makes it past the filter. We use Black Diamond Medium Blasting Abrasives - For Life Out Here this for media. It's aggressive as hell. Kinda hard on nozzles, though. Wit the old blaster, we upgraded to the carbide nozzles over the steel nozzles and they lasted probably 10x as long, no exaggeration.
 
That's not a bad looking cab for the money! I like the double doors. I didn't know what your budget was, I was just letting you know what we had. It was very nice. That Grizzly definitely looks smaller, but not by too much. If you got in a pinch and needed some extra width, I've seen kits to extend the door, basically creating a little tunnel thing.
 
I have a Harbor Freight one, the upgraded dual latch model. It is full of aluminum oxide and does a great job.
The cabinet was just over $100 and the media was about $40/50lbs
 
catfishblues said:
How big? TP Tools makes a nice one for a reasonable price. Had one where I used to work. Came with the vacuum unit for around 8 bills. If you don't need a whopping big one, the bigger harbor freight with the plastic door is a copy of my scat blast, and should work pretty well. Get the biggest thing you feel like you can afford, though. You'll find a use for it. No matter how big you get, you'll eventually come across something that makes you wish you had a bigger one.
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I had the same situation catfishblues, feeling like the HF model I used in my shop just wasn't cutting it. I invested in this sandblaster by Raptor Blaster, and though the price was a lot more than Harbor Freight, I feel like I got my money's worth.
 
When I first read the thread title I thought it was about attempting to sandblast kitchen cabinets :lol:
 
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