Let's Talk Cabinet Blasters

I am thinking of getting a cabinet blaster.
I see there are many sizes and suppliers.

What are you using?
Size of the cabinet?
Brand?
Oxide or glass bead?
What is the minimum compressor output needed?
Are the small table top any good for smaller items?
Anything to run away from?
I see there are places that have used equipment...but with something like this unless you know the history it seems risky.

I bought a barrel blaster and love it. Make sure whatever you get has a foot pedal, much easier to operate. I use a few different types of media. They are air hogs (any of them). I have an older IR compressor that keeps up, I’d have to check the cfm rating for it.

I have a Skat Blast, a big one - www.skatblast.com

Love it! I could use a newer air compressor though.

Blast media type depends on what you are blasting.

i have a whole lot of experience on this.
i have three cabinets. first one is a dry pressure cabinet. that i use 10x epix which is around a 100 grit. low dust no silica. fast cutting 30x40"
2nd is a modified syphon feed (gravity feed through the bottom) dry #10 glass bead. 24x36"
3rd is a wet blast vapor blast cabinet (water + glass bead) 40x40"

all work well after modifying them. you can start off with a harbor frieght chinesium cabinet and modity the feed. lots of stuff online to do the conversion. it will perform 3x faster with the mods. check out tacoma company for the mods but source your stuff elsewhere he is a dick and ships when he feels like it
anything 24x30" would be a good start.
add a vacuum system to the cabinet as well. dust deputy works well for catching the dust before it hits the vacuum.

compressor. that depends on how big of a nozzle you use. smaller nozzle - less production but uses less air. You could probably get away with a 3hp but i would go 5hp at least if your starting fresh. good water trap as well

lots of medias work well alox is very heavy and can have problems flowing. garnet is a hard media that holds up. epix is good but very expensive.

another trick. dont fill your cabinet with 50-100lbs of media. put 10lbs in. easier to dump and no benefit with too much media in it.

used....facebook marketplace buy a cheapie and modify. easy to do. a $300 cabinet you can make work like a $3000 one.

I have a skat blast from tp tools. I can do an intake or 15” wheel but that’s about it. I bought mine about 15 years ago and have used it a lot. My compressor is a 2 stage 18 cfm - 23 cfm and it just keeps up. Nozzle size determines cfm. There are times I wish I had gone bigger, but for the most part, it’s the right size.

I think my model was the 780. Just replaced the gloves last year. Also make sure you have a good water separator.

Keep the cabinet as close to the compressor as possible, using largest dia hose that's comfortable.
You'd be surprised at the pressure drop on some hose after 25 feet or so.

I have the smaller Skat Blast . It has worked well over the years. I had a cheap harbor freight one that always leaked and I tossed it when I bought the Skat Blast.

I also have a Skat-Blast from TP Tools.... have tried to wear it out for close to 20 years. It is nice to have. If using glass bead (which I do), get it from TP Tools. I tried some Harbor Freight media and it was so dusty I couldn't see what I was trying to clean up.

Same here on the Skat-Blast from TP Tools. Bought a double door (one on each end) cabinet 20+ years ago for the shop at work and it has seen hundreds of hours of work with no issues except wearing out tips and needing more glass protecting "tear offs" and more glass bead medium. The nice thing about having access doors on each end is a couple of times we had to bead blast some things of unusual lengths so we made a temporary extension, removed one end door, sealed the extension and fit the item in complete. Blasted the section in the cabinet then flip it to the part that rested in the extension. Can easily be done with cardboard, wood or whatever. You can do a bumper that is twice the length of your cabinet this way with a double end door blaster. Oh and always open and shut the door while leaving the vacuum on this way the dust tends to stay in the cabinet.

I have a Trinco unit which is commercial grade ( compare the weight of the units ) Also Carbide nozzles will for out last a ceramic one. I run a 7.5 HP two Stage Quincy with a couple of filters/ traps and a Motorguard filter right at the cabinet.

I bought a Harbor Freight blaster years ago, mid 1980s? I finally assembled it 3 yrs. ago. and it is horrible on leaking out of the bottom edges into the shop
It came with some sticky insulation rubber strips but no mention in the instructions what they were for so I will now take it apart and install them and hope that fixes it
I had a real old Craftsman brand siphon type blaster that was a total loss system that had to be used outside and spread sand all over where you were working making a mess, I didn't use it very much due to that issue .
My message is buy a good brand first and not regret it later

Same here, I've had a Skat Blast cabinet for 30 years now and love it.

I believe it's the 960, this one. https://www.skatblast.com/product/usa-960-dlx-abrasive-blast-cabinet/

About 12 years ago I added an extension to the side of the cabinet to be able to fit the metal dash frames into it.
Extension.https://www.skatblast.com/product/blast-cabinet-extension-2/

I have a small bench top one and a friend of mine who does anything bigger in his.

Usually I'm doing parts that I end up powder coating and for that I'm still using one of the eastwood kits.

I think we have the next step up from the 960 and what a workhorse. Need to make sure you have good clean, dry contaminant free air getting to it for better results.

I’ve got two. One is an old industrial clamshell type. It works well but it can leak some. I bought a medium size Scat from in a package deal in a big buy. I like it but it’s not near big enough for big items. Get the biggest you can afford. You will use it all the time. Get a big compressor and a good water filter trap. I use the one with the paper roll from TP. They are a great source for parts. I use a regular big shop vac with bags for one. The bags for the canister type can blow out and send dus5 all over the place.

i have a trinco machine - it's big and heavy... cost a pretty penny, but compared to my buddy's tp machine its a Cadillac against a pinto - expensive, but they work very well

i bought two hobo fright blasters when they were on a "super sale" [??]. kinda like almost a twofer one deal.
my plan is to modify them by bolting them together, and modifying the tray/hopper area to be a "quick dump" into a 5 gallon pail.
the reason for this, i will be using this outside in an open protected area, hopefully keeping the dust out of the shop.
the "quick dump" will allow me to empty the bin when i'm done, and store the media inside to keep it from getting damp.
i'm also going to hook up a shop vac. i'm guessing a 5 gallon unit will be enough ?

The filter you speak of is made by Motor guard and has been around for years. they can b e bought cheaper elsewhere They were originally used as an oil filter back in the 50's. one would want the M-60 as it has larger fittings for air flow.
If one does not have an air dryer on their compressor you will likely need one of these. I place a separator with a drain just before the MG Filter and then straight to the regulator separator on the the blast cabinet. I also add an 1/8 NPT petrcock to the bottom of the MG housing so i can drain it as well

I have a Trinco 36" cabinet....Wish I had room for a 48". The Trinco is a high quality US made unit. I highly recommend if it is within your budget. I use black magic to blast most anything I do. I run a water seperator at the outlet on the compressor and one at inlet to the cabinet. Clean dry air is mandatory.

Before I started the resto on the Sport Satellite, I bought a HOBO unit

https://www.harborfreight.com/40-lb-capacity-floor-abrasive-blast-cabinet-68893.html

Found that the finer #7 (I think it is) glass bead left a great finish, might have taken longer to strip crap off, but no real pitting . . . anyhow, it was big enough for larger things like a wheel (took a while to do) . . . I have a Campbell Hausfeld compressor that really had to work, so would drain the air tank, then stop and let it fill up and go again . . . anyhow, for my use it worked great ! Took up too much space, so after I was all done, sold to a buddy . . .

Guess it all depends on what your are going to use it for and how long you want to use it . . .

Cheers

Mark

I have 2. An unknown brand one that came from my cousin's work when they went out of business. Wish it was a little bigger. The dust evac system though is huge but kinda noisey. It has a filter in it that's the size of what's on a Mack truck. Obviously built from the factory as an incorporated unit with the cabinet. I've replaced gloves once and a couple of tips (carbide)over the years and I use the snot out of it.
My other is a Horror Freight benchtop model, what a POS.chincey chinesium, leaks like crazy. Work wouldn't buy me one at any price (even a "cheap" one) so I didn't want to spend much on a unit for "them". I've worn out a few shop vacs on that one as dust evac units. I would use it more than I do, if it was a better unit /but as it is it's there for exactly 1 reason/ as a fleet mechanic I do lots of brake jobs. I use this Horror Freight unit to clean the rust and buildup from the caliper brackets. I don't blast the whole bracket only the portion where the pads ride is b the machines grooves and any threaded holes on them. I'm always in the lookout for something better on places like marketplace and CL something like even an ALC brand or something like that, I looked at an ALC at the new northern store that opened up not too far from here but I don't want to spend $300 to donate it to work. There's a farmer who works with us in the winter who has his eyeballs on my current POS not knowing it's that much of a POS as it is..... If I find a better one letting him have it would be about the same as throwing it in the junk heap which is where the one at work is headed as soon as I can anyway. We have an old siphon feed "bucket" blaster that I think actually belongs to my boss that I have been using more lately "out the back door" for my purposes than I have been using the horror freight one.

I tossed my first cheap one it was so bad. I didn`t even want to give it away . My skat blast is about 15 years old and still works fine.

At home along with my cabinet that came from my cousin's old job, I also have a TP tools 100 lb pressure pot that I'll occasionally use outside if I have something bigger. I did the whole underside of my volare with this one out in the driveway some years ago. I don't use that one as much anymore, occasionally I'll do a garden tractor mower deck or something like that with it.still use it enough to justify keeping it.
For a compressor I have a 5hp 80 gallon upright Emglo from about 1987, 4 cyl 2 stage pump. I think it's about 23 cfm at 80 psi and 18 ish at 175. I rebuilt it once, had a valve go out, I put rings and everything in it at the time. It barely keeps up with the cabinet. It runs and runs and runs while I'm blasting, and the needle barely holds 90psi the whole time I'm blasting with it. For anything else I do besides running the blaster, it's almost overkill. I know where there's a 120 gallon tank from an old compressor, I'm thinking about getting it and plumbing it into mine so I'd have 200 gallon of reserve.

This is the big question that will govern what you choose. A blast cabinet is just a box to put your work in and not much else. Nothing wrong with a used one. I have a large one made by Eastwood and it works well but here are a few things to consider. One is the amount of light in the cabinet. Most have a single buld(florescent) that after you get some dust in the cabinet it's hard to see. I plan on putting 3 rows(or more) of leds to improve this. If you blast something rather large it blocks the light and you cant see where you want to blast.
The media is important to what you are blasting. They make a film to cover the exposed side of the glass to help keep from replacing the glass. It works but does obscure the work slightly.
But sure beats replacing the glass. There is a filtration bucket you can make out of pvc tube that you put water and dish liquid that is supposed to catch most of the dust before it goes to the vacuum system you use. I started to make this but never finished it. This is basically it but the intake side i made a "u" shape out of the pvc with holes in it to help filter out the debris.

Anyone with good Baking Soda or Dry Ice blasting experiences?

i blast for a living and use soda. i used to use a ton of it but not so much anymore. my crushed glass supplier has stepped up with so much better grits that soda has become almost obsolete in my blasting. that and its 5x the price of glass i dont even soda blast corvettes anymore, just super fine glass.

dry ice is good but expensive and does nothing to rust, like soda.

for you guys wanting a better dust remover. dust deputy type cyclones work amazingly well. i sold both of the dust set ups that came with my cabinets and went with these. 5 gal bucket (or whatever size you want) a shop vac and hose. i will fill a bucket of spent media before there is a 1/2" of media in the vac. just have to clean the dust filter in the vac. i add a dust chute on the other side of the cabinet to control how much makeup air i need. this is an amazon $40 one.

If you go the Harbor Freight route, be sure to check out the guy on YouTube that has a video to improve the Harbor Freight box blaster. He gets it dialed in pretty well.

We all cant buy high end tools. The HF might work well for a lot of people. 30 years ago my dad and I made a cabinet blaster out of plywood and 2-by's. Lined the interior with sheet metal, bought a foot pedal, gloves, blast gun and its worked well for home resto use throughout that time.