Reputable blast cabinet brands?

I've got a HF sandblast cabinet that I've had for over 15 years. This thing looks like I bought it yesterday, why?, because it does not work worth a darn. I kept it all these years hoping I could figure out how to make it work somewhat better. Well about two years ago I was reading about a company that sells the parts to revamp these cabinets. The company "Tacoma Company", www.tacomacompany.com is the cats meow. I went from having to use 90+ lbs of pressure to get the thing to work to around 40 lbs of pressure. I was hesitant about buying the parts to do this but eventually bit the bullet and purchased them. Very good move in my opinion. Mike Tacoma and his wife run the company and are just about as good a folks as you could ask for. Their products are a step above too. Look into their products if you have one of these cabinets.
If anyone has any questions or can't find what your looking for let me know and I'll try to help.
 
I can second the prior post. I built a Tacoma conversion HF cabinet as well and it’s awesome!

Mike, who owns the company, is the most helpful guy!

As stated you end up blasting at around 40 psi and you can measure your media by the quart instead of by the bag. What I mean by that is I can blast for a good while with just a quart or two of media in the cabinet, so changing media is a breeze as there is very little to dump and replace. I also have mine set up with a small cyclone separator prior to the shop vac that keeps most of the dust out of the vac.

If anyone is interested in what the setup looks like I can post pics.
 
I'd like some pictures, if you would, please.
www.tacomacompany.com is kinda empty - no product listings or photos, just a link to their sales email address :(
 
Will do! Give me until this evening to get some pics posted.

Mike moved recently from Washington state to Idaho and he’s swamped with trying to get themselves and the business relocated.

And as I recall (it’s been a few years since I built my cabinet) they never had a very good website. What you see now is relatively new and I don’t know why they changed it. I suspect that being a small business that word of mouth alone keeps them busy.

Edit: I just remember something from my last conversation with Mike that I think he said something about trying to steer their efforts more into the realm of manufacturing ”specialty“ media, things that are not common on the market. Don’t quote me on that as it’s a little foggy in my memory. I suspect that with some youtube videos about cabinet conversions that were done in the past by happy customers that Mike was getting more business than their little outfit could handle.
 
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So here's some shots of what I did. Some of this is my own twist on things but most of it is how Mike recommends setting it up.

My shop is small and I need everything that can be to be on wheels. This also put the cabinet up higher, which for me was necessary as I am 6'1" and the height without the wheeled base would have me stooping the entire time to blast. I put some padded foam in the glove openings to lean my elbows on as I blast, very comfortable!
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This shows a closer view of the uptake valve for the media at the bottom of the hopper and the foot pedal. Both part of Mikes kit. It's easy to pull the plastic plug from the bottom of the valve to dump media for a change out.
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I chose to mount my pressure regulator in this spot and tee'd off for an air hose to the inside of the cabinet. Just put it where it's convenient for your use.
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The lights and wiring are up to you, there's lot's of ideas out there on that. This photo shows the vacuum meter that Mike makes. It's not necessary but I like having a means of knowing what my overall negative pressure in the cabinet is in case my vac starts backing up or whatever else may cause an issue.
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This was my own idea to use a cyclone separator before the shop vac. I made a contraption to hold a mason jar as my dust bin. This keeps a lot of the fines out of the vac, making the vac bags last a lot longer. What gets to this point in the system is pretty much very fine dust. The heavier bits of the blasting media of course fall back to the bottom of the cabinet.
The vent you see here is from Mike as well. It meters the incoming air to the cabinet so you can fine tune the amount of negative pressure you have.
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This is the outgoing air port for the cabinet. There is a baffle on the inside of the cabinet that is part of the original design that prevents large particles from entering the air flow. There is another metering valve on the top of this if you need to further reduce the vac flow if even with the other vent all the way open you have too much suction. I don't need to open this with the little vac I have on the cart as it is not too powerful. The size vac that I am using is perfect for this setup.
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Here's the gun that Mike makes and you can see the sheet metal parts he fabricates to alleviate the ledges inside the cabinet that hold media. I find it very handy having the airgun in the cabinet to blow residual media down to the bottom of the cabinet before I do a media change out.
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This shows you the parts from Mike that go on the inside of the door. This helps to keep media from piling up so that you don't have a bunch of media falling out into the shop when you open the door.
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Here you can see the baffle that Mike makes that prevents the incoming air from being a blast straight into the area that you are working in.
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Hope this all helps!
 
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Thanks! All of those modifications look very worthwhile. I see that you've also done a bunch of caulking (as @BGHansen mentioned in an earlier post).

I have a very small blast cabinet, bought used from a guy who cast dental work. One of the first things I did with it was to create my own small cyclone separator for the vacuum line. Even my crude version is great for keeping the dust out of the vac.
 
Haven't read through all of the posts, and will just give my unvarnished opinion. I've got a Harbor Freight unit, and while I'm grateful to have it, it's quite frankly a POS and I'd never waste the money on another. Next time, I'll either build my own, or buy a quality USA made cabinet. We have Cyclones at work, and they're head and shoulders above HF. Like I said, I'm still happy to have the ability to media blast at home, but the additional work and headache of making a HF work even remotely close to a quality product, isn't worth it IMO.
 
All of the modifications above are out of necessity for the HF blast cabinet. It's a good product for the money, but I must say that I am sick of that POS after owning it for the last 22 years. Constantly servicing and repairing it is a headache, and the dust... oh, the dust. I've set aside a fresh piggy bank for a wet (slurry) blast system after checking out several of them at work. There are a couple of good ones appropriate for the home shop that are turn-key for under $3k, which at this point is totally justifiable for me (and I'm a bit of a tightwad). I get so much use out of blasting and parts washing. I'm also conscious of the lead, chromium, and nickel in the coatings and substrates that I don't want to inhale any more of that dust every time I walk past the cabinet. Just thought I'd add the wet method to the conversation, it's very attainable and also a good candidate for a DIY project or modification to an existing cabinet.
 
Had a HF blast cabinet. Considered upgrading it. When looking at the cost of the upgrades and time to perform the upgrades, I decided on replacing it with a Grizzly Blast Cabinet. When I purchased it, I paid less than $700. That was a little over a year ago, and it's been well worth it. I've been able to spend time working on what I wanted vs upgrading. Built in dust collection, doesn't leak media, both hands free and hand held guns. It's gone up a bit in the last year, but if you look out for Grizzly's sales or rare free shipping, you can save another ~$100. The only thing I'm going to add is "T" to the air line feeding hand held gun, so I can add a blow gun for cleaning out the media from some parts.

www.grizzly.com

24" x 37" Sandblast Cabinet

<h1>G0707 24" x 37" Sandblast Cabinet</h1> <h2>Packed with features not found on other cabinets in this price range.</h2> <p>The G0707 24" x 37" Sandblast Cabinet is designed for high-use media blasting operations, where air flow up to 25 CFM and air pressure up to 120 PSI can be used.</p>...
www.grizzly.com www.grizzly.com
 
DAT510 said:
I decided on replacing it with a Grizzly Blast Cabine
Click to expand...
I avoided the HF blast cabinet based on various posts and went straight to the Grizzly. I did find I needed to add a vibrator to the media funnel. other than that it, has worked well for me.
 
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