The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Sandblast cabinets

Sandblast cabinets seem to have a big price difference and I was wondering if anyone has any experience with the cheaper ones. Less than $300 on Ebay or anywhere else? The cheapo in me would like to build one, but I would rather spend my time on the truck. I was originally planning on setting up an area in my yard for this, but I know what a mess they make. For the chassis and other big items I was planning on taking it to someone to do for me.

Here is one I am looking at buying next year. I inspected it at a recent swap meet and it is well built. Cost is in the same range as some of the crappy ones I have inspected.

http://www.barrelblaster.com/

I have a Skat Blast cabinet [#780] and absolutely love it. Best tool you can have if you are restoring or maintaining an old truck. Beats a wire wheel by 200%, quicker, better, and cleaner. I use mine nearly every day for something. My wife even finds things that need to be blasted and painted.

I got it on sale for $280 a couple of years ago - list is $349 now.

TP Tools Web Site

Paul

My $90 Harbor Freight one sucks.

You get what you pay for. My el cheapo $125 from ebay also sucks. Spend more time keeping it going than I do cleaning parts.

This is what I suspected. Thanks for the help. I guess I'll just pay the big bucks and buy it once. I am a carpenter, I should know better. Everytime I try and save a buck on a tool, I end up buying in again. Although, I did buy a grinder once from Harbor Frieght for $29 that has outlasted both a bosch and dewalt?

You need a good compressor to sandblast - probably more important than the cabinet. See the compressor thread in the tool shop forum.

get one with a good light.i can't see a thing in mine.

Gavin,your a carpenter so build one. I built mine in two hours with scraps from another project i was doing, bought a sandblast gun from sears, wired in a four foot shoplight inside and hooked my shop vac to it for dust removal. As mentioned in a previous post, the compressor is key. I think the most expensive part i had to buy was (i already had a compressor} was the piano hinge for the door. Works great....Good luck...................Dale

I got a build-it-yourself kit from TP tools and made my cabinet extra wide for some of the longer parts. The kit comes with all of the specialty stuff like the gloves, the syphon tube, the gun and glass with the electrical outlet/light source. Built mine in an afternoon and use it very often. Next to the shop itself and the aircompressor, it's probably one of the most used tools I have.
Good luck which ever way you go,
Scott

I picked up a KELCO blast cabinet in the local Bargain Hunter for $200. it is 5 feet wide and weighs about 1200 lbs.

I found out later it is worth a few thousand at least. It will hold a full motorcycle frame and it has a built in huge filter system with air powered filter shakers.

The downside is I need a bigger compressor - I have one thtat puts out 18 CFM a@ 90 and it is struggling..but with aluminum oxide it blasts like CRAZY.

Too bad I got to use boron carbide tips..$100US+ each..but apparently they will last quite a while.

It cleans up frame pieces beautifully.

I saved my $ for over a year (really) and went for the Skat-Blast from TP Tool company. Someone above also mentioned it. Mine is 46 inches wide and 28 high and deep. I really love it. It is a nice set up and this one came with two lights and a few extra nozzels and a couple bags of glass which is what I'm currently using. I ordered it back in late 2000 or early 2001 and it was $1000 bucks. Costly but it is nice! Check out the TP tool web site and they have some pretty good info in helping you to make a decision on which way to go...also have a nice page on air compressors, needs,pressure needs and a lot of useful info....try it.