Harbor freight glass beading cabinet

Ive got a harbor freight blast cabinet one size smaller than yours. mine dont have legs or the funnel type deal on the bottom. Ive had it for probably two years or more. Its not a bad deal for the money. It does have a couple things i dont like about it, like unability to get oem repacement screens and gloes.Sand leaks out everywhere. I sealed it up better to stop most of it. For a light i just bought a short fluroresnt light and made to tabs to mount it up. But overall i would buy another bigger one. right now i can barely fit a half a case in it. But worked good for jugs and head and other small parts.

The window for mine actually felt like glass when I pulled it out of its separate box,I stuck it back in its box figured its last piece Ill install.
My old homemade cabinet actually uses an old oven door with the glass still in it. :woohoo:

I picked up one like you have on Cl a couple of years ago. I've used it for a few different bike projects and it has always worked well. Powerstroke fan is right though; they leak. I intend to seal it up with some silicone one of these days but you may want to consider doing it as you build it. I also put mine on wheels so I could move it away from the wall so it is easier to hook up the shop vac.
Speaking of that... RStar45 I would like more info on how you built your accumulator.

I plan on siliconing the seams on mine from inside cabinet,Im also going to run a shop vac to it to keep dust down inside cabinet so I can see. :laugh:

What media are you guys using?

Depending on what Im cleaning I like to mix glass beads/baking soda,since this one has the hopper and drain on bottem it will be easier to switch things around depending on what Im cleaning

Do they sell the glass bead right at Harbor Freight? I know some of that stuff can be expensive.

I already use a cheapo gravity feed sandblaster and have a soda blaster. Both of those I need to use outdoors which is a PITA in winter or rain. Not to mention I have to drag everything outside just to do a small bracket, etc.

I NEED one of those cabinets.

Sure Jim,

Block of wood to help glue / hold an input directed at the side of the bucket sets the air spinning.


Made a cone to fit just above the inlet.


And a couple air filters on the lid.


Sure glad you asked... I really need to clean that sucker. :lol:

I've been using one of those for about 6 years. It needs tweaking to work good. Now's the time to do it....as you assemble.

First, EVERY seam needs a good, heavy duty silicone coating during assembly. DO NOT SKIMP there.

Second, the window is too small and all those screws that hold it in are a poor setup.

Cut a bigger hole in the top. Get a bigger window. Make you self a quick removal setup with some spin down clamps. You'll want to change protective film. It's cumbersome to do from inside the cabinet.

A K&N pod filter that will fit the exhaust hole from inside the cabinet will protect your vacuum source and can be quickly removed and cleaned without taking things apart.

Also, the intake vent on the right side needs to be filtered. A huge K&N with some PVC tubing, elbo and an adapter to fit snugly into the hole in the cabinet works good. Again...quick clean setup. You will be amazed at how much stuff actually gets up through the intake vent, even with that guard on it.

Yellow in the pic need weather strip. Blue in the pic is where you should rivet some plastic that will hang down inside the cabinet and block media from leaking out past the bottom of the door...

The right size glass bead isn't dusty. Crushed glass is dusty. Baking soda....fuget aboudit... you won't see anything you're doing, even with a great vacuum setup.

The light that comes with it won't last long. Toss it.. Get a better one.

NEVER fill the hopper. Put in just enough to be about 1 - 2 inches above the feed tube pickup hole. Don't try to make the glass bead last forever....

I save the old media for use in our portable blaster pot.

Car or automotive seam sealer works great....much better than silicone....

4TheKZ1000 wrote: Car or automotive seam sealer works great....much better than silicone....

The GE 20 year clear silicone that you use in house construction will seal it up just fine.

For this application silicon is probably fine, or painters caulk, or acrylic, or about anything.

But I'll tell ya a story:

I used to live on a small private fishing lake. (Most every old aluminum boat has seam leaks) So every year I would watch all the small aluminum boat owners scraping off the old silicon caulk on the seams and re-caulking. They could never get more than a season no matter what kind of caulk they used. When I purchased my own small boat I "caulked" all the seams with PL400 construction adhesive. That lasted for seven years and maybe longer, but I moved and quit using the boat so...

just 2 cents