Harbor Freight Blast Cabinet Upgrades

Overview

For the money, the blast cabinet from Harbor Freight (#68893) is a great value. I spent under $200 for both the cabinet and 80 grit glass media, using the usual 20% coupon you can get online. (No longer a thing..) We all know the reputation this cabinet has though. It’s well known this cabinet leaks media quite bad. This results in dust flying around your shop, and it makes visibility pretty bad inside the cabinet.  Below is a compressed list of what I’ve modded so far.This will get you up and running, there’s still a ton of mods that can be accomplished to really get some high end performance out of this thing. Down the line I will be upgrading the gun, and going to a media regulator / foot pedal.

Disclaimer

Many links in this guide are affiliate links. Clicking on them, and purchasing the item gives me a very small percentage of the sale. I try to research and only provide recommendations / links to products that are high quality and will be useful. If you appreciate the guide, and were considering doing this project, consider using products listed in this guide!

Supplies

  1. The cabinet – Model #68893
  2. Sealant – I bought 5x, only needed 3x
  3. Caulking gun – Needed to use the sealant.
  4. Light upgrade – I used one from Harbor Freight, this one will work as well
  5. Outlet box (Get this anywhere)
  6. Outlet plug, or plug and combo switch for said outlet box
  7. A 3 prong power cord that you can cut one end off of. So just cut an extension cord up.
  8. Air regulator – Get some air drying filters if you are not drying the air prior to the cabinet
  9. Fittings for said air regulator. (Everyone’s setup is different, I do recommend getting some 90 degree elbows though.)
  10. Vacuum – Does not need to be high hp, just get a cheap one. I bought a Rigid from Home Depot for $50.
  11. Dust regulator – I bought a Dust Stopper from Home Depot. The hose that comes with that is what I used to size the 3D printed adapter for the cabinet adapter. Any cyclone separator will work. You can even make your own for cheap following this video.
  12. Free download – Required 3D prints for the baffle, and rear hose adapter. Requires a 3D printer. Worse comes to worse you can make the adapters out of PVC.
  13. Misc air fittings, grommets, etc.

Quick Guide

  • Seal the cabinet with your choice of sealant – I went with silicon
  • Add an air regulator
  • Install a standard outlet box for the new light and vacuum power
  • Configure a dust collection system. This includes adding a vacuum, dust cyclone, hoses, and my sweet 3D printed adapters.

Seal The Cabinet

When assembling the cabinet I highly recommend using some sort of sealer on every single joint. Both inside and out. The older cabinets came welded, so you didn’t need to worry as much. The newest version (SKU# 68893) is assembled via a ton of bolts and flat panels. There is gasket material on the major joints, but this has proven to be rather insufficient for sealing. The cabinet needs to be sealed to perform its best. This is a crucial step, ignoring this means you should just ignore all the other mods.

I used 100% silicon. I have heard that polyurethane may be a better option for straight blasting. The polyurethane is going to resist tearing more than the silicon. I do plan on converting my blaster over to a vapor blaster in the future, which requires the cabinet to also be water leak proof. So I took extra care to hit every joint. I recommend either clear, or black sealant.

Tips For Sealing

  1. Seal the bottom basin before final assembly. It’s difficult to reach the inside joints when the basin is attached to the rest of the cabinet.
  2. After running your bead of sealant, take a popsicle stick or your finger and gently run it down the length of the joint in the sealant. This will force the sealant to spread over both edges of the joint and create a significantly better seal.
  3. Silicon is easy to clean when dry. Just rub and peel it away. Be careful about peeling silicon that is attached to your sealed joints. You may end up pulling the seal off.
  4. I added sealant even over the factory joint that had the tape gasket.
  5. Clean up any loose sealant when done. Your gun will not be able to shoot a large chunk of sealant, which will cause it to clog.

Adding a Regulator

This ones pretty self explanatory. You need to be able to regulate the PSI coming into the cabinet so you can fine tune how the gun is actually blasting the media. The glass media I am shooting has a wide range of applicable PSI. Something like 40 – 100PSI. I found out that the regulator I did buy was not going to fit running straight out of the cabinet. I put a 90 degree fitting on it to cure that problem. The closer to the cabinet hookup the better. Moister will kill the media and the gun quickly. So make sure you have some sort of air dryer prior to the gun.

Outlet Box and Lights

Adding an outlet box makes controlling the new light and the vacuum system you’ll be installing a lot more easy.

  1. Mount the outlet box wherever you’d like. I chose the left side of the cabinet because that is closest to the light. I recommend using bolts and washers for this. You can use self-tapping screws, but they may loosen up over time.
  2. Chop the female end of an extension cord off. Wire in the outlet box plugs like any normal household outlet using your new extension cord. Make sure it’s long enough, and properly rated for both the light and vacuum together. You may want to opt for a switch somewhere in here. Then you can just leave the vacuum on, and switch it off at the outlet.
  3. Climb inside your cabinet and mount the new light you’ll be using. Make sure you already ran the plug for the light outside the cabinet before getting the order of operations backwards and cursing at the sky. If you’re planning on using a grommet around your light’s cable, make sure that is also fitted before running the wires through the side of the cabinet. Make sure your light’s cord is long enough to reach your new outlet box as well.
  4. Plug it in, and hope nothing explodes.

Dust System and 3D Prints

After all that fun stuff, here’s where the real results are at. Using a vacuum and a dust cyclone will make this cabinet 10x better. You’ll be able to actually see, and your shop won’t look like the Sahara Desert. The reason you want to use some sort of dust filtration before your vacuum is it will reduce the change interval on the vacuums filter. The dust cyclone will trap all the loose media before it hits the vacuum. Rearranging how the cabinet handles air will also aid in this. This will also reduce the amount of media carry out as well. For some reason Harbor Freight decided that the left side opening was a great place for hooking up a vacuum. Problem with that is you end up shooting media right out of the cabinet. By switching from that left port, to using the one in the back, you can reduce media carry out.

Adding an outlet box makes controlling the new light and the vacuum system you’ll be installing a lot more easy.

  1. Mount the outlet box wherever you’d like. I chose the left side of the cabinet because that is closest to the light. I recommend using bolts and washers for this. You can use self-tapping screws, but they may loosen up over time.
  2. Chop the female end of an extension cord off. Wire in the outlet box plugs like any normal household outlet using your new extension cord. Make sure it’s long enough, and properly rated for both the light and vacuum together. You may want to opt for a switch somewhere in here. Then you can just leave the vacuum on, and switch it off at the outlet.
  3. Climb inside your cabinet and mount the new light you’ll be using. Make sure you already ran the plug for the light outside the cabinet before getting the order of operations backwards and cursing at the sky. If you’re planning on using a grommet around your light’s cable, make sure that is also fitted before running the wires through the side of the cabinet. Make sure your light’s cord is long enough to reach your new outlet box as well.
  4. Plug it in, and hope nothing explodes.

Contact

If you have any questions or issues, please shoot me a message! I’m happy to help.

Leave the first comment

Triiaxis