Surplus center has the switches GeofWait until the light switch goes out and you try to source the parts to fix it. HF stocks nothing for it, so I had to mount a tube shop light inside and ditch the crappy light it had.
Surplus center has the switches GeofWait until the light switch goes out and you try to source the parts to fix it. HF stocks nothing for it, so I had to mount a tube shop light inside and ditch the crappy light it had.
And the foot pedal is a definite plus.The carbide tips from TPTools.com are a serious upgrade too. The pink ceramic ones wear out quickly; I bought a 6-pack of carbide tips several years back ... and am still using the first one.
If you find you're getting frequent clogs, the "hand block" method works but it sure gets old for big blasting jobs. I fabbed a media strainer out of three layers of old metal screen sandwiched between two pieces of 1/2" plywood with a big hole in the center. It's great for filtering bigger chunks of slag and rescuing the occasional small hardware that slips through the grate.
Pick up cheap pairs of slip joint and needle nose pliers and permanently dedicate them to your cabinet. Holding small parts in your hand will wear out that other glove very quickly, and at $22-30 apiece (also a TP Tools consumable), it's easy to see why pliers are preferred.
Picked this big beast up in 2010 off of Craigslist. Next to my 7' oven, it's the single best investment in my shop I've ever made.
View attachment 1715651729
Get rid of the siphon and put a metering valve on it.
When it's set up correctly, you only need a few cups of media in the hopper. Mine works awesome. Also, make sure you have a dry system. Water separator is a must.
Mine is very similar to the one in this video. You can purchase one pre-made (not made from pipe) for around 50-60 bucks. Well worth it in my opinion.
Lots of great info there. For the 1/4" carbide tip it says you need 10 to 15 cfm. Do you know if you can get by with less than that? Thanks much, SteveThe carbide tips from TPTools.com are a serious upgrade too. The pink ceramic ones wear out quickly; I bought a 6-pack of carbide tips several years back ... and am still using the first one.
If you find you're getting frequent clogs, the "hand block" method works but it sure gets old for big blasting jobs. I fabbed a media strainer out of three layers of old metal screen sandwiched between two pieces of 1/2" plywood with a big hole in the center. It's great for filtering bigger chunks of slag and rescuing the occasional small hardware that slips through the grate.
Pick up cheap pairs of slip joint and needle nose pliers and permanently dedicate them to your cabinet. Holding small parts in your hand will wear out that other glove very quickly, and at $22-30 apiece (also a TP Tools consumable), it's easy to see why pliers are preferred.
Picked this big beast up in 2010 off of Craigslist. Next to my 7' oven, it's the single best investment in my shop I've ever made.
View attachment 1715651729
Lots of great info there. For the 1/4" carbide tip it says you need 10 to 15 cfm. Do you know if you can get by with less than that? Thanks much, Steve
I did the Skat Blast siphon mod and it worked better than the original and then I got rid of it and put a metering valve on it. Night and day difference.
I did some of these mods. It's deeper and easier to change the glass now. You just use a cup or two of media and every once in a while you toss in another cup to replace what has broken down into dust and sucked into the vacuum.
I did that. There's a bunch of them. Watched a few so far but mostly...meh. I'm looking for the 7 part series he mentioned.just go to you tube and type in harbor freight blast cabinet mods. there are several one. the one that is the 7-10 part episode is best.
Get rid of the siphon and put a metering valve on it.
When it's set up correctly, you only need a few cups of media in the hopper. Mine works awesome. Also, make sure you have a dry system. Water separator is a must.
Mine is very similar to the one in this video. You can purchase one pre-made (not made from pipe) for around 50-60 bucks. Well worth it in my opinion.
That looks like it would work well. Having the supply right on the bottom like that is gravity fed. Leaving it a siphon and it has to work against gravity. Do you have yours like that? Does it work a lot better than the siphon?
@4spdragtop was correct. There are a bunch more out there doing basically the same thing. The one I posted did it the cheapest way (I liked that) and covered what I needed for mine.Big John, do you have a link to the YT mod videos you mentioned?
This is an industrial grade compressor. (at work) Not like my little cheapie at home....but you need a compressor with CFM to keep constant pressure at 80 pounds
Here are the mods I've done. Pretty simple stuff. Could do more but who has time for that?
Regulator, not really a mod, but required nonetheless.
View attachment 1715651971
Power for small halogen lights. They get nice and warm and help keep things dry. The plug inserted into the outlet is the shop vac connected to the back.
View attachment 1715651972
Here's the metering valve. probably 25-30 bucks in parts from the plumbing aisle. Works AWESOME.
View attachment 1715651973
Here is a shot of the material at the bottom. There's about a cup down there, a cup inside the valve/tube etc, and the ledges/sides inside the actual cabinet.
View attachment 1715651974
If I were to change anything else, and i might, it would be to make a smooth transition fro the media to fall back into the bottom. A lot gets stuck.
I also have but not shown, the kit from Eastwood that includes the gun, hoses, and foot pedal. The pedal is nice and a "hand saver" to say the least.
Incidentally, though it looks like an HF unit, It's not. At least I've never seen a HF unit that was welded at the seems. It's very close and the metal is thicker. Almost makes me wonder if it's a US made unit that was copied by the Chinese.
Probably meant copper slag Bud. I say coal all of the time too. lol