Harbor freight sand blaster

[Bustter4]

Has anyone ever used the harbor freight samd blaster if so how does it work? I also have the cheap harbor freight 90 amp flux core welder. How does she work on repairing small holes in sheet metal

 

[Blue Bastard]

The sand blaster works pretty well. Just make sure you put it together well and seal it up well with some extra sealant in the corners. I would consider finding a footpedal trigger set up for it. The finger trigger gets a little tiring. But for the money it worked well enough to blast most of the parts off my 66 restoration, lots of nuts and bolts and brackets and things.

 

[suthernboy]

I bought the HF 100 Lb blaster to blast my frame and chassis components. It works OK, for the price. A few tips:

1) Use fine sandblasting sand, not "play sand".
2) Buy the "dead-man" style valve at HF ($20), the supplied ball valve is annoying. Make sure you hold the trigger handle wide open during blasting or you'll blast the cut-off rubber block away and it won't hold a good seal.
3) Occasionally the rubber blasting hose will wear through at the bottom where it connects to the sand/air mixing valve. You'll have to stop and cut off an inch or two and reconnect.
4) Set the mixing valve about half open, not full open.
5) Use dry air.

Overall, as I said, it worked OK for the money. If I was going to blast a lot of projects, I'd probably pony-up and buy a more professional model from one of the specialized vendors.

 

[CopperRanger]

Hey Beau, Did you hook up a vecuum in that to keep the dust down or is it good just the way it is? I have been thinking about getting the same one.

 

[Bustter4]

What about there compressors how are they?

 

[BoureeOne]

I have a similar unit from Tractor Supply. It does work well. You have to have a shop vac type system to keep the dust clear, or you can't see what you are doing. Another trick is to put your finger over the tip and cover it up , and then hit the trigger a couple of times. This blows the sand at the pickup point and keeps a smooth supply to the nozzle....

 

[bbow]

I have the harbor Freight 90 amp flux core machine. Haven't done a lot of sheet metal work with it but I did build a swing out spare tire carrier out of 2x2 - 3/16. Some tips I learned from the web: Remove the cone, you don't need it, it's flux core. Throw the Harbor freight wire away and get some Lincoln or Hobart wire. The tip that comes with the machine is .035. If you use .030 which you would for sheet metal, go to Lowes or Home depot and get a pack of .030 Lincoln tips.

 

[lowbush]

I bought the HF 100 Lb blaster to blast my frame and chassis components. It works OK, for the price. A few tips:

1) Use fine sandblasting sand, not "play sand".
2) Buy the "dead-man" style valve at HF ($20), the supplied ball valve is annoying. Make sure you hold the trigger handle wide open during blasting or you'll blast the cut-off rubber block away and it won't hold a good seal.
3) Occasionally the rubber blasting hose will wear through at the bottom where it connects to the sand/air mixing valve. You'll have to stop and cut off an inch or two and reconnect.
4) Set the mixing valve about half open, not full open.
5) Use dry air.

Overall, as I said, it worked OK for the money. If I was going to blast a lot of projects, I'd probably pony-up and buy a more professional model from one of the specialized vendors.

I have a Clark blaster from Tractor Supply, but it's pretty much the same pot blaster, anyway I found this thread on how to modify the blaster and I will tell you after doing so mine blasts like a champ, basically you throw out that weird mixing bowl and get a 45 degree steel pipe joint and a T joint and upgrade the size of all the fittings at the bottom of the unit. I did not hack the legs and extend them like the guy who did the thread did, but I will tell you, the upgrade is worth the price of a couple fittings, I never get clogs and I run the play sand thru it, I have to screen filter it for larger pebbles in the media but all the stuff that makes it thru the screen runs fine. 4 bucks a 50 lbs bag ain't bad for blast media.

As a note, he drove the pin out of the deadman valve and used a ball valve but I don't recommend doing this, the sand ends up eating thru ball valves once its in the high pressure portion of the line, I ended up going thru several steel and brass valves before I just said screw it and went back to the deadman's valve.

http://www.hotrodders.com/forum/hf-pressure-sandblaster-modification-234641.html


As a note to the original poster remember you need a lot of air for a blaster. My 80 gallon unit still has to huff and puff a bit for big blasting jobs.


As for the flux core, I think they are junk, personally I would get their cheap stick unit over that little flux core job. You will be disappointed pretty quickly with a 120 volt flux only welder. Spend a little more and get the cheapest 240 MIG unit they have. It's 80 bucks more and well worth the additional 80 bucks. I have never seen a 120 MIG welder that was not junk, they are just too limited.

 

[Blue Bastard]

Yes vacuumed use is the way to go.

 

[Bustter4]

What do yall think of the harbor freight compressor the 20 gallon

 

[00gyrhed]

what he said

I bought the HF 100 Lb blaster to blast my frame and chassis components. It works OK, for the price. A few tips:

1) Use fine sandblasting sand, not "play sand".
2) Buy the "dead-man" style valve at HF ($20), the supplied ball valve is annoying. Make sure you hold the trigger handle wide open during blasting or you'll blast the cut-off rubber block away and it won't hold a good seal.
3) Occasionally the rubber blasting hose will wear through at the bottom where it connects to the sand/air mixing valve. You'll have to stop and cut off an inch or two and reconnect.
4) Set the mixing valve about half open, not full open.
5) Use dry air.

Overall, as I said, it worked OK for the money. If I was going to blast a lot of projects, I'd probably pony-up and buy a more professional model from one of the specialized vendors.

The harbor freight sandblaster is a heck of a deal for the money. You cant put one together from parts any cheaper. I have used all manner of sandblaster and for the occasional use. I wouldn't want to make a living with it. But it really isn't much different than the best of the best for the occasional user. I used mine quite a bit and it has sat for three years except to take out one time and blast some wrought iron for my wife. you actually will be able to fine tune the bottom valve.

On the welder, 120v, and flux core all by themselves are harder to use on sheet metal than 240V and inert gas. I had a 120 v Hobart that I couldn't weld sheet metal with very well at all. Inert gas helped. You will be amazed how much easier 240V and inert gas is than flux core and 120.

My father can weld sheet metal with an AC cracker box, but then he can weld a cow turd to a brick........

If you have good skills or are willing to do a lot of grinding you machine will do what you need.

 

[00gyrhed]

I bought mine second hand for $25

What do yall think of the harbor freight compressor the 20 gallon[/QUOTE

The only issue with the small tank is that it is a real hassle to continually stop and fill the tank, but if you air compressor cant keep up it doesn't really matter. I found with mine about the time I lost air pressure I also was very close to running out of sand, swo by the time I took a break and filled it with sand the compressor was ready to go.

Again for occasional use you will probably be more happy with the 20 gallon anyway. Its smaller easier to store and will do hat you need. I find mine works best with the fine white sand they used to put in public ashtrays back when smoking was allowed in buildings.

 

[fatboy]

The sand blaster works pretty well. Just make sure you put it together well and seal it up well with some extra sealant in the corners. I would consider finding a footpedal trigger set up for it. The finger trigger gets a little tiring. But for the money it worked well enough to blast most of the parts off my 66 restoration, lots of nuts and bolts and brackets and things.

I have this unit as well but want to upgrade the gun, it could be better. As has been said, you cannot put the cabinet together for the price. I bought it on sale and used a 20% off coupon, they honored it. When assembling, do yourself a huge favor and buy a tube or two of caulk and caulk every seam as you assemble so that you do not have media escaping the unit. Also, there is a set up for a vacuum cleaner, use it, it keeps the dust down very well.

 

[Scott72]

First post but figured I could contribute. I have the Eastwood version of the same blaster. Works pretty well but read the post from the Hotrod forum posted by lowbush as the modifications can really help.

You will really want at a minimum a two stage compressor, otherwise it's very frustrating. Originally ran the blaster with a 60gal single stage Devilbiss and it couldn't come close to keeping up. Now have a Bel-Aire 60gal two stage (15.33 cfm @ 90) and it is better but still works very hard. Harbor freight has a great compressor that is made at the same plant as my Bel-Aire. Read the below thread for details:

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=284720

 

[dave67fd]

I have this unit as well but want to upgrade the gun, it could be better. As has been said, you cannot put the cabinet together for the price. I bought it on sale and used a 20% off coupon, they honored it. When assembling, do yourself a huge favor and buy a tube or two of caulk and caulk every seam as you assemble so that you do not have media escaping the unit. Also, there is a set up for a vacuum cleaner, use it, it keeps the dust down very well.

I bought the table top brother to this one and it was sealed. I think they have started sealing them. I get a small amount of dust out of the glove seal on one side but it's minimal. I purchased a pvc elbow and reducer to couple to a standard shop vac hose, replaced the shop vac filter with a fine particle filter and foam exhaust filter and works pretty good.

The 20 gal compressor won't work. My 60 gal works half way decent for my table top blaster and abit more taxing on my Eastwood 100lb blaster. Same as the Harbor freight 100lb unit but has a better quality deadman valve.

 

[suthernboy]

get a 45 degree steel pipe joint and a T joint and upgrade the size of all the fittings at the bottom of the unit. I did not hack the legs and extend them like the guy who did the thread did, but I will tell you, the upgrade is worth the price of a couple fittings, I never get clogs and I run the play sand thru it, I have to screen filter it for larger pebbles in the media but all the stuff that makes it thru the screen runs fine. 4 bucks a 50 lbs bag ain't bad for blast media.

Hey Lowbush, thanks for the tip on modifying the mixer valve, I'll try that. I used play sand to start with too, like you because it was $4/50 Lb bag, even bought a neat screen that fits over a 5-gallon pail, then, I discovered that a 100 Lb bag of fine sandblasting sand was only $8.75!....felt like an idiot for all the time I spent screening.

Another tip for a first time blaster: Spend the money on a decent blast hood with a replaceable lens. The one from HF is crappy, I got one from Eastwood that works much better. The HF lens gets blurry real quick and you either a) miss spots because you can't see well, or b) waste air & sand by blasting spots too much because you can't see well. Moral, make sure you can see well, and that's that much less time you gotta spend with that damn hood on.

 

[lowbush]

Hey Lowbush, thanks for the tip on modifying the mixer valve, I'll try that. I used play sand to start with too, like you because it was $4/50 Lb bag, even bought a neat screen that fits over a 5-gallon pail, then, I discovered that a 100 Lb bag of fine sandblasting sand was only $8.75!....felt like an idiot for all the time I spent screening.

Another tip for a first time blaster: Spend the money on a decent blast hood with a replaceable lens. The one from HF is crappy, I got one from Eastwood that works much better. The HF lens gets blurry real quick and you either a) miss spots because you can't see well, or b) waste air & sand by blasting spots too much because you can't see well. Moral, make sure you can see well, and that's that much less time you gotta spend with that damn hood on.

IF I could find the 100 lbs bags around here I would but no one ever has them and Harbor Freight is a 45 minute drive from me.

For a blast hood, I actually use a ski mask and goggles with a respirator, it works really well. I agree on the hood, that thing sucks.

 

[Crawdad]

I got the exact HF blast cabinet, I pd $160 after a sale plus online coupon. I haven't done any mods other than adding flood lights on the inside. I don't have a vacuum hooked up but plan to do some engineering using five gallon buckets filled with water and some hoses. Search online for ideas to reduce dust.
One thing you will need is a damn good air compressor. This cabinet consumes air quickly and u need a unit that can keep up. I have a IR 5hp 80 gal 2stage and it has fits keeping up. I don't have to wait but just the fact that it runs a lot while I'm blasting. I had a smaller 30 gallon single stage Kobalt on a 220 line and it ran all the time and really got way too hot, not to mention I could blast for like 5 seconds and wait 30 seconds to let compressor recharge. If I continued I would have burned it up so that why I went with a much larger compressor. I'm not say you need to go out and get a $1200 compressor like i did. There are plenty of similar units on CL for half that if you keep an eye open. If you can get a 7 hp compressor do it. I kinda wish I did! Bigger is better!
As far as your welder, u may soon realize those small pin holes will turn into big holes using any sort of welder. Thinned out metal as a result of rust will dissolve so to speak when struck by the arc. I'd cut out a nickel sized piece and replace it with thicker metal. Then go back in there with your welder. May help using a large aluminum block behind it to absorb some heat. Do spots welds and have breaks in between so you don't have any warping.

 

[OX1]

Moral, make sure you can see well, and that's that much less time you gotta spend with that damn hood on.

Best way to see well, beyond keeping window clear, is to keep
the space cleared. I used piping off the exhaust vent, into a
5 gallon bucket water filled catch can, through a ball valve
(to keep critters out when not in use), through a HF industrial fan,
and then outside.

 

[suthernboy]

Best way to see well, beyond keeping window clear, is to keep
the space cleared. I used piping off the exhaust vent, into a
5 gallon bucket water filled catch can, through a ball valve
(to keep critters out when not in use), through a HF industrial fan,
and then outside.

Holy Cow! That's a nice set-up OX1! I have the same cabinet but just use my shop-vac with a fine bag filter (like for drywall) and it does OK. But yours is Awesome! When I mentioned "seeing well" I was actually talking about when using a sandblaster, not a blast cabinet.