The Best Sandblast Cabinets for Every Budget 2022
If you are in the market for a sandblast cabinet, you can quickly realize that sandblast cabinets can cost anywhere from $129.00 to $20,000 or more dollars for top of the line abrasive blasting cabinets. Obviously which kind of cabinet is right for you will depend on the work you will be doing and how much you intend to use your blast cabinet. In this guide will provide blast cabinet options for various budgets and additional details of why prices vary so much between different sandblast cabinets.
Best Low Budget Sandblast Cabinets – $149
For very occasional use Harbor Freight Blast cabinets can be a great solution. When they only cost a little over $100 a sandblast cabinet from Harbor Freight is a great solution for occasional use like removing rust a few times a month from parts that you may need to do for around the home maintenance or as a part of occasional side projects like car restoration. After a harbor freight blast cabinet, your next step up is a light industrial design blast cabinet. Some of the primary differences between a $150 harbor freight blast cabinet and a light industrial cabinet include:
– The Gauge of Steel – Harbor Freights blast cabinets are made from 19 gauge steel, which is relatively thin steel. Thin gauge steel will typically not hold up well to more regular blasting or blasting with highly aggressive media for very long. So if your using a sandblast media or plan to use a sandblast media like aluminum oxide or you plan on blasting more than a time or two a week a very low budget blast cabinet may not be the best choice for your sandblast cabinet budget as it will often times wear out prematurely. In addition to being thinner steel, a Hobbyist cabinet typically doesn’t offer any sort of dust extraction, a light industrial cabinet will typically offer atleast 100 CFM of dust extraction allowing for slightly improved visibility while sandblasting.
Light Industrial Blast Cabinets – Budget Range – $850 – $3300
Light industrial blast cabinets include options like Cyclone blast cabinets and TP tool. A light industrial blast cabinet is well suited for daily use that is not significantly long in duration. Light industrial blast cabinets are ideal for maintenance work in industrial plants like cleaning off rusted equipment, for job shops needing to occasionally prep metal for products they plan on painting, and as a general rule for blasting where you will blast occasionally up to once a day for an hour or two roughly. A light industrial blast cabinet will typically have a smaller 100 CFM stock style dust collector or optional upgrade to a 400 CFM dust collector. Other optional features include light duty media reclaimers and pressure pot upgrades. A light industrial cabinet is typically made of slightly thinner steel than a regular heavy industrial cabinet, commonly made of 16 gauge steel.
Heavy Industrial Blast Cabinets – Budget Range $5500 and up
The primary differences between a light industrial and heavy or regular use industrial cabinet is that a heavy industrial cabinet will have a cartridge style dust collector that pulses and purges the collector filters of any dust into a drum. Additionally, a heavy industrial blast cabinet is made of 14 gauge steel, which will maximize the blast cabinets useful life, often allowing for hours of daily use for 15 – 20 years. A heavy industrial cabinet will also have a true media reclaimer that works by having sandblast media traveling through the reclaim system while a dust collector pulls fine particles and non blast media material out of the blast media, the blast media will fall back into your sandblast media vessel. A true reclaim system results in significantly less blast media changes because the sandblast media left will be free of contaminants and in the same size and shape as original blast media, fragmented blast media and contaminants are removed by the reclaimer. This allows a heavy industrial sandblast cabinet to offer long production lengths without having to empty your blast media. A heavy industrial blast cabinet will typically come with a minimum of a 300 CFM dust collector but usually will have even larger collectors offered allowing for better visibility. Additionally a heavy industrial blast collector will be offered in true suction or pressure blast designs. It will offer a true ASME certified blast pot, the ASME certification is a rating that guarantees the unit to handle a certain pressure safely. The cabinet will also often offer UL listed components and similar features. Cabinets in this price point include those offered by Clemco Industries.
Ultimately there are a variety of options to purchase a blast cabinet. One important consideration is how much to spend on a blast cabinet, which by understanding what you get for various price points you can better determine what makes the most sense for your sandblast cabinet budget. If you have further questions on blast cabinets and which may be right you can contact us.