Garage equipment questions (Blast cabinet & Press)

[Philip A.]

Is the Harbor Freight 40 lb capacity Floor Blast Cabinet & 20 Ton Press, OK pieces of equipment? I know HF stuff is not usually the highest quality, but this is for personal non-commercial light use. Anyone with any experience with these; pros and cons? Thanks.

[Edward J.]

Re: Garage equipment questions (Blast cabinet & Press)

Philip, For what you are going to use for it should be okay. As far a the press. do you really need one? not a lot of uses. unless you rebuild the trailing arms. or rear diff work. 4spd transmissons .

[Philip A.]

Re: Garage equipment questions (Blast cabinet & Press)

Thanks Ed. Totally agree about press, but I have had times when I could use one. I am very DIY about anything mechanical; not just vettes. I am more interested in feedback on the blast cabinet, though.

[Patrick H.]

Re: Garage equipment questions (Blast cabinet & Press)

A couple of notes -

I bought their benchtop one since my previous benchtop one had gloves and parts I could not replace any more. I got some money back from the metal recycler so I did OK.
I also borrowed parts from it to modify the new unit.

Note that having one door is a handicap. There is the occasion you will use the second door, so I want you to realize this.
Also, you will likely have to seal some of the joints. I used some clear silicone on the outside as "cheap insurance" on any joint that did not look like it was well sealed.
Buy plenty of clear window protectors now, since when Harbor Freight changes suppliers in a year you won't find your size any more.
I also had to modify my outlet to work with my shop vac. I purchased an Oneida Dust Deputy to collect the blast media that gets sucked out so I can re-use it. When you use a shop vac to suck out the dirty air be sure to use a bag inside meant for drywall dust if you don't want to ruin the motor.

http://www.oneida-air.com/category.a...-B5C357DFE131}

I modified the air hose connections and sand suction system mounting using parts from my old unit and others I had laying around.

Be prepared to do a bit of modification to make the unit customized as you'd like and you will do fine.

[Mike G.]

Re: Garage equipment questions (Blast cabinet & Press)

Patrick: thanks for the tip on the Dust Deputy - great solution for much less $$ than the blast cabinet dust collectors from TP Tools.

[Bill H.]

Re: Garage equipment questions (Blast cabinet & Press)

A couple of notes -

Be prepared to do a bit of modification to make the unit customized as you'd like and you will do fine.

Yea, pretty much what Patrick said here.
I bought the floor model from Summit (Identical to HF) and for the money, I'm very satisfied.

My mods:

Caulk every joint, these things leak.
Yea, the dry wall on your shop vac.
The cabinet light that comes with it is worthless, I bought an outdoor fitting and a 2 inch flood light to put in mine, hugh difference.
I modified the top plastic glass window so that it will open and changed to a glass window but that took a bit of work.

I know a couple guys who have $2,000 cabinets, they don't blast any better, they're just bigger.

[Patrick H.]

Re: Garage equipment questions (Blast cabinet & Press)

Forgot the light, as Bill mentions. I took the one from my old cabinet and installed it on this one.

[Mike E.]

Re: Garage equipment questions (Blast cabinet & Press)

I have both the 20 ton press and the bigger blast cabinet. The press I got last summer and cabinet New Years Day.

I had a 20% off coupon for the press and for the cabinet I had a 25% off coupon good only that day. The only cabinet they had in stock had a couple of bent parts and the cardboard box was beat up a pretty bad so the manager gave me another 10%, so it cost me $151.00 with tax. The bent parts took about 30 seconds to fix so that was not big deal. Someone in one of the Harbor Freight reviews for the blast cabinet recommended using RTV (Silicon) to seal the seams with. I did this and so far have had no problem with leaks. I do get some dust nothing too bad. Just make sure you have a decent compressor as the blast cabinet will require it.

The Press I’ve used to press out & install front control arm bushing and will also use it when I rebuild the rears arms. I’ve too have used it for a couple of non-corvette jobs. Last summer the fan motor in my home AC condenser went out so I used the press to remove the old fan & press on a new one on. I think It’s a pretty handy thing to have around.


One tool I need to pick up is a puller to remove the pitman arm from the steering box. Does anyone have any recommendations on a low cost puller to do this?

Mike

[Paul J.]

Re: Garage equipment questions (Blast cabinet & Press)

Philip, I have both of those pieces of equipment in my shop. I've used them both commercially and for residential work, but only for light duty and not continuously. I am very happy with both of them. The cabinet mods recommended by Bill and Patrick are worth doing.

I bought the press for heavy duty work, but it's more useful than you might think. I've recently used it to pull a plastic squirrel cage fan off of a motor shaft, and also to remove a frozen pivot ball from a C2 headlight assembly. No damage in either case, and no muscle required.

Paul

[Joe L.]

Re: Garage equipment questions (Blast cabinet & Press)

Is the Harbor Freight 40 lb capacity Floor Blast Cabinet & 20 Ton Press, OK pieces of equipment? I know HF stuff is not usually the highest quality, but this is for personal non-commercial light use. Anyone with any experience with these; pros and cons? Thanks.

Philip------


I've had the Harbor Freight 20 Ton. floor model, A-frame press for about 20+ years. It's certainly not as convenient to use as a professional model OTC and setting up a pressing job takes considerably more time and effort than if I had the OTC. However, considering the price differential and the amount of use I have for it, it's the only way to go. A press for hobbyists like us is not very often used. But, when you need it, you need it and it's nice to have it available.

Actually, the 12 Ton model is probably more than you'll ever need for any job on a passenger car. However, the 20 Ton is not that much more money and doesn't take up much more space, so I went with that.

[William L.]

Re: Garage equipment questions (Blast cabinet & Press)

Philip I have a four post lift and the older I get the more I appreciate it. Bought it for storage but use it for a lot more than I ever thought I would.
Bill

[Jeff P.]

Re: Garage equipment questions (Blast cabinet & Press)

I borrowed a HF blast cabinet from a friend. After using it for about 1/2 hour I had about as much blasting media in the air and all over the garage as was left in the cabinet. Unbeknownsto me, the thing was leaking media from three different areas (seams and door). That being said, it did do a decent job of cleaning the parts. Please wear a respirator and if possible, use it outdoors.

[Patrick B.]

Re: Garage equipment questions (Blast cabinet & Press)

The annoying thing about HF presses is the complete lack of even the most basic service parts. The simple rubber seal around the raise/lower valve of my 20 ton press leaks, and the only solution from HF is to buy a complete 20 ton jack to replace a 50 cent part. A local rebuiler of american jacks was so scornful of Chinese jacks that he refused to sell me an american seal for me to try to rework to the metric size because of "insurance reasons."

[Paul J.]

Re: Garage equipment questions (Blast cabinet & Press)

The annoying thing about HF presses is the complete lack of even the most basic service parts. The simple rubber seal around the raise/lower valve of my 20 ton press leaks, and the only solution from HF is to buy a complete 20 ton jack to replace a 50 cent part. A local rebuiler of american jacks was so scornful of Chinese jacks that he refused to sell me an american seal for me to try to rework to the metric size because of "insurance reasons."

The Chinese jacks that HF sells all have replacement parts issues. When the handle return spring on my 3 ton floor jack broke, all of the jack repair and parts people said to throw it away. What a bunch of idiots! It took a little time to measure it but I found it at Grainger's for around $3. Most of the Chinese made equipment copies other designs, and repair parts are available through many different suppliers. You just have to take a little time and find which part fits your equipment. The Grainger's guy couldn't find it on his computer, and spent about 15 minutes going through his manuals to find it. I appreciated his diligence so I ordered two (even though they break about every ten years). This was my first experience with them and I will be back.

[Joe L.]

Re: Garage equipment questions (Blast cabinet & Press)

The annoying thing about HF presses is the complete lack of even the most basic service parts. The simple rubber seal around the raise/lower valve of my 20 ton press leaks, and the only solution from HF is to buy a complete 20 ton jack to replace a 50 cent part. A local rebuiler of american jacks was so scornful of Chinese jacks that he refused to sell me an american seal for me to try to rework to the metric size because of "insurance reasons."

Patrick------

Buy an American-made bottle jack (if you can find one) and use it to replace the Chineses-made bottle jack that is supplied with the Harbor Freight press. Then, you'll have a jack that's easily serviced and you'll still have a whole lot less of an investment than if you purchased a complete American made press like an OTC.

I don't use my press very much but the bottle jack has never leaked even a drop. I also have an old Taiwan-manufactured small floor jack that I've used for well over 30 years. Of course, I don't use it a lot but it's never leaked or needed any sort of repair in all these years. Still works perfectly.