4 Years with a Harbor Freight Sandblaster: Cleaning, Repairs, and Review! 

That connector is a regular cable gland.

I added lights to mine, bought replacement USA gloves, gun and hoses, resealed everything, added rivet bolts so cleaning window is easier, welded a rolling cart it is attached to and bought the tornado vacuum attachment for a 5 gallon bucket. Made all the difference in the world.

I have that exact same one and for a little longer than yours. Mine has been stored outdoors and is holding up pretty well. I have a dust collection system and lighting also. I've blasted all of the paint off of the inside of the cabinet and its faded from the sun. I upgraded the gun and pickup tube. My air source is a Husky, 60 gal and the air goes through a Harbor Freight air dryer, then a 3 stage, Devilbis air filtration system. Moisture is your enemy. I wore out the interior cavities of the original gun. For the price, you cant beat it. It gets the job done.

The port in the back is to allow air to come into the cabinet to replace the air you're sucking out with your shop vac.

Hole on the side is for dust collection. Not sure why they added an additional port in the middle- seems like that would be more likely to suck sand vs just clearing the air.

Ok after extensive search and findings, the port you're using for suction is actually the air inlet, the hole on the back is for dust extraction with a heavy fiber filter inside of the duct. Now as far as the hole underneath is better used as the sand pickup with another device with a metering air vortex in it. You'll find that it will work a whole lot better.

The hole you taped over is technically suppsed to be a air balance port that helps provide clean air to flow into the cabinet but you have to have a type of control mechanism to keep suction (vacuum level) at an adequate amount

I don't have one, but I enjoyed your review and detail.

Watch out using sand in it. Have a google for silicosis. You can get this breathing in sand dust that might spill out of the box. From what I understand it is considered very bad practise to use sand in a sand blaster. Look out for your lungs! :)

The hole in the back is to let the air out you are pumping in. The sand is supposed to settle out of it rising up that rectangular column. Probably not a bad idea to put a filter on it. If you block the hole, then the air will have to escape through gaskets and such and sand will come out with it.

6:14 a wild G0704 screwdriver appears

Good video Jeff! I’ve been thinking about getting one of these for a while. I guess I need to pull the trigger. I use one at work after we pull something out of heat treat all the time, really makes it easier to get back to a nice shiny finish.

Good to know, keep lookin at them 👍👍👍👍

when you were talking about the plug i imediatly though of a cattle or stock tank drain plug

If you 're using any abrasive with free silica be sure t0 use a HEPA filter in your vacuum. It's good idea to always use a HEPA filter.

What did you soak the gun in, repair can??

There is a company called Skat that sells a blasting gun that works better with small compressors

Yellow teflon tape = happiness.

I bought a HD bucket head for the same thing.

Cut the middle out of the bench its sitting on, or remove the top all together. . It’s only sitting on the edges of the cabinet. That way you can access the drain.

Thanks for sharing, how many CFM does your compressor have please? And does that give you constant air flow? Iv got a cabinet just not a good compressor 😢. Cheers Edit, sorry should have watched longer before asking 😀

My biggest problem with Harbor Freight is that they don't have a parts or service department. When I choose to spend more on a name brand tool, like Makita or Dewalt, I know that if it breaks I can get it serviced or buy the parts needed directly from the manufacturer. I know why I buy a HF tool, I won't get that level of support. It will either be a disposable tool, or something I can scrounge parts from somewhere else, like you did for the drain. If that's not acceptable to me, then I stick with the name brand.

You have a tray in your tool cabinet for manuals?? So you obviously don't have enough tools, or you have too many tool cabinets..... I suspect the latter!!!