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 an overview of what factors you should consider when thinking about buying a sandblast cabinet and then provide options at a variety of price points.

Why Sandblast Cabinet Prices can Vary

When it comes to selecting a sandblast cabinet, there are 4 main factors that will alter the price point and overall performance / quality of the sandblast cabinet. The four factors that effect a sandblast cabinets price are the shell’s material, if the cabinet is a pressure or siphon feed sandblast cabinet, the dust collection design and its size, and whether or not the blast cabinet reclaims blast media or not. Will cover each of these areas in a bit of detail or you can skip ahead to the cabinet recommendations.

Pressure or Siphon Blast Cabinets

The difference between a pressure sandblast cabinet and a siphon sandblast cabinet is how much power they have to clean a surface. Pressure sandblast cabinets will typically be 2 to 3 times faster than a siphon cabinet and in certain applications (like removing powder coating) can be required in order to effectively clean a products surface. The extra production a pressure blast cabinet provides requires a welded pressure vessel while a siphon cabinet uses a simple concept of a hose attached to a siphon nozzle. The welded pressure vessel will cause pressure sandblast cabinets to cost 2-3 times more than a siphon cabinet.

Cabinet Shell Construction

The shell of your sandblast cabinet is used to help contain the blast media and the thicker gauge steel it is constructed of the longer it will hold up , but heavier gauge steel for a sandblast cabinet will also increase the overall price of the sandblast cabinet. 

Dust Collection Size and Design

The dust collector on your sandblast cabinet helps to provide great visibility in your blast cabinet and it is also used in a media reclaim system in a blast cabinet. In general there are two sandblast cabinet collector designs, those that rely on bag type filters and those that use a cartridge style filter. Cartridge style filters will have a way to manually or automatically blow out dust from the cartridge. Cartridge filters last longer and are best for frequent use. So the three things on a dust collector that can increase a sandblast cabinets price which include, the collector CFM (this is the amount of air the collector moves and cleans in a minute) the higher the cfm the higher the price of the dust collector. The collectors filter type , cartridge filters are easier to maintain and last longer but are more expensive to make which increase the cabinets price. The collectors design, does it include a auto pulse to clean dust , is it manually pulsed, or is it manually shaken to free dust from the collector

Does the Sandblast cabinet include a media reclaimer

A sandblast media reclaimer for a sandblast cabinet is built into a sandblast cabinet and takes the sandblast media and automatically screens and removes media that has become to fragmented as well as any debris that has gotten in the media. Media reclaimers make it quick to keep blasting you can simply release the trigger of your blast gun for a moment to allow the media to be reloaded and then resume your sandblasting.

Now that you know all the factors that can drive a sandblast cabinets price will go into our favorite blast cabinets of 2022. 

Best Budget Friendly Sandblast Cabinets – $149 - $2000

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. 

Popular Budget Friendly Sandblast Cabinets 

Best Light Industrial Sandblast Cabinets – Budget Range – $2000 to $8000

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 14 gauge steel. 

Best Heavy Industrial Blast Cabinets – Budget Range $8000 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 and Trinco.

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. You can shop our complete selection of abrasive blast cabinets based on any price point and design (pressure or siphon feed, various dust collector sizes , and more here) or give us a call for suggestions