Even though I bought my HF blast cabinet several years ago, just got around to assembling it a couple of months ago. I've only used it a few times, but the damn fluorescent light quit working last week

I think the lamps are good, but don't have another fixture to test them. Rather than buying another fixture (or starter box), I decided to install three LED fixtures in place of the fluorescent fixture Bought the three LEDs from Lowe's for $30.

Works great, should last my lifetime, and only draws 7.5 watts instead of 40

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Very Nice, I am an LED fan...

I like the solution and definite improvement to the equipment. Thanks for the updating since I have the same problem and never got around to correcting it. Now I have to dig everything out and fix it.

Seriously, thanks for a solution.

Steve Hurt

Head over to your closest big box retailer and buy up all the discontinued or for sale larger PDA screen covers. They will keep your LED covers from blurring from the blast over time and are peal and stick

Yup, protect them or they will frost and lose lumens. Looks good though. I need to do something like that soon. Oh, you may want to seal any parting lines with RTV so dust doesn't get inside and damage the electronics.

Unrelated, but does anyone know if the cabinet that Summit sells is the same as the HF unit? Seems like it is, just black instead of red.

An entire forum could probably be devoted to improving cheap blast cabinets, but my biggest problem is dust clouding the air. There is an exhaust port on mine with a small filter. I stick a shop vac into the exhaust port, and it helps, but it is far from ideal.

So far, I have only used sand. Can I expect it to be better with glass beads or other media?

There is a rubber seal and a sheet of glass that separates the light assembly from the body of the cabinet. The electrical cord enters above the seal, so (in theory) the media shouldn't get up in there. The HF cabinet came with several self-stick plastic sheets to protect the viewing glass and the light glass.

Any media will break down into a fine dust over time. I use the HF reclaimer unit (vacuum/filter unit for their larger industrial model cabinet), but it has so much power that it's sucked the gloves into the cabinet so hard that you can't articulate them (it's like they're on a dose of Viagra)

I installed a rheostat to slow down the reclaimer's speed and it sucks the dust right out just fine. You can buy a less expensive motor speed controller for a standard Shop-Vac.

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Yes, it looks like there are several vendors who sell the same products as HF does, just painted a different color (Eastwood 'blue', etc.)

I use aluminum-oxide at work and it seems to do a nice job. I have not tried it on car parts yet.

As I was getting ready to bolt the light housing back on, took a couple extra minutes to trim and dress up the AC cords, and crimped some slide-on connectors for the ON/OFF switch. This allowed me to get rid of the 3-outlet AC plug adapter and make it look tidier. All back together and doing well