The CNC Report

With our economy being pummeled by high oil prices, higher material prices and manufacturing jobs being lost overseas, it’s a nice relief when an American made product comes along that is both affordable and works well. The metal finishing and prep industry has seen the market flooded with sandblast booths that are imported, poorly built and cheap. At $299 the Barrel Blaster by Lake Buchanan Industries breaks all the rules.

This patented booth design is uniquely crafted from a 55 gallon drum and outfitted with a pre-installed blasting gun and gloves, internal worklight, 12″ by 16″ viewing window, easy access drain for media changes and an innovative shop vac connection for dust collection. The gun operates on 12 cfm of air at 80 psi. Some abrasives require less air and some performed better with more. Shipping for the Barrel Blaster won’t kill the deal either. All parts including the stand come packaged in the barrel and ship inexpensively via DHL.

During our testing, the assembly was easy right out of the box. All parts were labeled and required no special tools. We found the viewing area to be perfectly adequate and the 50 lb media capacity was more than enough for all the grit we dumped into it. The most pleasant surprise was the shop vac port that was perfectly sized to our Ridgid brand vac. During testing we did opt to shorten the air and media lines leading to the gun. Since we didn’t need to maneuver the nozzle over the entire work envelope, the shorter lines gave us a bit more comfort. The 23″ dia by 33″ wide work area offered plenty of capacity for the larger parts that we worked with (part size of 10″ x 16″).

Overall, the Barrel Blaster is a well built, American made product with excellent value. We find it perfectly suited for the shop who needs to blast parts on a daily basis as well as the hobbyist or gearhead at home. This and other models are available at www.barrelblaster.com.