blast it!

  I've ordered an abrasive blasting* cabinet from eBay (with free shipping, heh), along with several upgrades advised by various YT pundits.  Pretty much everyone agrees that the following things need to be replaced, modified, or added:

• the lighting
• the media pickup and metering valve
• a "dust collector" (media separator) is needed
• a foot pedal is needed
• the gun should be replaced
• at least one air baffle inside the cabinet should be replaced
  

Q: "Why not just buy a unit that has all these features?"

A: Because those units cost more than $1K, which is roughly double the cost of buying the cheap unit and adding upgrades.  Honestly, the cost of the unit is less than I could buy the steel and paint for locally. O_O

 I have ordered everything but the gun, because I haven't found the style I want, even though I know it's available out there, somewhere, because I've seen it.

 I'm ordering just aluminum oxide media at this point, but eventually I will also buy some glass beads and some steel shot.  "Shot-peening" is a service one can charge money for.

 I dropped some coin on a fancy LED light bar set (for better or for worse, made by one guy in his basement, ahem) which surrounds the cabinet window and mounts with magnets.  Also includes a proper, listed, LED power supply, gorsh! 

 Apparently, it is also possible to do art with one of these things.  I once knew a gal who made beautiful carved/etched glass pieces using an Air-Brasive tool.  Really gorgeous stuff.

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* it's dishonest to call it "sand blasting" since no one in their
right mind will use actual sand, because that creates silica
dust, which is a nasty carcinogen.