Rusty mess? That would qualify as rust free on Craig's List. Actually it looks pretty good to me.

The clutch master dumped its guts all over the pedal box and inside of the drivers side floor. The corrosion was pretty bad all over where it spilled. I will blast it all clean and start fresh.

So I have realized that the bigger the sand blasting cabinet, the better. Mine is quite large but a 4-5’ cabinet would definitely be a much better asset. It’s hard to turn the larger objects to sand blast accurately and the light is less evenly spread in a tight cabinet. Lessons learned!

I have a benchtop-size cabinet and have the same opinion.  Bigger is better.  The makers of my cabinet were clearly focused on their bottom line, because there is not even a centimeter of excess air hose length provided between the siphon tube and the gun.  As for there being any visible lighting inside the cabinet, I gave up on that hope long ago.  I do all my blasting now by feel.  It's impossible to see through the cabinet's hatch window unless I replace the plastic-sheet overlay for every job (no thanks).  The puny little fluorescent light provided by the manufacturer doesn't do much to help.

All that aside, the blast cabinet is w-a-y more effective than sandpaper or wire wheels when it comes to de-rusting steel parts and getting them ready for primer and paint.  Does a nice job on aluminum castings, too, provided you're careful to mask off any machined surfaces.

I added some sealed halogen floodlights in the corners of my blasting cabinet. Also I spaced the glass and mylar sheet up about  a 1/2" with a double mesh of metal window screen below it. It helps deflect the media and it stays clear much longer. I would love to have a larger cabinet but the cost escalates quickly with size. another trick is to blast with the shop lights off.

Good tips! I use a powerful led flood light on top of the viewing window looking in from the outside. Works fairly well. I have run out of the plastic protector sheets... time for more!

Here is a shot of my setup from a while ago.

Looks like a Snap-on led shop light on it. I love mine. 

I also made some other modifications to my blasting cabinet. I siliconed every seam I could. I built a dust cyclone out of two 5 gallon buckets which are connected to a shop vacuum. So my cabinet never clouds up. The only downside is the vacuum could be quieter. When the media seems low I just empty the cyclone back into the cabinet. The filter sees very little dust because of the cyclone...

17 hours ago, Patcon said:

I also made some other modifications to my blasting cabinet. I siliconed every seam I could. I built a dust cyclone out of two 5 gallon buckets which are connected to a shop vacuum. So my cabinet never clouds up. The only downside is the vacuum could be quieter. When the media seems low I just empty the cyclone back into the cabinet. The filter sees very little dust because of the cyclone...

hmmm...  I tried just hooking my shop vac up to the cabinet so as to help reduce media 'air pollution' my workshop.  It didn't seem to work very well, so I dropped the idea and switched to setting the cabinet up on a workmate in the back yard.  It never occurred to me that that the vacuum hookup might also serve to reduce clouding inside the cabinet, so thanks for the tip.  I think I'll continue to only use the cabinet outdoors, though.  I've done enough damage to my lungs over the years without adding silica dust to the mix.

Almost ready for powder! Whew..!