I purchased this blaster to knock rust and weld slag off some steel parts. For the price I couldn't be happier with it. I use 'playground' sand that I dry and sift through a kitchen sieve to remove any larger chunks that might clog the nozzle. This is not the recommended method as silica dust is bad for your lungs but it is cheap and it works, just wear a respirator. The trick is making sure your media is very dry and hooking the unit up to a proper air source as it needs a lot of air to be run continuously. The only down sides I have found to this unit are that the media is hard to get back out of the hopper if you do not use it all up and wish to change media or store excess media in a different container to avoid it clumping from humidity. Besides that I am very happy and would highly recommend this unit. Oh yeah, if you've never sandblasted before- do it outside! The sand gets _everywhere_ and you'll never get it all cleaned out of your workshop if you try to use this unit inside.