The glass bead media is also available from Harbor Freight at nominal cost. I recall paying less than $20 for a 40 lb bag.

The reason for the blasting cabinet is that the blasted blasting media gets into EVERTHING dozens of feet from the blasting location! Parked cars, car finishes, lawn mowers, ANYTHING that can be contaminated with blasting media WILL be contaminated!

The beads shatter on impact with the blasted object, and and continuing to blast with exhausted media will give a finer and finer "frosty" surface rather than the desired textured one.

An important part of blasting is that you mask or remove ALL parts that you do not want blasted: barrels, feed ramps, muzzles, black oxided front and rear sights, and also all non-metallic parts such as magazine bumpers, followers, grips, and backstraps. The soft, non-metallic parts are easily damage or deformed by overblasting.

The emphasis on final cleaning and inspection is important. Any blasting media left in the gun mechanism is bound to chew up critic sufaces like sears and bearings. I prefer solvent cleaning followed with air hose blasting and relubrication.