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My fossil prep has so far been limited to hand tools - brushes, needles in pin vises, sharp blades, and a rotary Dremel for sanding and polishing. I’ve been using the Dremel outside with an N95 mask and eye protection. I’d like to be able to work inside on rainy days and in the winter (I live in Iowa, so it gets pretty cold). Right now, to move inside, I would need some sort of cabinet to handle the dust I kick up from the Dremel. But thinking ahead, I’d like the cabinet to be able to handle air abrasives also. I’m deciding between making my own cabinet and buying one. I like the look of the Vaniman Problast cabinet, but it seems to handle only media 25 microns and up. I think this precludes using baking soda, unless it’s possible to mod the cabinet. The Vaniman cabinet also seems to recycle the media, which wouldn’t be what I want for getting rid of dust from my Dremel work. So, I guess my questions are: Do I need to decide between a cabinet that recycles media and one that clears it all away? If I do decide to build my own cabinet, does anyone have a recommendation for how to do this? what questions am I not asking that I should be? Thanks much.

What do you do if you have a slab that is too big for your abrasive cabinet and you live in Texas where the weather never cooperates? You build a miniature blast cabinet that sits on top of the slab. The box is 8”x10” and is 7.5” tall. This allows my microscope to sit on the slab and come into focus without hitting the top of the glass. It is lit by 4 foot long LED strip lights taped to the outside of the glass. The bottom has a bit of tee shirt stapled tomorrow it to make a bit of a seal and the side where my arm goes in has the sleeve of the shirt stapled on. The other side has a hose connector for the dust collection system. It’s not a perfect seal so I still have to wear my respirator but on a day like today (30’s and snowing) It lets me work on a slab that needs abrasive and is really big.