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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.

Well gang, a month or so and 1500$ USD later, I have upgraded/replaced, and modernized my prep lab. (pictures to follow once the new flooring and dust collector is delivered and installed) Between all the prep I need to do for my hobbies, my job, my degree, and many many vintage VW parts, plus an overall need for new toys when the budget allows... Well, that and my dissertation is coming up next year and I have to get my display ready for that... I managed to finagle some really good deals on scratch and dent, factory returns, and industrial auctions so I got about 5+ grand worth of equipment really, really cheap. (All those years slaving away in factories fixing other people's junk finally paid off!) Anyway, I purchased a slightly used bench top Cyclone Manufacturing media blast cabinet (retail around 300, got it for 50 as the hinges and lid seal were shot and the air inlet valve needed replaced so put 25$ into it). Looking for suggestions for appropriate media to use in with fossil/artifact prep. I'm used to only working with metals for welding repairs and such, not sure if there is a specific media type for rock and stone. Winter is coming and I have years worth of specimens to play with while the weather is awful! If you have a preferred media, nozzle, outlet size, please let me know, I'd like to try it out! To go with it, I installed an Ingersol-Rand 80 gallon 240 volt compressor with a "blown" motor (200$ at auction, 15$ for replacement brushes and a new rotor bearing and a 2$ replacement relay- retails new for around 2 grand) in my garage and then plumbed a feed line and manifold up to my work room. Now I can run my all of my Volkswagen tools in the garage and art and fossil prep stuff upstairs without having to wait for the tank to recharge every 15 minutes. At the same auction, I got them to throw in an Extract-All variable speed collector for free, which I modified to work as both a bench top collector and some rather clever if I do say so myself adapter system for my various woodworking and fossil prep tools. They retail for around 2 grand. Found that the set screws on the squirrel cage were stripped, so retapped them and and did some fill and polish on the shaft to get it working. Set up an old shop-vac as an intermediate for the bigger chunks and flakes. I already owned a number of different air tools, but added a used Fossil Shack air scribe from a certain auction site to my so-old-I-cant-get parts and so-battered-they-do-more-harm-than-good Chicagos. I haven't tried it out yet, but the claim of no more cold fingers lured me in. I suspect I may finally get my Cowboy Pass finds suitable for display... I was also able to get a used dental drill rig with all the goodies from a scientific/medical auction, so I am going to be teaching my self the techniques for really fine control of that toy. That was the most expensive part of all the deals and a knee-jerk purchase at 450$, but I figure it will come in handy for some of the stuff I have to prep in the harder matrixes. I am also converting the water cooling jets over to compressed air cooling venturis as I'm pretty sure the "patients" aren't feeling anything... I was also able to get a new motor for my vacuum pump, and a modern table vibrator for under 200$ as I have dozens of display/teaching casts to make for the Uni (I am also a sculptor/model builder and can finally do limited edition repops of the stuff that sells real well...Warhammer 40k Chaos tanks and weird biologically textured display stuff the art folks are willing to pay far too much for).