Sandblaster abrasive
Sand was the only media used as sandblaster abrasive in old times, however lately we are seeing other types of abrasive being used. For light duty tasks abrasive such as walnut husks are being used, while for heavy duty tasks most commonly used abrasive is glass bead.
Sand is beign replaced with other sandblaster abrasive for few reasons. Main reason definetly was that sand creates a lot of dust which is hard to clean and it’s also hazardous for your health. Second was that with different types of abrasive you can have more control over the finish that you get. Choose carefully your sandblasting machine.
Other more commonly used sandblaster abrasive are blasting garnet, aluminium oxide, black walut shells and more. You select different type of abrasive depending of which material you want to sandblast it with and what is the finish result you want to get.
In the end it’s same as everything in world. Market has everything you need, you just need to find the proper sandblasting machine for you.