sandblasting with walnut shell

bill

I"ve used Walnut shells in my blast cabinet. Same pressure to shoot. I was using it to blast aluminum parts like bellhousing and timing covers (Pontiac parts). In the end I found it to be too slow and didn"t give the finish I wanted. I ended up using glass bead. On die cast zinc parts, the shells would be good so as not to damage the original surface finish like on an alternator housing.
I"d advise masking with duct tape and sand blasting your tractor frame. Walnut shells will be too mild and will not remove any rust. I had mine sand blasted.
In the attached pic you can see that I cut a cover our of wood to cover the clutch cavity and used a layer of plastic sheeting to act as a gasket and bolted it in place at each hole location. I masked off a few other areas that I didn"t want sand intruding. The steering wheel is masked off as well as the gearshift knob.