What you're going to learn is that sandblsting sucks and you should have driven the 40 miles !!!

It's messy as hell - the sand gets everywhere and the dust will have the neighbors calling the cops. You'll need a shower and change of clothes afterwards. You'll spend money on a cheap hood that will fog up 10 seconds after you put it on and will be hot as hell. You'll be on and off the nozzle because you can't see what you're doing. Unless you have a BIG compressor, the pressure will drop very quickly and will take longer to remove the rust and paint.

And, if you take some cheapskate's advice and use playsand you'll quickly find that Home Depot doesn't care if its dry or soaking wet - as far as they're concerned its going in a sandbox and doesn't matter. So ... not only do you have to sift it, you'll likely have to wait for it to dry too - what are you going to spread it out on to do that ??? The couple bucks you save on playsand is lost buying or building a sifter.