The carbide tips from TPTools.com are a serious upgrade too. The pink ceramic ones wear out quickly; I bought a 6-pack of carbide tips several years back ... and am still using the first one.
If you find you're getting frequent clogs, the "hand block" method works but it sure gets old for big blasting jobs. I fabbed a media strainer out of three layers of old metal screen sandwiched between two pieces of 1/2" plywood with a big hole in the center. It's great for filtering bigger chunks of slag and rescuing the occasional small hardware that slips through the grate.
Pick up cheap pairs of slip joint and needle nose pliers and permanently dedicate them to your cabinet. Holding small parts in your hand will wear out that other glove very quickly, and at $22-30 apiece (also a TP Tools consumable), it's easy to see why pliers are preferred.
Picked this big beast up in 2010 off of Craigslist. Next to my 7' oven, it's the single best investment in my shop I've ever made.
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