So what would be the best type of blasting media for cleaning up a rusty pair of axles? Ive only worked with soda blasting, and i dont think that soda is gonna cut through this rust

 

I know my local sandblasting guy and he gives me some of his once used sand for free. We use a little harbor freight style pot blaster, worked fine for my axles i just did. Takes a little while.
Make sure you wear a breathing mask and a lot of light helps to see through the dust. Next time im def going to have some halogens going.