Actually, I have pretty much stopped bead blasting on zinc die-cast parts. It is much less time consuming to electroclean the parts
It was taking me 45 min. to an hour to blast and disassemble an old carb. Then another 30 min to reblast after disassembly. Then they had to soak in boiling degreaser for another 30 minutes to get out the bead that became embedded in the castings.
For electrocleaning, I have 3 X 20 gallon tanks set up. I just hang the carbs by 10 ga. copper hooks until they look pretty clean. Then they get disassembled and rehung. The bigger pieces each get their own hook and the little pieces all go in a mesh plastic basket with a piece of screen at the bottom of the basket. I run the current very low, about 1 to 1.5 amps per carb and let them soak as long as needed.
Once I got the tanks set up, it works pretty slick. Labor time is down from 75 min to about 5 mins. Now, If I can just get that smut removed with a quick dip, rinse, rinse. I'll be in good shape.
If anyone is interested I can write up a more complete description of my setup and processes.
Dave