40LB Soda Blasters

[Lionelgee]

Hello All,

I have watched a couple of YouTube make your own "soda blaster" clips and I cannot say that I am overly impressed.

I then had a look on eBay and they have a 40 pound capacity soda blaster unit for sale for under $200 (Australian Dollars). For example, Accessed 10th October 2015 from http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Kenner-40...item418743a04d

I have no association with the seller or the product itself.

Does anyone have any experience with the commercially manufactured soda blasters? How well would they stand up to baked on crud found on chassis rails, the outsides of engines or gearboxes and ... Or their ability to strip paint and rust off body panels and the sides of cargo trays?

In comparison, it would not take many wire wheels for an angle grinder to pay for a soda blaster unit. I wore out two good quality-brand wire wheels to do the two sides and tailgate for my Series 3 Land Rover tray back ute. This did not include the frame of the tray; just the drop-down sides.

The added advantage of the soda blaster is that according to YouTube they can be used to clean delicate things like carburettors too = plus according to the retailer "fibreglass and wood without using harsh chemicals..."

Kind Regards
Lionel

[Private_collector]

Hi Lionel,

I would also like to hear any first hand experiences of using soda.

Everything I have either done myself (in the cabinet, small part) of paid to be done, has been sand medium. In fact I have two wheels at the sandblasters ready to be picked up next week, and another two to be dropped of at that time. Obviously no good around seals, bearings, etc, but I would expect it to be far cheaper to use sand or other non soda medium for large metal panels where no fear of contamination. I have been wanting to get something soda blasted also, just to test the claims. Supposedly, it won't hurt bearings, glass, rubber, etc, so long as it's washed thoroughly afterwards with a liquid to disolve the soda particals. Even good old 'hydorgen dioxide' should do the trick.

Whenever I get the urge to visit the local soda guys, they aren't open, and when they are open I don't have the time to call in. One day the two will coincide, then I can answer the question. In the meantime, somebody here must have used soda, surely?!?!

[rob love]

25 years ago the DND decided that soda blasters wouldl replace the sand blasters in Canadian service, and they made them available through the supply system along with the soda. The blaster they supplied was a wet soda type.... it combined the soda with water. It was touted as being more environmental and safer than sand.

So we ordered one in. I had been blasting several vehicles for an outdoor museum display, and so I gave it a try. Actually I gave it a very quick 5 minute try before putting it away and going back to the sand. I'll assume most other units did the same as I have not seen another nor heard of another in the 25 years since.

So while, to be honest, I did not give it a fair try, it got a thimbs down form me. Just the very thought of putting water on raw metal made me shudder.

Where I live now, I have scrub grass and about 6 inches of crappy soil with nothing underneath that but sand, sand and more sand. It is hard to beat free blasting medium, so I'll stick with it.

[Phil Waterman]

Hi Lionel

Good question, my experience with dry soda blaster, an Eastwood unit, is that they are not for heavy blasting in the first place, they do not remove heavy rust grease or crud nor does it remove heavy layered military paint.

What is good for is removing automotive paint and paint from light gauge sheet metal without warping. They are not supposed to damage glass, but don't believe it depending on presure and purity of the soda you can frost glass.

They are good at cleaning mechanical parts, but would suggest testing on junk part first. For example I want to try cleaning varnish off pistons but you can bet going to try it on a number of junk pistons before I try it on any that I want to reuse.

Soda is really good for stripping paint off things like air cleaners, valve covers, side panels without roughing the surface of the metal.

One trick I've learned is storing the soda in 2 1/2 gallon gas cans, new of couse, when buy 40lb bag first thing is to pour into two the plastic jugs. They seal to keep out the moisture, they are easier to handle and pour into the blaster. I've stored jugs for as long as year with no clumping.

Cheers Phil

[Jacques Reed]

Regarding the discussion on wet soda blasting steel here is something I came across in my seagoing days which may be of interest and use.

It is called wet blast inhibitor and we used it onboard to prevent the flashing off to rust on bare steel that we water blasted with a copper slag grit medium. It allowed the crew to blast for the full day then let the steel dry before priming the next day without the formation of rust overnight on the surface of the bare steel.

I still use it on my project today, as even when bare steel parts comes out of the molasses tank it will still rapidly get a light patina of rust on it in all but the driest weather conditions. By dunking it in tank of water with a very small amount of this chemical added, the part stays free of rust and can be painted the next day or even a few days later if kept in a dry location. Larger parts I spray after coming out of the tank with a solution of this chemical using a simple garden sprayer.

Cheers,

[Lionelgee]

Hello All,

Thanks for the replies. The Soda unit I posted up earlier is a dry powder version.

I suppose for heavier stuff a media blaster like this one could be used and betwixt them both a very handy range of jobs could be done. http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/New-Porta...item2ee71f4bb4

There are smaller gravity fed media units available however they have very limited capacity. http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/HEAVY-DUT...item43c81d387c. I reckon that they would run out just as you get into the swing of things. Then you would have to take off all the safety gear and fill it up again all too quickly.

The blurb about dry soda blasting says something about how it forms a coating on bare metal that prevents rust and how this needs to be removed before painting. Therefore, if there is some time between cleaning and the opportunity to paint then they reckon that the surface should remain rust free for a while - notice the words "they reckon", "should" and "for a while"

I have a couple of engine blocks to clean up (soda) and wheel rims (Media) followed by soda? Maybe spot bad rust with media on the rims then finish off with soda?

Kind Regards
Lionel