soda blasting: unimpressed so far

[michael1703]

i bought a blaster from frost auto restoration, it was a 2in1 sandblaster/soda blaster

it came assembled as a sandblaster with a soda blaster converter

no big deal i thought as i need to chage between the two at some point, well ****** me if i didnt take me over half an hour to change it, they had used cheap and nasty hose clips that had bit deeply into the rubber hose making it impossible to remove in situ, i had to remove a few connections and even the wheels so i could get the fittings in the vice and give them a heavy heave to get them off

so with the soda attachment fitted, lets fit a 1/4 bsp fitting and off we go...

err, no.. you need a reducecer from 1/2 inch to 1/4 inch which isnt included or mentioned in the instructions, so 12 mile round trip to plumbase and £1.40 for the fitting

anyway, hook it up to my huge 3 phase 400+litre compressor and off we go.... not an amazing ammount of paint removed, ive tried different positions on the throttle valve and i could have got the paint off quicker with a grinder and brush cup and then i'm out of soda

top the tank up with more soda from the 25kg bag (felt like 15 actually) fitted a bigger nozzle and off i went again

still not a great ammount of paint removed for the time spent and nearly £15 of armex..

i dont think the videos they show on frost website/youtube are of one of these little blasters

with the bigger nozzle i watched the gauge on the tank and it dropped fairly rapidly, my compressor is 10hp and 60cfm and it didnt seem to be keeping up wih the pressure drop

its still early days and hopefully with a bit of practice i might get a better setting, but its going to be expensive when this soda is £30odd for a 25 kg bag

 

[brightspark]

quite frankly i wouldnt bother with the stuff .nowt wrong with expendable abrasive £ 5 a bag. and kiln dried block paving sand £3 and reusable beads in a cabinet .and as u say on videos there not using the small 3mm nozzles dont think . and the rust and paint isnt that bad so makes it look easy have u any pictures of it

 

[500e]

What difference in the soda & sand pots? presumably the media injector any one with a drawing showing difference.
Been playing with plastic media & want to try soda, working on thin surfaced alloy.

 

[graffian]

i bought a blaster from frost auto restoration, it was a 2in1 sandblaster/soda blaster

If you look up soda blasting I think you will find several people on here have bought soda blasters and then ebayed them.

If you want drawings of how the expensive one works, I gather the frost/eastwood one wasn't a lot of good, look up the patent.

 

[Lawnmowerboy]

Soda blasting is only any good for very fine stuff and cleaning ally up without pitting it.

 

[Shox Dr]

Soda blasting is only any good for very fine stuff and cleaning ally up without pitting it.

I watched an episode of The Customizer once the one where they converted a huey chopper into a bus. They soda blaster the air frame in the dessert, it took the paint off in no time. You didn't see the blasting kit though.

So it is not restricted to small items at all

 

[500e]

I am cleaning THIN alloy with a surface finish & then paint even fine plastic media mark it, soda is supposed to be the thing. ( I thought I mentioned thin alloy in first post)
What is the difference in the injector assembly for soda & sand\grit

 

[Shox Dr]

I can't imagine the shin of a huey to be thick

So how thin are you blasting

 

[brightspark]

I am cleaning THIN alloy with a surface finish & then paint even fine plastic media mark it, soda is supposed to be the thing. ( I thought I mentioned thin alloy in first post)
What is the difference in the injector assembly for soda & sand\grit

why dont u beadblast then but if u are painting it its not ideal to peen the surface .fine sand and a suction gun would be best for a good etch without damage. any pot can be used for soda blasting without any so called metering valve

 

[500e]

The VERY THIN 22g skin has a surface finish under the paint, just want to remove paint, bead blasting with enough pressure to remove paint will mark \ destroy surface finish, do not want etched surface, have seen soda blasting work OK.
I just want to know the difference in the two media injectors??
Have run finest plastic media with shaker OK but still to much damage even at lowest pressures
I know what to do just cant afford the commercial pots to do it, there is not enough repeat work to justify.
Shox
Don't know about Huey skins I expect around 20g in a lot of places.

 

[brightspark]

The VERY THIN 22g skin has a surface finish under the paint, just want to remove paint, bead blasting with enough pressure to remove paint will mark \ destroy surface finish, do not want etched surface, have seen soda blasting work OK.
I just want to know the difference in the two media injectors??
Have run finest plastic media with shaker OK but still to much damage even at lowest pressures
I know what to do just cant afford the commercial pots to do it, there is not enough repeat work to justify.
Shox
Don't know about Huey skins I expect around 20g in a lot of places.

u can run soda through the normal regulator on a small pot . i dont use ball valves though as there not that reliable and consistent these are better and will work with any powder/ just buy a bag and try it

 

[brightspark]

soda blast pot

its just the same as any other pot but using diffrent size orifices as in picture below http://www.modublast.com/pdf/Soda-Blaster.pdf

 

[langy]

I watched an episode of The Customizer once the one where they converted a huey chopper into a bus. They soda blaster the air frame in the dessert, it took the paint off in no time. You didn't see the blasting kit though.

So it is not restricted to small items at all

Often used on automobile body shells, they ain't too small either, but what do we know mate !!!

 

[brightspark]

think big

http://www.northernpowerclean.co.uk/blast-cleaning/architectural-cleaning.php just up the road from where i live

 

[500e]

Thanks brightspark just what I was looking for good link especially P9

 

[500e]

Well got a Mk1 cabinet made The soda is great 20lb pressure 1/8 Nozzle works ok, lighting good as well. 5x 12 volt 1 watt LED on a bar. Shame I cant see a thing.
Have an extractor "Clark cam 300" which moves more air than is being injected, it is the circulating air that is the problem, am going to make a 50 lb venturi in the outlet pipe & see if that helps.
Any one have a drawing of a cyclone or separator thought there was one posted some time ago?.
The soda appears to be usable at least 3 times at our pressure, even though it is fine it still strips the paint.
Will post pics of the Mk4

 

[Shox Dr]

I have Dyson DC05 sucking the dust out of my cabinet, and that pulls more air out than my blast pot puts in. I really should make a one way adjustable inlet to equalise the cabinet pressure, I'm sure that would make a world of difference to the amount of airborne dust.

I have thought of rigging 2 or 3 dyson cyclones together. I wonder if that would ease the amount of dust getting to the foam filter that seems to get clogged up so fast?

 

[500e]

Tried the BIG filter after extractor both bag & panel still not clear, the air in cab recirculates within the cabinet.
The Clark is moving air believe me there is a vacuum on the viewing window even with the gun running we also have bled air inlet valve to equalise pressure
The venturi may work will report, but clearing media before filters must be the way to go,
so question regarding cyclones, Help Please
Regarding Dysons do you mean just the chamber\insert&fit in line with suction (not a Dyson man myself)
No ones rich enough to own 3 Dysons
Brightspark
Thanks made a valve using your picture works a treat, the only difference was I turned the top & ring in one piece, less to leak.

 

[brightspark]

what i found was in my cabinet the media was blown all around and up from the hopper and kept suspended even though i have a large woodchip extracta i overcame that by putting a rubber mat above the hopper mesh leaving a 2 inch gap around the edge. the media falls down and cant be blown back up by the blast nozzle

 

[Shox Dr]

No ones rich enough to own 3 Dysons

You've not been down to your local council tip lately then, there loads of them