adventures in soda blasting

[chrisf]

for a while now i have wanted to buy a portable soda blaster. not ever being the guy who starts small i had to buy a big one and a big compressor, so, $20g later i have some new toys.

today i was playing around trying everything out. my soda is on order so friday i grabbed some feed grade soda from the feed store and gave it a try. awesome!!! but.... HUGE amounts of dust. if i was doing it somewhere with no houses or people i would use it. anywhere else i would use the good stuff.

anyways. here is a hood i got from needsaresto. my plan was to blast it all but it was too dusty. this took about 60 seconds, coolest part is the chome looks better now that before!! also i have a 400 sitting and i thought i would hit it too. grease and all...gone. maybe 45 seconds. done a huge amount of glass blasting and this is night and day better than that. the surface is so much nicer than glass and sand. wont touch rubber, glass or chrome.

i cant wait to do a whole car with the good soda.

 

[needsaresto]

Dang Chris,that looks like new! That hood may work for you after all with some soda blasting. Very cool.....

 

[kanders]

Nice setup to have. Looks like it's time to start a new business! Kev

 

[65BCODA]

Lets see some photo's of the equipment.
That soda looks to work nicely.

 

[DRENO]

Looks like ya got the ticket there.Let's see this great equipment.8)

 

[Rocky65]

Holy cow! I didn't know it worked so well, I gotta try that... Now if I could only find 20g!

 

[chrisf]

the blaster is a problast set up, i bought this one because its stainless. my intention is to run it as a business, 20g for a toy is a bit much. lol

compressor is a 2007 185cfm ingersoll, i bought it used, its only got 600hrs on it. its in perfect shape and owned by a fussy owner, prefect one to buy. depending on where you buy this is a $18-20,000 compressor new.

once i get the bugs worked out i am sure it will pay for itself quickly. the best thing is they can shoot different media than a sandblast pot. this will do cob, sand, glass, garnet, aluminum ect ect. lots of uses other than automotive too for soda fire/smoke damage, mold/mildew removal, wood restoration, industrial stuff, resturant industry, pools. ect ect. Putting soda in a sandblast pot will not work, it will plug up.

another bonus about soda is that hood will last 6 months before it flashes over with rust. (if its out of the weather)

 

[kanders]

Nice setup, with all those guages and such it looks like you'll be getting your engineering degree soon to operate it. LOL . Hope you can drum up some work and make it pay for itself and build a good business. Kev

 

[chrisf]

the gauges are easy the left is pressure in from the compressor and the right is blast pressure. you adjust them depending on what your blasting, less pressure for delicate stuff more for steel. you can blast the paint off a beer can without harming the can.
the very top valve is the adjustment for how much medial your shooting. tighented right down your fogging out the neighborhood. you want it as lean as possible.

i have a learning curve but i am allready getting calls and i am not even set up yet!!

 

[lhearold]

You know, you can shoot water with the soda and keep the dust down. Don't remember where I read it but if you google soda blasting it will probably show up.

 

[Riddler]

I wish I knew where you were, I'm getting ready to media blast my car this winter. Would be awesome is another FABO member did it for me.

Riddler

 

[needsaresto]

I wish I knew where you were, I'm getting ready to media blast my car this winter. Would be awesome is another FABO member did it for me.

Riddler

He's here in B.C Riddler.

 

[Steve68]

They had a show on one of the PowerBlock TV shows using a soda blast unit with a water spray attachment and there was absolutely no dust and they said it did not interefe with the storage protection that you get from soda blasting. I believe the unit they were using was from Eastwood.

 

[ramenth]

Used to work for a guy who made a lot of coin off a completely portable unit restoring brick facings on historic buildings. The nice thing about the soda is it's completely biodegradable, so a little sweep up and the next rain, it's gone. Here in the Elmira area, with a lot of city being designated historic district he was in demand. There was also a guy here in town he would do a lot of blasting for on antique fire trucks. Good luck with the business!

 

[chrisf]

i did buy the water attachement with this one. it just goes over the tip and you just trickle the water out. it encapsulates the dust. only problem is if the water has a high mineral content you have some more issues but thats no big deal.
i am going to experiment some more, i allready have 2 goverment agencies who want to use me so thats awesome, but i need experience so i dont look like a fool and getting over my head. i want to do more fire/smoke damage and mold mildew (grow shows) than anything else. both those type of jobs are $3500-6000 a day.
the car thing will be fun. most of that is cash so that helps too

 

[CudaChick1968]

Congrats on a fine new set up there Chris! At $3500+ a day, I think we're all in the wrong business. LOL I wish you were closer -- we could collaborate.

Best of luck with your new endeavor!

 

[chrisf]

update!

i blasted the hood on the 21st. i didnt move it as i wanted to see what the weater was going to do to it.

here is a pic from a few minutes ago. no rust at all and this is bare metal. i like!!!

 

[Steve68]

Wait till you see what soda blasting will do to undercoating! Regular blasting has a hard time with undercoating but soda blasting just eats right through it. The neat thing is there are mixes available with some hard media mixed in, so you get the stripping and metal gentle action of soda and the rust removal of a more aggressive media. Bright shinny metal and no heat warping.