Soda Blaster

Has anyone ever used a soda blaster like this, http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=66742

I am restoring an old cub. I was told that soda blasting is the way to go (instead of sand blasting). I have never used soda. So I'm wanting some advice before I invest in one. Would a person want to use a large grade or a medium grade media. Also if you own one or used one like this how long would it take to do a tractor. I tried to upload a photo of the blaster but couldn't get to work, sorry about that.

Thanks,
Jeff

Soda blasting is the same as sand blasting, except for the media being used. Soda is mostly recommended for more delicate parts, and a Cub really isn't all that delicate. Soda is also much less aggressive than glass beads or silica sand, and may not be very effective at all when trying to remove several layers of paint or built up rust.

(quoted from post at 15:17:24 11/07/09)
Soda blasting is the same as sand blasting, except for the media being used. Soda is mostly recommended for more delicate parts, and a Cub really isn't all that delicate. Soda is also much less aggressive than glass beads or silica sand, and may not be very effective at all when trying to remove several layers of paint or built up rust.

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Soda blasting also leaves a residue on the surface that unless cleaned well will not allow the paint to stick as well. I know of 2 cars that were painted after soda blasting and the paint lifted. Luckily the shop stood behind there mistake and fixed them. It did do a nice job of cleaning the car though.

Rusty's advice is good.

Sand is to be avoided. Think mesothelioma.

Black Beauty is effective for general blasting, especially for the cost. Most efficient stuff I ever used was a mix of glass bead and aluminum oxide.

> Sand is to be avoided. Think mesothelioma.

Silicosis if you do it a lot and aren"t careful. Not mesothelioma.

> ...glass bead and aluminum oxide.

Just as likely to cause silicosis as sand.

Glass bead does not produce the free silica that blasting with sand does.

That's not to say you should be inhaling it, in fact you shouldn't, but it's not the same stuff.

Had the sheet metal on my M soda blasted. The guy told me it won't remove rust. He was right. Didn't have much rust but what there was it didn't remove. Bernie Steffen

Supplied air, the same as used for hardeners in paint, solves the silicosis problem. Also, sand is cheap compared to some of the other products. Just put the intake downwind.

I was a professional sandblasting contractor from 1968 to 1998. I have no disabilities including work related ailments. I retired because New England has lost most of its heavy manufacturing base. Seventy five percent of my work was with metal fabricators.

It's not the media you use. It's all bad from a health perspective except for dry ice. It's the protection you don't use that will get you. That means a full coverage blasting helmet with enough air so that the helmet almost floats. It means ear plugs crammed deeply into the ear canal, and I mean DEEPLY. It means holding your breath when leaving or entering a confined work space without your helmet.

During my thirty year career, I worked for numerous govt agencies and fortune 500 hundred companies. Half of them required medical exams prior to mobilization. My pulmonary function tests and hearing tests were always good. In fact I have never been ill except for a few broken bones and lacerations.

There is no need to be concerned about personal health if one has proper personal protective equipment. On the flip side, there should be concern about environmental protection but that is another subject.

As for soda, I tested it at a sales convention and was unimpressed. It is a very specialized media with limited applications or specification requirements.

When I was working at the frame plant, the maintenance guys used dry ice as a blasting media to clean grease and weld slag off the manufacturing fixtures. It worked well, and the residue of the media evaporated into gaseous CO2. Obviously, you'd want to be careful about ventilation, to make sure there was sufficient oxygen where you were working [kinda like MIG welding in an enclosed area].