What are the pros & cons on soda blasting

Pro:  Not as aggressive as grit or other media.

 

Con: Not as aggressive as grit or other media. Not usually reusable.

For big items, it's pretty expensive.  I have a friend that just had his 36 foot sailboat soda blasted, you don't want to know what that cost!

 

I use glass bead blasting, it works very well and on plastic shells I don't see any degradation of the fine detail.

Dry Ice leaves only what you blast off.

 

I have a glass bead blaster as well. If you plan on using it with trains, glass beads are fine with die cast but can warp tinplate if you are not carefull. Soda blasting is pretty much safe for anything just not as aggressive.

 

Pete

Joe,

Unless you have contacts and many business leads, I would think more than twice. A friend in the auto restoration business takes care of my needs. I can only afford to have more than three engines and or rolling stock done at a time. And then only when his shop is doing large items as well.

 

From what I understand the equipment is not that expensive. It's all the permits, as well as state and local EPA fees that put you in the hole before you even start. If you have the room and want to do as a hobby, the smaller blast assemblies are affordable. I would not do anything without checking local EPA laws.

 

"Pappy"

Check out the stuff on http://www.eastwood.com

 

Not all that expensive depending on just how large and frequent you are going to do this - as with many things, it's probably as expensive as you want to make it.

 

50lb blaster is $200, and a Eastwood 100 lb Soda Blaster Starter Kit with Media is $270.  You get to supply the compressor.

 

Not sure what the concern is about the EPA - bicarbonate of soda is in your kitchen cabinet; ok, 50 lbs is a bit more that most have in their kitchen,

One other tip. Get good equipment. Eastwood is a good source. Stay away form Harbor Freight. Some of their stuff may be OK but select the wrong item and you will be tearing your hair out.

 

Pete

We use soda blasting at work on all kinds of aircraft parts. Our only EPA issues come from the Zinc Chromate primer stripped off the parts. This is an issue with any blasting medium. It works really well on parts that have surfaces which are partially painted and have chrome or anodized surfaces. You can keep the taping to a minimum since the soda is fairly safe if you accidentally blast the chrome or anodizing. I think this would work really well on plastic and around delicate parts like hand rails and grab irons.

To keep the cost down I use "Creme Soda"  and a secret grit formula.

 

Thank all of you for your help, it's appreciated. I'm thinking I'll just stay with what I already use.

 

Joe B.