Soda Blasting,Anyone?

tooljunkie

tooljunkie

Member
so i tried a little experiment yesterday.
a fouled spark plug.
a box of baking soda
a cheap hand held sandblaster,the kind with a small sand resevoir on top of the gun.
so a little blast,a little shake and another blast.
de-carboned plug beautifully well.
blew off and gave it a blast with brake cleaner.
#2 cylinder came right back.16 hp lawn tractor engine.
i'm convinced.
sodium bicarbonate is harmless,so no mess to clean up.
i am happy.
will try it on paint soon,i hear it works well,as well as neutralizing anything corrosive.
 
Soda blasting is considered "green". Sandblasting carries the risk of silicosis if you breath in too much. When I did it I had a supplied air helmet. The pressure inside prevents the sand dust from entering. While you don't need it for soda blasting it's a good idea to use the best dust filter you can find, the really good cloth/fiber one. Not a cheapie dust mask, an expensive dust mask. That and a face shield and your good to go. When you finish soda blasting use air to blow all the dust off and prime as soon as you can. Blasted surfaces start hazing with rust fast.
 
i tried it on a rusty bumper-no go,hardly touched the scale.i did try it on an aluminum piece,cleaned off the paint and a couple stains and left a dull satin like finish.
so for something that needs a decent yet gentle cleaning it may be the way to go,carbs for instance.
i may try it to prep some aluminum for welding the broken piece on my crankcase.

using silica sand is a very unhealthy way to go,there are many better alternatives,and as Dave C mentioned proper ventilation and protection of your lungs is a given.
the paper dust masks dont work as they dont seal very well.
4.99 for one vs 4.99 for 100-id spend the money on a better one.
 
DaveC said:
Soda blasting is considered "green". Sandblasting carries the risk of silicosis if you breath in too much. When I did it I had a supplied air helmet. The pressure inside prevents the sand dust from entering. While you don't need it for soda blasting it's a good idea to use the best dust filter you can find, the really good cloth/fiber one. Not a cheapie dust mask, an expensive dust mask. That and a face shield and your good to go. When you finish soda blasting use air to blow all the dust off and prime as soon as you can. Blasted surfaces start hazing with rust fast.
Click to expand...

soda is too soft a blasting media to remove rust an scale , but for a nice gentle blast job with out putting too rough a profile on the surface soda is the way to go . I have had a couple corvettes soda blasted pryor to restoration an it didnt even damage the jellcoating .
Gary
 
Soda blasting is good for delicate work, it is very gentle and doesn't damage sheetmetal. There are aslo other media used for the removal of rust. Garnet is good for heavy rust, safer than silica and very aggressive. Walnut shells are very gentle. Use the right media for the job.
ANY media blasting shoukld only be done with full safety equipment.
 
A friend of mine lives in Hialeah Miami Fl, works at Hollywood Fl, does sodablasting as a job.
Does mainly old timer cars, but has done jobs on motorcycles, sports cars, and even buildings too!
If you need someone to do some parts for you, I can hook you up with him!
 
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