DIY Soda Blasting

[Tradarcher]

My aplogies if this has already been posted. I searched and didn't find anything on it. Pretty handy for small parts if you asked me. Might use it for my cycle.

http://www.garagenight.tv/diy-soda-blasting-build-your-own-rig-cheap/

 

[rattlecanpaint]

After having used a Harbor Freight sand blaster, that looks much better. I guess it depends on how much a bucket of baking soda costs. I wonder how it does on rust?

 

[a_kelley]

I wonder why one couldn't fab up something similar (maybe add a "real" nozzle too) with a gravity feed hopper and load it with black beauty or sand.. brass threaded fittings seem appealing to the application. use a 3/8 - 1/4 reducer as a nozzle?

I'm thinking baking soda isn't going to work well, they say it won't take anodizing off aluminum.. and no mention of cleaning steel/iron parts..

 

[Tradarcher]

I'm thinking it only works on gunk and grime. Maybe in lieu of a parts washer.

 

[stewartgivens]

I don't know about the DIY version, but I had one of my rockwell axles soda blasted when I building my buggy - came out awesome - removed every bit of paint, but never harmed the rubber boots at all.

Stewart

 

[RatLabGuy]

After having used a Harbor Freight sand blaster, that looks much better. I guess it depends on how much a bucket of baking soda costs. I wonder how it does on rust?

Total cost of this is next to nothing...

The parts we bought to make our system only ran to about US$15 at the most – that included a 5kg (12lb) bucket of baking soda, best purchased from an oriental foods supermarket.

The key here is this isn't necessarily a replacement for real media blasting, where you want to completely strip off everything down to bare metal, anodized parts etc.
just a cheap way to clean off the surface.