Soda Blaster

[Jeremy Hedges]

Has anyone used or know of anyone that has used this soda blaster (with any success) that is in the link below? And if so, what size would I need to do fiberbglass safely?

Thanks

Jeremy Hedges
#31711

http://www.ace-sandblasting.com/soda-blasting.html

[Rob A.]

Re: Soda Blaster

Jeremy,

I have heard feadback that you'll never get all the small particles out of some areas that are blasted with it..for what it's worth...

[Clare Carpenter]

Re: Soda Blaster

I looked into baking soda stripping in detail some time ago. The process and media was developed for cleaning the copper on the Statue of Liberty restoration. Now it is widely used in many commercial applications to include automotive paint stripping. The little $250 hopper unit Ace has is very small. It would likely take a good while to do a vehicle with this unit.

I see Ace is in Holland, MI. There is a distributor for Armex products in the Grand Rapids area that will rent you a larger commercial pressure hopper for using Armex baking soda media. You do need a special pressurized unit to get the best results at the most economical cost. There are a couple of ways to go, one is dry stripping and the other uses a water stream to hold down dust. As I understand it, the baking soda media is different for both. The Ace stripper is the dry type. Like any process, I am sure there is a learning curve for application. I have heard both good and bad about the results and I'm sure it depends largely on the operator and his knowledge of the correct media and the process to apply it. The are several degrees of aggressiveness of baking soda media available depending on the job. It can be gentle enough to strip the paint from a soda can or aggressive enough to strip rust. Baking soda media once used fractionalizes on impact and can be rinsed away with water, unlike plastic media or walnut shells.

Obviously, there are advantages and disadvantages with any process. Chemical stripping leaves a residue that is hard to clean from areas like the truck and all the little nooks and crannys it can get into. That can come back to haunt your paint job. Mechanical stripping is not practical for all areas and damage to the fiberglass surface and body lines can easily occur with a DA sander if someone isn't especially careful, or doesn't know what they are doing.