DIY soda blasting gun: new video from Garage Night TV

Latest episode of our show about working on bikes. We show to make a
basic soda blasting gun using cheap parts. Great for cleaning up or
stripping back metal bits, such as the aluminium brake caliper bracket
shown in the vid.

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

All the best,
Waz
http://www.garagenight.tv

 

Hang your baking soda bucket up and take a feed out of the bottom -
blast in an half oil drum and shovel up the caught b.s. to go back in
the bucket (with some filtering, natch). I'd also put a stopcock in the
downfeed pipe.

 

Good advice. I was thinking of attaching the feed hose to a large
funnel, then putting the baking soda in a fine sieve in the mouth of
said funnel. Hopefully the soda wouldn't start to flow through until
the suction begins, and then when it did flow it would be quite fine
and mixed with air. A stopcock would help further to control things.

We've got a rudimentary sandblasting cabinet and Trent informs me he's
obtained some sort of gizmo that we can try out to help with flow.

Thanks for the comments,

Waz
http://www.garagenight.tv

 

Not exactly new after all and kinda messy when you can purchase a tidy
little kit but thanks for the link
http://www.supercheapauto.com.au/online-store/tools/air-tools.aspx?id=187
I have been using walnut shell and soda for 30 odd years with good
results and certainly with the right gear at 8>10cfm paint removal from
body panels is easy and saves hours of work , just remember the right
medium and not sand ( silicoses will kill you) and a cheap polishing kit
for the alloy helps maintain the lustre

 

Hmmm, who said it was anything new? And yes, it's rough and ready, but
surely good enough for someone who's doing one-off jobs now and then.

I have heard good things about walnut shell polishing.

May you polish for another 30 years.

Waz
http://www.garagenight.tv

 

Heh, having posted the instructions here about 6 months ago,
I still haven't got round to making one myself to clean up
the carbs I have for my latest project.

Good to see it working, but I'd be interested to know where
you got such a huge tub of soda from, and how much it cost?

 

Ah, of course. I did buy a big 1L jar of it from Makro last
time I was there, to apply liberally if I splashed any
sulphuric acid about from anodising (see other garagenight.tv
thread!) but that was the biggest they did.

 

This is the cheapest I can find, huge tub but works out to ~£2/Kg
delivered. We could always chip in and UR it around the country ....

 

Arse!

url:
http://www.mistral.ie/details.php?code=R6140&gclid=CNbekLTG96ACFYts4wodO
jhOBA

 

Bet its not as big as this tub:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ECOSTRIP-SODIUM-BI-CARB-SODA-BAKING-POWDER-ABRASIVE--1T_W0QQitemZ360160287559

 

It may be an old technique but it's new to me, have got to try it on
some old parts. When I was a kid, lots of people used it for
toothpaste. All I've used it for is to get ladies' hair out of drains
by adding vinegar to it (price of discount white vinegar here about CAD
2 for 4 litres).


I suppose 2 pounds per kg is about a pound for a pound. Seems a high
price even though Brit' prices often make the USD and the GBP seem equal
as far as what they'll buy goes, not sure haven't been there lately.
West coast Canuck dollar stores sell the stuff (Arm and Hammer brand) at
CAD 1 for 500 g, ie. about a 'nuck buck for a pound, sometimes half that
price. Central Canada prices are usually much lower (West coast canucks
generally too dumb or lazy to make anything for themselves). I imagine
US discount prices are even lower. Coca-cola is about the same price as
gasoline here, apparently gas is cheaper than Coke in the US. Decent
olive oil is usually more than ten times the price of either except for
a few big eastern cities that have sizeable 'little Italy's'. Canadian
cheddar is very expensive in Canada because of federal production
quotas, most of which are assigned to Quebec, three-thousand miles from
the west coast. Much cheaper in US but tiny import quotas also apply.
So it's expensive to be a canuck who likes canuck cheddar.


I think I'll just buy a few or ten pounds of the stuff, cut some holes
in a cardboard fruit box, lay a sheet of thin plastic on top, duct tape
some rubber gloves to two big holes, another hole for the hose, hang a
pail and hose overhead and when the pail is empty, just pour the used
stuff back in to pail and re-use it.


Anyway, is some sodium-bi-carb more abrasive than others?

 

I think the 5kg tub cost me £6 from See Woo oriental foods in
Greenwich, London, UK. Dirt cheap. I'm pretty sure See Woo is a chain
throughout the UK.

I could have got 12kg for a tenner as a box of 4x3kg bags but decided
not to, just in case the process didn't work.

I'd try any big Chinese/oriental food store in any part of the world;
you'd probably have better luck at one that's big enough to supply the
local Chinese restaurant trade as well as retail.

Another UK chain to try is Wing Yip.

I believe bicarbonate of soda is also sold as a pH balancer for
swimming pools and it can be got as cheap, or cheaper, as the stuff I
bought. Trent was talking about a 20kg bag for a tenner. I'd be more
cautious about protecting my eyes/mouth with that stuff because it's
not necessarily food grade and it might be 'cut' with other chemicals!

Remember it's baking SODA, not powder. The latter contains egg albumen
and all sorts of other crap.

Waz
http://www.garagenight.tv

 

Yes, I did have a quick Google and found the same (and a supply on
ebay), although didn't think about the chemical differences to food
grade soda.

One thing you didn't mention about using baking soda as opposed to
walnut shells (or other media) which is really worth highlighting, is
that baking soda will dissolve in water so it's safe to use with
things like carb bodies as you can simply wash the part afterwards
to remove any soda, and stop it blocking feed tubes and the like,
which you obviously can't do with walnut shells.

 

Hi Antony, I did mention exactly that in the blog post that
accompanies the video - but not in the video itself, you're right.

Waz
http://www.garagenight.tv

 

That'll teach me for not paying attention ;-)

 

Never mind, it's good to know actually. Helps us work out how much
detail to pack into the videos. I sometimes think 'I'll edit that out
and mention it in the blogpost' but the stuff about carbs and water
solubility is definitely a piece of info that could/should have been
in the vid.

 

Nice and with a little effort you can set up to recover the soda for
resuse. Might give that a try for the hubs on an old T-500 and the
spokes and the rims...heh tis a nasty gnarly condition it's in.