[deadbodyman]

Originally Posted by racersdad04

I bought one from Eastwood. It works very well. The soda needs to be removed afterward or it will cake in the 25.00 worth of fittings. Its not the fittings that make it work. It is what is inside the fittings that makes it work. I'd say I am very happy with it. Dry air is a must.

My only disappointment is the cost of the soda. I have not found a good local source for it. I have bought it from Eastwood and TP, but the shipping kills me.

I'm hoping one of them will have a deal at Carlisle this spring.

On another note. I love having the soda blaster here but by the time I got done buying and shipping the soda for what I did compared to what I had done in ther past, I could have had the soda blast guy do it for about the same price and possibly cheaper.

Ben Braun

thats why I like the chem strip,it only cost about 50.00 and a days work

[Franz©]

Originally Posted by racersdad04

I bought one from Eastwood. It works very well. The soda needs to be removed afterward or it will cake in the 25.00 worth of fittings. Its not the fittings that make it work. It is what is inside the fittings that makes it work. I'd say I am very happy with it. Dry air is a must.

My only disappointment is the cost of the soda. I have not found a good local source for it. I have bought it from Eastwood and TP, but the shipping kills me.


Ben Braun

Feel free to post up some pictures of what said company puts inside of the fittings, I'd love to see it. My betting without seeing it would be a simple restrictoe and perhaps an eductor.

www.armex.com is the home of 90% of the soda made in the US, and they have distributors all over the country.
Norton sells soda too
There are plenty of distributors, and unless you have stock in UPS you ought to find one.

[Chris Kemp]

Originally Posted by deadbodyman

thats why I like the chem strip,it only cost about 50.00 and a days work

Ok, from time to time I use chemical stripper and it works real good. But what do you do about a panel that has long neglected surface rust that has turned into craters? I still sand blast but I have to be real careful.

Does anyone here have any experience with Dry Ice Blasting? It is supposed to be able to remove rust with the least amount of damage of any media. It shouldn't generate heat because of the ice and there definitely wouldn't be anything left over except what you blast off. The only reason I haven't tried it is because of the initial cost of equipment. If we think soda cost a lot then check out these links.
http://www.coldjet.com/en/informatio...e-blasting.php
http://www.jobtv24.de/de/stellenange...=325&vid=17839
http://www.scrubzero.com/videos_0.ph...sFireVideo.flv

[deadbodyman]

Chris, for pitted rust I Use ....................Ospho and a big wire cup on my 41/2 " grinder it pretty much disolves rust and cleans metal beautifully,I've been doing it this way for 25 years but there are those that say it dosent work ,I dont know why.You asked so there it is,mabee some day I'll switch to blasting but not today and probably not tomorrow ether,I have pics if your interested.I have used that recirculating vac blaster and it does a good job to but I always come back to this way for rust.BTW repairing rusty cars is how I got the nickname deadbody man

[Franz©]

Dry Ice is way beyond where you want to go restoring a Bentley.

The process is magnificent and does what you dream of soda being able to do, and the beauty part is no media to clean up post blasting. Now, if you have a budget that would make a Kennedy green with envy, go set up a rig, and once every couple years you may be able to bid a job to justify it. That first utility powerhouse restoration will pay for the machine. Of course you still need to remove the residue the DI knocked off.

Unless you have the jobs lined up for 2 years, rent the machine, the DI industry seems to have figured out nobody is going to buy one. Be prepared for EPA reporting requirements coming to DI soon, seems like a bunch of numbskulled politicraps fartsniffers have decided Co2 is dangerous.

[sawdusttv]

has anyone tried to make one of these retro kits? It looks like a couple of valves , a T fittinf and some hose.
Also, with this retro kit, does it connect to your pressure pot at the bottom outlet or the air intake at the top?

[hduff]

Read back in the thread. It's a little more complicated that just a couple hardware store parts, so nobody but Franz might try it and he doesn't care for soda blasting. If you want one, it's probably worth the $$ to buy Eastwood's rig. The real expense seems to be the soda.

I will be getting one this summer to strip some walnut and mahogany antique doors and trim in a hundred year-old house, so I'll keep it for the cars.

[hawkmoon77]

**AN ANSWER AS TO WHETHER OR NOT THE HARBOR FREIGHT 110LB MEDIA BLASTER WILL SHOOT SODA WITHOUT THE EASTWOOD KIT**

So I joined the site just to make this post.

I needed a soda blaster, and >$1,000 wasn't going to work for professional units. For everyday use, Eastwood has some to offer for less than $300 delivered. But I couldn't justify it when they sell one that looks nearly identical to the harbor freight 110lb model that was on sale for 80 bucks.

I did a lot of research, and there seems to be a lot of talk about the eastwood soda conversion kit. My rationale was that the cheapest "guaranteed" method was to pick up the harbor freight model for 80 bucks (harbor freight is local, so no shipping charges), a bag of soda, and IF it didn't work, then I'd order the Eastwood kit for about $140 bucks delivered and still be ahead.

Here's what I found.

Everything worked fine out of the box, no conversion. I have a 60 gallon compressor, with an inline moisture trap. I connected that to the cheap-o moisture trap that came included with the harbor freight model (figured, it was better than not using it). I put in fresh media, and blasted away.

The valve at the bottom that controls the flow is a bit large for soda, BUT I wouldn't change it (I'll explain why later). You have to carefully set it. For example, 15 degrees might be too little, 20 degrees might be too much. So somewhere within 5 degrees is the adjustment range. This makes it a bit tricky to get the flow right, but far from impossible. You just give it a tiny tap, and more come out. If too much comes out, give the valve handle a tiny tap back.

But what about all this about clogging? I don't know, I didn't have any problems with it. Of course you have to use dry air - in any setup. Maybe my air was super dry??? (I am in Florida, so I doubt that). In about 2 hours of blasting, I had it clog on me once. All I did was open the bottom valve to full open, and gave the gun a press. Clog passed, and I then re-adjusted the valve to the sweet spot.

I decided that I wanted an easier way to clear clogs (one that didn't require re-adjustment of media flow)... so I implemented the following:

Between the gauge and the tank is a metal threaded tube. Remove it, and install, in this order, after the guage install a shutoff valve, then an inline air release (harbor freights got 'em, or you can install a T with another valve on the top to vent out), and then have that connect to the tank. The original threading is horrible, so no teflon tape. I used teflon putty by the guage manifold, and silicone caulk around the threads in the tank (Yeah, they are that bad).

Here's what the assmebly does: If a clog happens, you shutoff the tank valve, and then open the release. Air is directed thought the bottom hose and straight up through the whole tank clearing anything in the way. A short 2-3 second burp of that assembly (which is convienantly on top, rather than on the bottom like in the Eastwood kit, clears the whole line) and doesn't even blow an significant media out (a little dust, but nothing major as it is on top of the tank).

Oh, and the extra shutoff also allows you to seal in the tank from the outside world helping to minimize the effects of humidity for media stored in the tank. (The main valve doesn't do this as it is before the moisture trap, and the moisture trap has an always open pin on the bottom unless there is pressure in the tank, and I don't want to keep the tank pressurized).

So for those wondering, I say go for it. I got a special deal, but even the normal sale price is around $120 bucks for the harbor freight model (or as I think of it, the red version of the Eastwood tank).

***I will point out that I have not tried Eastwood's setup, I don't know what it might add to the equation. But my current setup cost less than 100 bucks with everything, and works far better than I even need it to.

Good luck, and I hope this info helps.

[hduff]

Thanks for the info, hawkmoon77.

This thread will never die.

[racersdad04]

I bought the Eastwood blaster with the soda adaptor when they first came out. its been a good tool to have around. Just can't leave soda in it for a long time. I've seen a few others now from harbor freight, and Clarke. I'd bet they are the same, except for the soda adaptor and my sone has used it with soda without the adaptor.

I also want to add something. I had a very bad experience with Eastwood who I was spending IMO a good bit of money with. I had also called their tech line and got minimal help.

I was in the area where they are. My son wanted to paint his truck with the flat black paint that they sell. I had to ask some questions to.
I felt like I was a bother to the 2 guys working the counter. I also wanted to spend some time looking at their products that I had been looking at in there catalog.

They got many phone calls while I was looking through the store. What got me upset, especially since I had called them a few times was they made fun of everyone that called. IMO they acted like everyone was a idiot or stupid.

I left with the feeling that I was a burden to deal with and I didn't like the way they made fun of customers.

I sent a pretty serious e-mail about this also to Eastwood and never got a responce.

Since then I have not bought one thing from them. That is a loss for them since I do spend some money.

Ben Braun

Ben Braun

[deadbodyman]

My partner bought the small presure blaster from Eastwoods its the same propane tank from China that HF sells THE SAME THING.it costs a lot more though...You DIY's are getting ripped off....

Racersdad ,if you dont mind I'd like to copy and paste this to another thread also ....

[racersdad04]

That is OK with me.

Ben Braun

[deadbodyman]

It'll be in "eastwoods plasma cutter" If you want cheap chineese toys then buy them direct ......these guys are just middle men putting stickers the crap.
They think most people are to stupid to know any better and maybe they are but a spade is a spade Imo they are worse than big companies like 3-M that make quality products but rape you without lube...

[poida97]

Originally Posted by hawkmoon77

Between the gauge and the tank is a metal threaded tube. Remove it, and install, in this order, after the guage install a shutoff valve, then an inline air release (harbor freights got 'em, or you can install a T with another valve on the top to vent out), and then have that connect to the tank. The original threading is horrible, so no teflon tape. I used teflon putty by the guage manifold, and silicone caulk around the threads in the tank (Yeah, they are that bad).

Hey Hawkmoon, would you have a photo of that setup of yours? (sorry to dig up an old thread)
Cheers,
Anthony