Budget Soda Blaster

i take it you don't live in a state where they salt the roads in the winter.

if you would like, i will tell you how the chemicals in salt wreak havok on bare metal surfaces

just the humidity in the air will flash rust blasted parts.

They used to salt here in nd. I've worked in a meat plant where I had to scrub cast iron parts by hand. They have to be dryed immediately or they flash over. If anyone added bleach to the degreaser they would rust no matter what and 3times as much. You could wipe them off and they'd still rust. Bleach is not simply rinse off and it's gone. I just could'nt see how the salt could do damage beyond this point is all I meant.

I live in Bottineau,ND an U?

West Fargo

nads.com wrote:

West Fargo

Right on my brother in law lives in West Fargo

So has anyone used this budget soda blaster with the course soda? Just wondering if this setup can be used only with the arm and hammer, or if it can be also used with the proper blasting soda.

I've seen people ask before but I don't think I have seen an answer. Could you use this to clean an engine in the frame without disconnecting anything (spark plugs left in place, carbs and pipes still attached)? Obviously this would not lead to as thorough of a cleaning but for just getting some gunk out from in between the fins and a few other problem areas this could work right? Rather than wash it off afterword could you just blow it off? My engine has enough problems as is and I am not keen on having to spend weeks meticulously going over every inch, or in taking it out and trying to seal up all possible points of entry. Call me lazy but I am just trying to clean up a $200 craigslist find, not enter any bike shows. Any opinions?

650 in Vegas - Try Steam Cleaning. Steam will get off the heavy gunk followed by an good old-fashioned elbow-grease washdown to remove anything left over. The bike will dry out.

9am53 wrote:

So has anyone used this budget soda blaster with the course soda? Just wondering if this setup can be used only with the arm and hammer, or if it can be also used with the proper blasting soda.

Corse soda should be ok to use as long as the soda material won't stop up your blasting gun. As far as removing any dirt, I would first test an inconspicious area of your workpiece to see if it cleans to your satsifaction and doesn't damage any sensitive parts before subjecting it to a complete cleaning just to be sure.

Thought I'd pass along my experience.
Yesterday, I recalled I had a cheap air tool from Harbor Frieght called an "Engine Cleaning Gun" which combines the air nozzle with a pick-up hose (supposedly for chemical cleaning agents) to pressure wash an engine.

I adapted it to Soda Blasting by only adding the stick at the hose bottom end, by taping what amounts to a pencil (dowel) around the hose, to stand into a box of Armon-Hammer Baking Soda and blasted away.

Results were impressive.

I'll post some pics later when I take them.

But, this worked really well. Better than I even expected.

Here's a link to the 'Engine Cleaning Gun' I used from Harbor Freight. Only $8 and worth every penny.

www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=97014

BTW, notice it also has a mix adjuster, so you can adjust the flow of soda. Says it needs 60psi, but I ran it all the way up to 125psi at times.

Cool KAHruzer! ABout how many boxes of Armon Hammer do you think it would take to do an entire KZ engine? How far did one box get you?

Well, realize this was purely experimental at this point.
Wasn't being efficient by any standard, and tried many different things along the way.

The part is the sprocket side cover of my KZ750-H4. Last fall I had a huge ordeal just getting it off. Was rusted onto the shifter shaft and wouldn't budge. Finally got it off and winter had set in. So, not by decision, the thing managed to sit in a rubbermaid dishpan, outside, over the winter. It had filled with water, leaves and general crud and was really quite a mess. I didn't want to even touch it. It was that bad.

So, figured it a good test for the blaster.
Didn't get 'before' pics of the front, but it looked just as bad as the backside. I quit on the backside when I ran low of soda (2lb box) and also realized I wanted to get these snapshots with some of the old 'before' remaining.

The front remains very spotted from water stains, but all the crud is gone. This was a very casual first pass, too. Not sure how much of that might come off with a second, more deliberate, pass.

I figure it's going to take some elbow work to get it to shine again, though.

I remain pleased with the result.

As to how much soda, I had been adjusting the feed throughout and would also have some pickup issues at times due to the flow (had to shake the box as it got lower). It wasn't a full box when I started, 3/4 maybe.

Anyway, it lasted 30-40 minutes as I worked with all that going on. As I said, I tried a lot of adjusting, angles, etc.

I imagine an aparatus could be rigged pretty easily to capture the soda and reuse most of it. Might get into that before next pass.

Well, here's the pics: