Thread: Soda Blasting

Has anyone ever used soda blasting on the cases? I am currently working on a Candy Topaz Orange KO CT70 and decided since my bead blaster was being a pain in the a#$ to use, I used my soda blaster on the cases. These baby's look like brand new! Other than being a little more expensive, this soda blasting seems to be the way to go for everything from engine to frame. I bought the rig from Harbor Frieght for 50 bucks and it has worked great so far. The soda is about 35 dollars for a fifty pound bag. I will try to post some pictures later. I welcome any comments good or bad. This is only my second restore. My first was a Ruby Red K1 Z50 not the best job I have seen, but I am proud of it being that it was my first.
I suffer from two disorders; one, I have no patience and two, I can't seem stop buying every Z50 and CT70 I see thats a decent deal!

Soda blasting is a great way to strip parts.

There is no downside other then the harbor freight rig goes through lots and lots of soda.

For your entertainment, Doctors have patients, you have no patience.. Unless you are a doctor that has no customers...

Thanks for the spelling correction. If I had paid a little more attention to the teachers, rather than playing with all the little girls, my spelling might be a bit better.

Here is an easy to build soda blaster. Not efficent, but very simple

E

we have an ace with a 100# hopper and use a 7 1/2 hp compressor other than comsuming lots of air, this thing works maricles i have even used it to clean the carb with fine soda by backing off and shooting it straight down the bore it leaves the original look untouched, used it on the flywheel the engine cases, piston, head with the valves installed.
the only thing i was'nt pleased with was on the frame it stripped every thing off but the rust and left the metal to slick for primer so i changed over to sand

Oh, now I see how soda blasting doesn't leave it all sticky. It's not Coca-cola.

Originally Posted by c-ville 70

we have an ace with a 100# hopper and use a 7 1/2 hp compressor other than comsuming lots of air, this thing works maricles i have even used it to clean the carb with fine soda by backing off and shooting it straight down the bore it leaves the original look untouched, used it on the flywheel the engine cases, piston, head with the valves installed.
the only thing i was'nt pleased with was on the frame it stripped every thing off but the rust and left the metal to slick for primer so i changed over to sand

Are you doing this in a cabinet or just open air?

My only experiance with the stuff is in the construction field and it throws a heck of a cloud up.

Soda blasting is a great process in the right application. Burning through $1000 worth of blasting soda to strip a car body could be money well spent...within the totality of a $75,000 restoration project. Unfortunately, it's not really practical or cost-effective for these bikes, unless done on the cheap for a few very small parts (assuming that you already have a suitable compressor) or you already own a serious rig for production-scale blasting. Unlike other media, blasting soda is one shot/non-recyclable, even with a dedicated (and expensive) cabinet. Open-air blasting isn't something you'd want to do unless you own a large, isolated, parcel of land. With a 10hp compressor + 25cfm nozzle, a complete CT70 frame set will easily take 2 hours to properly blast, 3+ isn't unusual if there's a fair amount of rust inside seams, below the engine and inside the tank area. 50lbs of blast media can be cycled through such a system in minutes. $2/minute adds up fast.

Originally Posted by racerx

Soda blasting is a great process in the right application. Burning through $1000 worth of blasting soda to strip a car body could be money well spent...within the totality of a $75,000 restoration project. Unfortunately, it's not really practical or cost-effective for these bikes, unless done on the cheap for a few very small parts (assuming that you already have a suitable compressor) or you already own a serious rig for production-scale blasting. Unlike other media, blasting soda is one shot/non-recyclable, even with a dedicated (and expensive) cabinet. Open-air blasting isn't something you'd want to do unless you own a large, isolated, parcel of land. With a 10hp compressor + 25cfm nozzle, a complete CT70 frame set will easily take 2 hours to properly blast, 3+ isn't unusual if there's a fair amount of rust inside seams, below the engine and inside the tank area. 50lbs of blast media can be cycled through such a system in minutes. $2/minute adds up fast.

Thanks RacerX, that's pretty much what I figured. You think soda makes a mess against metal you ought to see what you get when your are renovating an older brick building-Egads!