Harbor Freight Soda Blaster

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I have been debating picking up a soda blaster for awhile now. I have a set of aluminum engine cases from my '91 CR500 that need refurbished so I finally bit the bullet and picked one up on Saturday. I got a 15LB unit from Harbor Freight. They were on sale for $99 and I found a 20% off coupon so it came in under $80.

The blaster comes with a regulator, water separator, media regulator, pressure gauge, and teflon tape.

After putting the unit together I filled it with air to check for leaks. I put some soap on the fittings and every threaded fitting on the regulator leaked. I tried to snug them up a bit but I didn't feel comfortable making them any tighter than they were. The leaks were pretty minor so I decided to move on.

I filled it up with soda and tried using it in my makeshift blast cabinet. After about two seconds I couldn't see a thing besides a white cloud. I'm guessing if you had a real cabinet with a vacuum setup it might work but without something to pull a vacuum in there, I don't see it happening

I moved the operation outside and started over. It took a few minutes to get everything set to where it seemed to work best. I ended up with the air set at 90 PSI. At one point, a piece of plastic cracked off the regulator. It didn't affect the function so, no big deal. I ended up with the media regulator set approximately 3/4 open.

Once everything was set, the unit did a really good job of removing paint. From all the reviews I've read, I had expected it to perform miracles on the aluminum and make it look like new. I found that it does not perform miracles. My clutch cover was pretty stained and I was hoping it would make it look fresh again. It didn't take off the major stains but the areas that weren't badly stained did come out very good.

The longer I used the blaster, the more often it seemed to clog. I had to stop blasting and shake the canister or invert it and then I could get back to work. After awhile it got a bit tiresome. I'm not sure why but it seemed to clog less if I had a lot of soda in the canister.

One of the reasons I decided to go with soda vs. a more traditional media is that it will not embed itself into aluminum. I've heard issues with glass beads and sand doing that and when getting hot, they pop out. Could be bad news in an engine. I typically strip with aerosol cans but they didn't touch this paint whereas the soda took care of it with no issues. Clean up of the blasting area was way easier than sand. A couple minutes with the hose and everything was gone. One nice thing about the soda is that it does not deform the metal. It works great for cleaning gasket surfaces and inside the motor. One downside is that you have to carefully clean the metal with hot water because the soda leaves a film that will prevent the paint from sticking.

PRO's
Easy clean up
Does not distort metal
Safe for soft metal like aluminum
Safe for gasket surfaces
Will not embed in substrate

CON's
Could ruin you paint job if not cleaned off properly
More expensive than sand
Much more sensitive to moisture in your compressed air and more susceptible to clogging in the blaster

I would rate the Harbor Freight 15 LB Soda Blaster a 5 out of 10.
It got the job done
It was cheap

BUT

It leaks air
The regulator cracked (does not affect function though)
It clogs alot
And its just cheap. When you screw on the media regulator you can tell the bung on the top of the tank was welded on crooked because the whole regulator assembly sits crooked.

If you want a soda blaster for occasional use I'd say this will work for you.

 

[warriorguy]

Thats funny i just picked up the big cabinet from harbor freight yesterday.Today i start putting it together.Lots of bolts.Wow.Looks like a 15 to 16 beer job.I decided to go with the crushed walnut for my media.Heard it does a good job with little distortion of thin metal.I guess i will find out in a day or two.

 

[Rand-5107]

Now don't go taking shortcuts. That job should take a full case of beer.

 

[wildweasel_pt]

90 PSI sounds a bit too much. Today i used glass beads at 60 PSI and it worked pretty well to strip the anodizing from the calipers... Check my thread and you will see what im talking about...

 

[[email protected]]

Seen the pics. The calipers look good.
Next time I blast I will see how 60 PSI works. I'm definitely no pro so any tips I can get are appreciated.

 

[Fire-medic]

I have posted previously about using the inexpensive HFT $20 gravity feed gun for media blasting. I have used it for both soda blasting and for sandblasting. It goes on-sale for < $10.

I forget what was the pressure I used, I am thinking 90 psi. I have a 11CFM @ 90 psi 60-gallon twin piston compressor.

It made the chrome surfaces look like new even though they had minor pitting, w/the NaHCO3. Rust-through where the chrome was peeling was not magically 'fixed,' but it does get a scrubbing action to the edges of the base material under the peeling chrome. Nothing will fix that, except maybe a removal of the chrome, re-plating w/a base coat or coats and more chrome, and probably some additional refinishing before plating.

Back to the HFT canister, if you only have a smaller area to do, and not sq. ft., I would try their little hopper-fed gun and see what kind of results you get at different pressures. When it clogged, I would just put my heavily-gloved finger over the hopper gun's orifice for discharge, and pull the trigger. When you remove your finger after a moment, the flow would usually begin again. I bought my 13 lb. bags of NaHCO3 @ Costco.

The Kerker 4/1 header pipe I did came-out great. It was pretty-rusty before, but not badly-pitted, so that probably had something to do w/it. Die cast aluminum pieces cleaned-up really-well for me. And, unlike sandblasting, it doesn't permanently mark the aluminum surface w/a 'matte' finish. If you have larger areas to do, the larger tank Garrett has will speed-up the process.

 

[gamorg02]

I have posted previously about using the inexpensive HFT $20 gravity feed gun for media blasting. I have used it for both soda blasting and for sandblasting. It goes on-sale for < $10.

I forget what was the pressure I used, I am thinking 90 psi. I have a 11CFM @ 90 psi 60-gallon twin piston compressor.

this one is worth its weight in gold.

 

[Fire-medic]

Well, mine is worth $10 in gold! :biglaugh:

I think soda blasting is easy to do if you have any substantial type of compressor. I also have the small pressurized HFT sandblaster, which I used to do my engine, it came-out great!