Eastwood soda blaster

[bkelly]

Has anybody ever bought one? I was going to pay ~$1k to get my car blasted but for those prices, I can buy it myself, pocket money, and have a soda blaster when I'm finished. I emailed them about where the cheap one was "imported" from as they don't say what country. They got back to me and said China. I'm very cautious about buying anything that needs to last that's made in China. I don't mind paying for quality, but at over double the cost for the made in USA one, can the China one be that bad?

http://www.eastwoodco.com/jump.jsp?itemID=1408&itemType=CONTENT&path=32&KickerID=395&KICKER

[EScanlon]

It all depends on how much rust you have.

If you DO have rust, you'd be better off using a more aggressive media than soda, or simply cut the metal out.

Don't forget that Soda MUST be cleaned off the metal for proper paint adhesion (this was discussed before) AND if you don't do that you are asking for problems. Add that to the 80¢ + per lb. cost of the soda and .... ($39.99 for 50 lb. plus shipping).

If you are set on doing the job yourself, why not check into Harbor Freight? They have a comparable unit (probably ALSO manufactured in China) for less money. Here's a link to a comparable unit for less money:

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=95014

There are other units there as well.

But if you do have the money, and you want it done quickly and thoroughly, the $1k price might very well be worth it. By the time you buy the unit, the blast media - whether sand or ..., and designate the space to do the work and put up with the MESS (and it IS a mess)... $1k may be peanuts.

2¢

Enrique

[geezer]

But if you do have the money, and you want it done quickly and thoroughly, the $1k price might very well be worth it. By the time you buy the unit, the blast media - whether sand or ..., and designate the space to do the work and put up with the MESS (and it IS a mess)... $1k may be peanuts.

2¢

Enrique

After doing all my own blasting for the last 30 years or so, I have gradually come around to agree with Enriques above quote. Today we have local outfits that will blast a Z inside and out for $600. The initial cost of buying one of these small units will escalate into quite a large investment by the time you are set up to begin blasting. Unless you are planning to do this on a regular basis it is not worth it. The main problem for me was the development of the area I live in. It was great when I had no close neighbors to disturb with my activities. It doesn't take long to cloud up the hood now. Don't even think of doing this in a garage where you keep tools or anything else you don't want caked up with dust and rust. It gets everywhere and a dedicated work space really is nessesary. No problem if you live in the wide open spaces I guess, but I guarantee you will still ask yourself...why didn't I just pay someone to do this? My next purchase is going to be a blast cabinet for doing parts and I'll farm out the next large blasting job.

[bkelly]

My neighbors are really annoying...I have to listen to their damn dogs bark 24/7 so I don't care how much noise I make. The money doesn't bother me, it's just that I can have something in the end if I buy it myself. Haven't no way to transport my car is kind of an issue also. While that Harbor Freight one is "cheaper" it's not set up for soda blasting. If you look, Eastwood also has a soda blaster converter for media blasters. The soda blasters from Eastwood are nothing more than media blasters with the soda blasting converter installed, for a couple dollars less than purchasing separately.

[Maddos]

One of your bigger issues will be a compressor with enough capacity to affectively keep up with your blaster. I'm currently setting up a soda blasting division at work. We're paying $6000Aus for a 90cfm compressor which will probably be borderline. The blasting company recommend 1cfm / psi of pressure used, automaotive is around 100 psi max. The blast unit we are purchasing comes with water attachment to keep dust to minimum. This unit is worth $13k Aus though.

http://asbsupplies.com/ We are getting the SS4 smaller brother the SS2 which is same but with a 45kg hopper.

I tend to agree with the above though, if you're not setup properly, doing your car can be painful. I bought one of the cheap blasters off ebay and found my compressor rated at about 10cfm seriously lacking. Would get about 10 secs of blast before pressure would drop enough so as not to be reomving paint effeciently any more.

It is handy to have in the shed though.

If we weren't purchasing this setup at work, my 240 was going to a local soda blaster for $1k strip job. Well worth it after my last chemical/ wire wheel strip job.

[ImperialBlast]

Hey Maddos,

Where are you at? I run Imperial Blasting at Heatherbrae (Near Raymond Terrace). We do automotive only blasting in the Newcastle area. We've been doing soda blasting for a year or so now and have just ordered another soda blast setup from ASBS (SS2). I was actually with the guys in Sydney on Sunday. If you didn't want to outlay the cash to buy your own soda blast setup, let me know as we can do any jobs you need (we do soda blast other jobs not just cars, but only soda, no industrial abrasive work). The soda blasting has been really good.