My dog Lady got me a small blast cabinet from Harbor Freight (Chinese made stuff but decent enough)for Christmas. I run 125 PSI with my small compressor, have added a surge tank for more capacity. I still outrun the compressor though.

This unit will do wonders on non ferrous metals such as what our carbs are made of, and aluminum castings leaving a "from the factory" finish. The soda is a commercial blasting thing which I can buy here in the States quite inexpensively. A 50 pound bag costs about $40 bucks.

The first thing I did after trying it our was to dismantle the cabinet and caulk all the seams and joints. This cut the dust dramatically. Then I made a "drip tube" from 2 inch PVC plumbing pipe to drain into a bucket. I covered the bucket with a rag to keep down dust. Now I only have a little to contend with so no worries.

What I did find though was water in the air line caused the soda to clot. I added an online dryer which helped and now have tossed in sachets of silica gel to absorb any moisture in the media hopper.

However, I was still having media feed problems until I realized that some of the soda caked into the small orifice at the top of the pick-up tube. Taking the gun apart confirmed this so I cleaned it out.

Now I get a good flow of media at 125 PSI, a fine finish and like new parts. I did a set of SU carbs for my MGA this morning and they sure look nice.

If you have a lot of stuff to clean, get or build a cabinet. You won't regret it!

email (option): britool51@hotmail.com

I got the little plastic Snap-on soda blaster and thought it was pretty good for carbs and oil tanks and that kind of thing, like you say it dosen't remove the rust but if the metal is good it gives a nice finish., I also found out that if you don't use it all the time you can get away with using fine glass bead in there. I think if you used it all the time it would wear out but for the odd little job it works fine. I pay about £18 for a 20 kg bag.

email (option): davmax@ntlworld.com

Hi Dave,

I also have a vibratory tumbler that I polish my .303 cases for the 1918 BSA made Enfield No. Mk111 in. That also does a nice job on more stubborn stuff.

email (option): britool51@hotmail.com

Blasting is great stuff! Especially so the the soda variety in my opinion.

Here is a picture of a blasting cabinet that I built a while ago http://www.flickr.com/photos/bohuslan/8271022616/in/set-72157629556474519
Rather a "homebuilt" look but it works quite ok and a garagebuddy of mine recently sodablasted an entire (dismantled) Yamaha XS 750 engine.
We too had some problems with moist clogging up the blasting gun. Turned that our compressor had over 2 liters of water in the tank... works a lot better now!

My experience is that with sodablasted aluminum parts you have to either polish or tumble them. Otherwise the get dirty real quick.

/s

Hi Simon,

YES on aluminum turning blackish and rubbing off on your skin. That particular metal oxidizes immediately after exposure to air.

Homemade is cool! Saves a lot of parts money.

email (option): britool51@hotmail.com

I had a lot of vapour blasting done three years back, on gearbox and engine casings and copper pans !!!, got to keep her indoors sweet haven't you, although most kept wrapped up in polythene/bubble wrap, there is very little sign of surface oxidisation yet I don't believe any final surface treatment was applied, I have tried soda blasting in my cabinet and with a water trap (very large)but still cant stop clogging of nozzle and pick up, my compressor is a 100 CFM diesel driven. The cabinet is a commercial one about fifty years or so old came from Chatham dockyard, and works wellish with coarser media, I have never been totally happy with the pick up and blast system and will look round this spring to upgrade this part, but I am blowed if I can successfully use soda, It could be that the soda gets damp is it hydroscopic perhaps? do I need to store in warm place till I want to use ? sodas no good on rust or paint but good on ali ,brass carbs ect,andrew.h.

email (option): warbikes@gmail.com

HI rob
Had my harbor freight blast cabinet for awhile now.....have all the same problems you claim,i end up putting three industrial size air dryers inline next to each other and rapping my vertical air tank in a water heater blanket....seems to have solved my moister problem.(air dryers were free,work in a very large scrap yard or they would be expensive).

Tacomacompany offers a conversion kit for this cabinet,very nice and very nice and expensive 249.00 USD, i will be working a little over time to purchase this....they have a video on youtube and products on ebay...cheers rob.

email (option): frankschenk09@gmail.com