From what I've read you have to make sure you get all of the residual soda out of every crevice so it doesn't come back to haunt you later on, kind of like the problems with chemical strippers. Again, I have no experience with doing it, only what I have read on different discussion boards.

 

I have a Harbor Frieght Pressure Blaster. I use 80 grit sand at $6.00 for a 100 lb. bag.

I wear a painters outfit, a high-end paint breathing mask and a hood over my head with a glass shield.

When blasting my frame, it was quick and saved me a lot of work. The down-side is the clean-up as the sand gets everywhere and I mean, everywhere! I live on 3 acres so I was able to move everything away from the house and shop. The dust still got in my Shop and my cars. It was a real hassle. If I lived in a tract home I would never dream of blasting in my driveway without warning my neighbors.

If I had it to do over again, I'd farm out the frame and get a booth blaster for the smaller stuff in my shop. I still intend to get the booth blaster.

 

Soda will NOT take off rust, It will clean off paint without warping the metal. I used it on a carburetor and it made it look like new. Great stuff for that, but for frames and rusty parts it is totally a wast of time.
I have been using Black Diamond media from Tractor Supply in my HF pressure pot. It works great, better than the sand I was using. You can close the valve at the bottom of the pot and slowly open it until you get it blasting just right. Uses a lot less media than sand.

 

There are different respirator systems for paint and dust, if you want to the safest possible you need a system made for the type of dust you're exposing yourself to. My personal, unprofessional opinion is you'll be safe as long as your don't expose yourself on a daily basis or extended periods of time. The government reports I read , I only read a couple I could find on the net, said silicosis is brought on by long term exposure to silica sand while doing daily work like mining and professional blasting.

Actually, the best system is to have some one else with the proper gear do it.

 

The scenerio you describe, Bob, is very true. I've seen the results of cars being blasted with soda, and it's not pretty. Because the particles are so fine, it does get into areas that you can never get clean. After the vehicle has been finished, the soda will continue to do whatever chemical reaction it does and ruin your restoration. I would never use it on any body parts that have hidden areas, or overlaping panels or seams. My 2c.

 

I was working on a snowmobile last winter and used my cheapy siphon feed blaster with a box of arm and hammer out of the cabinet. Just wanted to clean some aluminum corrosion off a couple bogie wheels...
It worked great!

 

That's what I've heard. If a person would want to soda blast I would suggest handling the part like you would, or at least the way I do, when using chemical strippers. Tape off all the seams, do your stripping then finish up with either a DA sander or blast the edges with more aggressive media that doesn't cause this problem. It's more work but it's worth it to avoid the problems that can come to the surface later on.

 

Soda is WATER soluable (put a tablespoon full of good ol' Arm and Hammer in a glass of water and stir, drink after having too many adult beverages!) unlike any other chemical remover or media. Water in a pressure washer will wash it out of anyplace it could possibly get into. Add a phosphate protectant to the wash water if you are concerned about flash rust or will not be priming immediately. What could be easier?

 

It seems all the basics are covered here: diy vs cost of paying others, different blasting media material, very good information for someone to start with on researching and deciding what road is best for them to travel.

 

I'm still looking to get a soda/sand blaster combo from Eastwood one of these days. For heavy rust we use Black Beauty at work. This is what I plan to use on my frames. Nice thing about soda for us slowpokes, is it doesn't promote flash rust right away.