I bought a soda blaster from Harbour Freight, its a 15 pound soda blaster, costs about a 100 dollars, plus a bag of soda, fifty pound bag, for about 35. Tried it today, works ok, but dosent beat a sander, my compressor didnt have enogh CFM to run it constantly, so it would only work for a few mins, then i had to wait until the compressor built up pressure. It does take the paint right down to the gel coat, but if you pause, it will drill a hole in the gel coat, all in all i am not that impressed with it, it uses a lot of media to take a little paint off, where it does well, is parts that a sander cant get into, but, for the rest of it, i find a sander is faster, and not having such great eye sight at short distances, i cant wear glasses, and goggles, so i cant really see exaxtly what its doing. I reckon, if i had tried it before i bought it, i wouldnt have bought it.
Bit of advice on soda blasting DIY
- Thread starter AtlanticAl
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Yea the cat is good, he thinks he is a squirrel, keeps climbing treest, but he can get up and down. Every time we cant find him we look in the treest, and we see this black mass, up a tree, going to be murder to find him in the summer when all the trees have leaves. We had tornadoes the other night, and he spent all night up a tree. Must have been hanging on for grim life. He came back home in the morning. That cat could climb K2.
a. Rent unless you do this continuously. That is what the commercial guys do. Otherwise, your equipment will generally be far too small.
b. Media blasting is not a walk in the park. I've done it commercially and would not choose it unless I was doing it daily. There is a lot of set-up and clean-up. The PPE is also mandatory, if health matters to you.
b. Media blasting is not a walk in the park. I've done it commercially and would not choose it unless I was doing it daily. There is a lot of set-up and clean-up. The PPE is also mandatory, if health matters to you.
PLEASE wear your glasses under some sort of large goggles! You loose your site, you loose a lot of living friend.
Jack
Jack
Very few home type compressors have eough CFM to run a blaster. 110v/220v does not make any difference. If using this method then it is best to rent the equipment. Lastly, this process can remove material very fast and damage to the gell coat is a very real possibility.
Ray
Ray
Compressor was too small, its a 2.7 cfm and what is required is a 6cfm, but it does give a few mins of work before you have to wait for the compressor to recharge. I just wasnt really impressed with the work the blaster did, I thought it would work well on the non slip, but while it takes the paint off the top of the tiny pyramids in the non slip, it dosent dig the paint out of the low points.
For ineperienced, never do any blasting of any kind as yo will do more harm to the boat and your self.
First thing is protection. Not only do you need a complete suit that you can purchase, head gear to include googles, respirator, ear protection, head protection are a must and even then, I would tape around the ends of the suit so sand, soda, etc cannot get underneath.
Then, you do not have the experience and you could very well damage your boat. I left the work up to professionals if that is the route you plan to take
First thing is protection. Not only do you need a complete suit that you can purchase, head gear to include googles, respirator, ear protection, head protection are a must and even then, I would tape around the ends of the suit so sand, soda, etc cannot get underneath.
Then, you do not have the experience and you could very well damage your boat. I left the work up to professionals if that is the route you plan to take
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