Blasting with soda media?

Perplexed · Oct 3, 2018

Based on glowing reviews online, I decided to try soda media in my Skat Blast media blasting cabinet for removing rust and loose paint without harming well-done paint. It does work nicely within limits, and the light coating of soda left behind on the object being stripped helps keep it from rusting till I’m ready to paint. The soda washes off easily too, another bonus.

However, and this is a big one... the soda media clumps badly in the hopper in this humidity. It worked great for the first 20 minutes after I loaded the soda media into the hopper, but after that, I had to jostle the cabinet every 3-5 seconds to get the media to loosen up and fall to the bottom of the hopper and the pickup tube. That’s not gonna work.

Have any of you folks with blast cabinets ever worked with soda media? If you have and you’ve experienced this clumping, how did you solve it?

MacFromOK · Oct 3, 2018

Hmmm... I wonder if hanging a cloth bag of rice in the cabinet (lol, out of the 'line of fire') might help...?

Just a thought. :drunk2:

bsmith918 · Oct 3, 2018

I have an aftercooler on my 80 gallon and a really long run with filters and desiccant. You can also build a small device that hooks to the media cabinet and vibrates the hopper to keep the media from clumping.

stick4 · Oct 3, 2018

Drain the water out of the compressor, add a water seperator at least 10 ft away from the compressor. Run an air conditioner in the shop to rid it of humidity. (I know all aren't practical for everyone but that's the way I built my new shop. The blast cabinet is in it's own 6X10 A/C equipped room)

Shoot Summ · Oct 3, 2018

I haven't run soda yet, but when I set my cabinet up the guy I was talking to told me soda needs VERY dry air.

I also have an aftercooler, long run, and 2 water traps before air gets to my cabinet.

It's is amazing what the aftercooler pulls out before the water even gets to the tank.

I just made a grid out of copper pipe that sits in line with the flywheel on the compressor head so it pulls air across my cooler. The temp drop is pretty amazing. It goes to a dead drop with a ball valve on it, a lot of water comes out of there.

Perplexed · Oct 3, 2018

The problem is not so much the pressurized air - I do have a water separator inline, and it works fairly well. The issue is that the blast cabinet, in order to clear the air inside during operation, pulls air from outside in through a sponge filter on the back of the cabinet, and from there out the side to a vacuum canister. Otherwise, the air inside the cabinet would be so thick with airborne soda particles I couldn’t see the object being stripped. It’s this air being pulled in that causes the soda to clump up.

I guess that, barring the construction of a small room in the shop with a deumidifier, I’ll have to stick with other media. Just tried crushed walnut media tonight, and it worked tolerably well.

dennishoddy · Oct 3, 2018

Perplexed said:
The problem is not so much the pressurized air - I do have a water separator inline, and it works fairly well. The issue is that the blast cabinet, in order to clear the air inside during operation, pulls air from outside in through a sponge filter on the back of the cabinet, and from there out the side to a vacuum canister. Otherwise, the air inside the cabinet would be so thick with airborne soda particles I couldn’t see the object being stripped. It’s this air being pulled in that causes the soda to clump up.

I guess that, barring the construction of a small room in the shop with a deumidifier, I’ll have to stick with other media. Just tried crushed walnut media tonight, and it worked tolerably well.

Corn Cob is not as aggressive as walnut media.

Perplexed · Oct 4, 2018

dennishoddy said:
Corn Cob is not as aggressive as walnut media.

Walnut media was all I had on hand besides glass beads. It worked pretty well for what I needed it at the moment. In fact, I thought it was pretty mild.

Shoot Summ · Oct 4, 2018

Perplexed said:
The problem is not so much the pressurized air - I do have a water separator inline, and it works fairly well. The issue is that the blast cabinet, in order to clear the air inside during operation, pulls air from outside in through a sponge filter on the back of the cabinet, and from there out the side to a vacuum canister. Otherwise, the air inside the cabinet would be so thick with airborne soda particles I couldn’t see the object being stripped. It’s this air being pulled in that causes the soda to clump up.

I guess that, barring the construction of a small room in the shop with a deumidifier, I’ll have to stick with other media. Just tried crushed walnut media tonight, and it worked tolerably well.

Might be, but you are putting way more compressed air that is in direct contact with the media through the cabinet than you are pulling air into/through. Odds are it's your compressed air source, IMO.

Beyond that how is your cabinet set up? Do you have a pickup tube for the media, or does it have a pickup off of the bottom of the cabinet? I modified my cabinet so it comes directly off of the bottom, another suggestion from the guy I talked to. The metal tubes have always been problematic for me.

Perplexed · Oct 4, 2018

It’s a stock setup, with a plastic tube picking up the media from the bottom of the cabinet. I can see where the soda media has been cleared in a conical hole from around the pickup. What modification did you do to your pickup mechanism?

As it is though, I’ve had zero issues with glass media for heavier duty jobs, and the walnut media seems to be doing OK for lighter jobs, so I probably will just not use soda media anymore. I was hoping for a quick and easy solution (like the rice in a bag), otherwise I’ll just stick with other media.

Blasting with soda media?

Perplexed

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MacFromOK

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bsmith918

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stick4

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Shoot Summ

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Perplexed

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dennishoddy

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Perplexed

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Shoot Summ

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Perplexed

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