I'm looking for details beyond 'Don't do this' as to why a soda blasting setup can't use more abrasive or heavier media like aluminum oxide. From Eastwood's dual blaster: "The Soda Blasting side of the equipment is color coded GREEN and the Abrasive Blasting side is color coded RED. DO NOT attempt to put Soda Media in the RED side or Abrasive Media in the GREEN side. Damage to the equipment and operator injury can occur. Note: If this should occur, stop work immediately, disconnect from air supply, release all pressure and drain tank by removing cap and inverting unit. Replace cap, repressurize unit and purge all remaining media from valves and hose." I have a single soda blaster unit, not the dual blaster, which I got for who knows what reason at the time. I should have just bought the sand blaster setup, since after soda blasting once, I'll never bother doing that again. It just does not have the stripping power. I need a sand blaster for stripping frames and thicker sheet metal parts like radiator supports, cross members, and of course panels. Stripping fast, with 10+cfm air supply. I filled the eastwood soda blaster with 60 grit AO abrasive the other day just to see if it would fail, explode or otherwise injure me fatally. Nothing bad happened (yet) but I'm wondering what parts I need to switch out of this tank to make it safe for AO. http://www.eastwood.com/eastwood-soda-blaster.html Anyone have both? What's the difference? It's basically brand new, only used twice for short periods. Maybe eastwood will take it back and send me a sand blaster for christmas. thnks.
The soda is very fine so the soda blaster has a very small oriface at the bottom of the tank to regulate the flow of soda as compared to other media that is usually larger. I think it would have a tendency to plug up when other media is used.
X2 I don't have the details off hand but I know Eastwood sells a relatively cheap conversion kit to turn a sandblaster into a sodablaster by changing out the valves. So I would imagine you could do the opposite. Sent via Illinois Bell Telephone Company's Car Radiotelephone
I would think the ceramic orifice in sandblasters may be different in size and possible construction than the soda blasters. May heaver hoses,,the sand is much more abrasive than the soda. HRP
tox, I did just the opposite of what you are trying to do (sand to soda) As 1955 says you could probably get the sand setup from Eastwood, but you can make it yourself probably cheaper with just a nipple, tee, and ball valve in place of the Eastwood soda tee/oriface arraingement. You don't need the special oriface tee with the sand setup just a ball valve to regulate it. Hotrod, the ceramic oriface sizes in the gun don't matter as long as you have enough cfm to run them. My compressor puts out about 10cfm and about an 1/8" nozzle in the gun is about the max I can use without starving the compressor. here's a couple pics of my soda setup, I rigged up the quick disconnect chicago coupler and fittings so I can disconnect my blast hose easily to switch between soda and sand set up. Hope this helps.
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