BigBadJon wrote: On your way to Louisi-damn-ana.....I hope.

Yes sir, via Michigan Indianna, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia and beyond

On your way to Louisi-damn-ana.....I hope.

MercuryMarc wrote: I am with you guy's on having duel cabinets.

I have the blast cabinet blues.....

Once I am allowed to travel again, I be right over to help build the addition to your shop,but I have to stop in Milford county first lol

I am with you guy's on having duel cabinets.

I have the blast cabinet blues.....

Locomotion wrote: Man, that looks like a nightmare!


Still getting my process down Ray,
Luckily I went to the quarter car wash and blew all the crap off. This process is a dead one!

I have a hand held soda blaster that I got from Redline. It works great for small stuff that just need moderate cleaning, but it won't really remove paint. ...and you absolutely need to do it outside and with the wind at your back. If you have neighbors nearby, they probably won't be happy with you either. I keep glass in my cabinet since it's appropriate for most of what I do, but I'd agree that multiple cabinets would be great. Need to build that bigger shop I guess.

I saw that block on JOMS too. That's what got me thinking about this.

Man, that looks like a nightmare!

Changing out blasting media is a pain in the butt, you can never get all the rough stuff out if you want to go back to delicate work. I keep super aggressive black beauty slag in mine because I mostly do old rusty car parts. For aluminum or smooth finish steel parts I just turn down the pressure and work fast. I got some nice glass beads from Summit Racing and used them at first. They are really the best on delicate stuff but cant kill the rust (or takes way too long) and do not last long and need to be changed out regularly. I did not like the walnut shells for my type of need but I do think they are good to clean grungy plastic. I need two cabinets.....maybe three. Soda needs neutralizing I believe and is hard to get the parts clean afterwards to paint. Many failed paint jobs out there due to soda blasting contamination.

Rick I thought about soda blasting but I have some concerns.
First; dishing out the greenbacks just to find out it won't remove the paint.
Second; i think you have to do the work outside, with no cabinet. I like the quick and easyness of the sand cabinet. I have seen some block work with a soda blaster on JOM's and looks like it gives a very nice finish, but I question the paint removal effectiveness.

My next door neighbor reloads his brass shells. He has a vibrating machine to polish all his brass using Walnut shells and red rouge. I thought I'd try it on all the crank bolts on Alan's motor. All I did was stain the bolts red and make a mess. There's not enough brass to invest in something like that. After all the work I did trying to figure out a short cut, it only took me 15 minutes to hit all the nuts and bolts with the wheel.
I personally enjoy cleaning small parts on the wire wheel, instant gratification.
If you don't like removing 60 year old congealed grease, sand, dirt, and paint, your are in the wrong business.