$10 siphon sand blaster at Home Depot
Was looking for tubing to make that budget soda blaster when i came across a $14 blast gun w/ hose (Husky brand) at Home Depot. Picked it up and it turned out to be on sale for $9 which was a very pleasant surprise.
It is a gun with long rubber tube and metal tube to set in the media of your choice.
I pulled out my recently purchased and filthy SC spring plates and put the metal tube in a box of pure baking soda. WOW!
Yet again i don't have pics but this is the ticket. Pretty good job of cleaning up the dirty plates yet did not remove the yellow protective coating. The good news is it's only baking soda. Coupled with my el-cheapo Harbor Freight blasting hood i had zero gritty crap in my mouth after blasting and nothing more harmful than a pile of baking soda on the ground when done.
$100 Harbor Freight soda blaster
There is a portable soda blaster available at Harbor Freight for around $100. It is well worth it. Soda Blast media is in a grain form not a power form, meaning that Arm&Hammer baking soda is not as good as real soda blast media. If you want to really use soda to help restore your car then I highly recommend looking into soda blasting specific equipment. Harbor Freight can get you started for around $150 with a 50lb bag of media. Home Depot can get you going for $30 but the results are more like a high school experiment than a professional job. You don't need lots of air pressure, a 30 gallon air compressor should do it.
Spend a little money on the right equipment and soda blasting is one of the most amazing cleaning method. Think of this - now you can blast: carburetors, calipers, engine cases, oil system parts, oil coolers, etc. The media and stripped material wash away with water.
http://www.harborfreightusa.com/usa/...o?itemid=65902
