Soda Blast WIN!

After a few days of waiting for various bits and pieces, the blasting cabinet arrived and I have set it up and made some headway. It seeks I was using too much pressure and too wide a nozzle. 40 PSI and a 4mm nozzle seems to work rather well, but the soda I bought was food grade so it loves to cake and doesn't flow as I'd like. It slows the process down but it works and the results will speak for themselves.

The blasting cabinet/case is only small but it's big enough for the jobs I intend to do. It includes a pick up hose, blasting gun, straight air connection hose, 4 nozzles, air filter, a few plastic covers for the lid and a fluorescent light.

While in use the visibility is pretty bad even with the light on but apparently this can be solved by using a vacuum cleaner to remove the dirty air. The cabinet does have a tendency to blow the dust out through any gaps but the vacuum cleaner should create enough suction to solve that issue too.

The before shots show a ratty and dirty engine case and the engine number. Really not a very good look for a restoration.

The after shows the other engine casing and the engine number plate part way through cleaning. Much better but still not perfect. I'll take the majority of the mess and old paint off on the first pass and then return to get any spots I've missed. The process is a lot more time consuming than I had anticipated but that's fine. I'm time rich and money poor.

I'll be doing the rest of the cases tomorrow and will show the finished items. Now I just need to decide whether to get rid of the casting seams. I think I probably will.