Soda Blasting North Manchester - Rochdale

[koolio]

I need a cylinder head cleaned up anyone know of a good soda blaster in the North Manchester area, could be around Bury or Rochdale also, or North in general.

Would be appreciated.

[ripzay]

Pain in the are finding blasters these days.. (also in rochdale).. Struggled finding someone to do my wheels prior to powder coating..

Have you considered setting up your own soda blasting kit? It can be done with fairly cheap parts if you have a compressor available.. Search youtube for 'DIY soda blaster'

Also.. Mat be able to widen your search and consider vapour blasting.. May do the trick.

Sorry I couldn't be of any more help.. If you do find someone - share their details.. Probably come in handy to know.
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Current: 2005 KTM SuperDuke 990
Previous: 1996 Suzuki Bandit 600
Previous: 1994 Suzuki GSX-R 400

[koolio]

Thanks rip I had wanted to build my own but I lack the space to do it.

Will look at vapour blasting although I'd prefer the soda..

[Just_James]

Have been looking at making my own blaster, I have everything to do it but was going to wait until I finish the man cave.
If you supply the soda I'll have a go at it for you if you want.... but your head would be my guinea pig

[Snodvan]

With the engine corrosion issues of an 02 BMW 650 I had to learn about soda blasting. NOT difficult and the results are impressive even with my tiddy compressor.

Basics here https://www.garagenight.tv/diy-soda-blasting-build-your-own-rig-cheap/

Sodium bicarbonate is around £3 for 2kg from my Thai supermarket. Most oriental supermarkets sell it in Kg packs. No idea why. I used about 1kg to treat most of the while BMW engine before I repainted it with smooth Hammerite silver. Still perfect 4 years on

I used it recently to thoroughly clean an SU carb - looked better than new when finished ...... and you clean it all down with tap water after blasting. Easy peasy.

Snod
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04 (UK Reg) BMW F650cs, but really 02 first Reg in Holland

[koolio]

[Just_James]

[Just_James]

Well I've just been having a little play with a DIY set up today and am impressed with how well this works!

Only had a little 180g tub to play with but had a go with it on a little Minarelli head I had lying around

https://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a75/RS1Rebuild/DPP0852_zps6b382182.jpg

I'm going to either invest in / make a blast cabinet and a proper gun

Garage now looks like a cocaine factory

[331X2]

Have you tried blasting paint or is that outside the capabilities of soda? I've got a couple of engines that need doing and I'm considering setting a cabinet up.

[Just_James]

I think soda is possibly capable of removing paint but it wouldn't be my media of choice and would be a slow process even with very thin layers of paint.
Soda is ideally suited to cleaning aluminium parts, particularly heads and carbs etc that would get damaged by a more aggressive media.
For removing paint I'd use sand, shot or glass bead etc that will do the job much more effectively and efficiently. If you're removing paint to repaint again then you can use a more aggressive media as the following priming and painting or powder coating will cover any pitting made from the blasting.

[331X2]

Cheers

The castings are ally but was trying to avoid leaving too much pitting from blasting as they're quite a good finish with large flat areas, would sand be one of the less aggressive mediums? Yellow builders/play sand ok?

[Just_James]

Hard to say what would be best without seeing them really.

If you're not repainting them, maybe remove the paint with nitromors (or pay to have them acid dipped) and then clean up with soda blast?