Blasting Soda

[woodnick]

I have a few Hand Planes I need to clean up. Does anyone have experience using the soda media from Harbor Freight? Or should I stay with Aluminium Oxide.

 

[James Davis]

I don't know anything about blast media, but I would recomend using citric acid to soak them clean. It works great and is not harmful to your hands. It is available in numerous places and fairly inexpensive.

Evaporust is also good at rust removal but at ~$20.00 a gallon it can get costly.

James

 

[froglips]

or potato's........



(I'm the second James without any insight in the original post!)

 

[BobN]

Blasting Soda is for removing old paint from sheet metal. Use soda instead of sand as it doesn't heat up the metal like sand does and therefore doesn't cause any warpping. After the paint has been removed you still have to use sand to get the rid of the rust as soda won't get it.

I mess with old cars and do a lot of sand blasting. Blasting sand comes in 5 different grits, for an old hand plane I would use a very fine grit. In Raleigh, Capital City Lumber has sand blasting sand in all 5 grits and sells it for $7.00 for a 100 lb. bag. At least that was the price last time I got some, about 3 months ago.

Bob

 

[Gofor]

Hard plastic media will remove some rust, but not heavy scale of ferrous oxide (rust that has turned black). If the "soda" you are talking about is aluminum oxide, it should work. I would try it on an inconspicuous place first to make sure it doesn't etch the surface more than you want (i.e on the sole and shoulders)

Go

 

[junquecol]

Why not use a battery charger and some washing soda? Works over night, simply rinse off the crud, including rust. Google - electrolysis. Or look up Ready Kilowatt, also know as Sapwood / Roger. Kroger stocks Arm and Hammer Washing Soda

 

[sapwood]

Naturally, I'm biased :wink_smil
But I agree with Bruce. Electrolysis is cheap and relatively easy. You need to apply some scrubbing force with a wire brush to get the black gunk off immediately after removing from the bath. However, you can reuse the solution almost indefinitely. Soon you will be looking for more rusty stuff :mrgreen:

Roger