Does anyone here do soda blasting

VinceP Oct 7, 2019

  1. VinceP

    VinceP TrainBoard Member

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    Have a Kato CNW SD40-2 coming soon and looking for someone who can strip/sodablast the the shell for me and not using liquid strippers
     
  2. wvgca

    wvgca TrainBoard Member

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    sure , have a soda blaster ... would do it for nothing for the blasting ...
    but the shipping would be pretty expensive ..
     
  3. sidney

    sidney TrainBoard Member

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    you could put it in a jar and fill it with sand or rice or what ever blasting stuff and shake it baby shake it. hahahahahahi have a rock tumble that i use for metal stuff right off the lathe
     
  4. r_i_straw

    r_i_straw Mostly N Scale Staff Member

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    I have tried stripping shells with just soda blasting but found it did not work very well for me. It removed some of the fine detail in some areas while not getting all the paint out of deep recesses. I have much better luck on Kato paint by just using 91% rubbing alcohol. I can leave shells in it for a week and it does not attack the plastic like some strippers do. I still have to scrub with a tooth brush to get the stubborn cracks clean but all the detail is still there. I use the soda blasting for delrin parts like truck frames to rough them up a little and give the slippery plastic some "tooth" so that paint will stick to it.
     
  5. VinceP

    VinceP TrainBoard Member

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    I've left a kato shell in 91% for 2 months and almost didn't touch the paint.

    Took off the lettering but not much else.
     
  6. wvgca

    wvgca TrainBoard Member

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    soda blasting is meant for brass or other relatively hard metals ... it will etch softer plastic shells ..
     
  7. VinceP

    VinceP TrainBoard Member

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    Didn't know that dang need to find a way to strip these kato unit's.

    Thanks there Frozen neighbor of the north.
     
  8. wvgca

    wvgca TrainBoard Member

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    there are quite a few other liquid paint strippers ... plus commercial ones ...
     
  9. r_i_straw

    r_i_straw Mostly N Scale Staff Member

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    And a lot of them will kill the ABS plastic that Kato uses. Things get real brittle and crumble real easy so be careful out there.
     
  10. VinceP

    VinceP TrainBoard Member

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    That's why i asked for an alternative to most strippers.

    As i have nuked several kato shells in the past.
     
  11. wvgca

    wvgca TrainBoard Member

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    In the past I have used [never on Kato shells though] 1] Oven cleaner -regular stuff, yellow can, 2] Castrol Super Clean (came in a gallon) 3] orgional Pine Sol, the green stuff 4] 91% alachol, 5] brake fluid, old style DOT3 ..
    I have never tried any of the fancy commercial ones .. but ALL the cheapies did work ...
     
  12. r_i_straw

    r_i_straw Mostly N Scale Staff Member

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    One problem is that Kato uses an ABS type plastic to make their shells while most everyone else uses a polystyrene plastic. The ABS is very susceptible to having its plasticizers leached out by most things commonly used for stripping, both commercial strippers and repurposed products such as oven cleaner and Pine Sol. This makes it quite brittle. About the only thing I have found that does not do this is alcohol. If you can obtain stuff more pure that 91% it does work better.

    A side note to the different plastics shows up in trying to glue ABS to polystyrene with a solvent type cement. The orange bottle Plastruct 00002 does the best job because it includes a binding medium that adheres to both types of plastic. Also, the older gray Plastruct sheet and shapes are ABS and weld to Kato shells just fine as their white stuff is polystyrene and can be more difficult. Their older shiny white round tubing along with the couplings and elbows that go with it are also ABS. They now do also sell a newer round tubing that has a flat finish that is polystyrene.
     
  13. sidney

    sidney TrainBoard Member

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    maybe some 192 proof alcohol is whats needed hahahahah
     

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  14. VinceP

    VinceP TrainBoard Member

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    Quit the hard stuff neighbor.
     
  15. sidney

    sidney TrainBoard Member

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    sippin stuff from the woods :whistle::sneaky:
     
    Kurt Moose likes this.
  16. VinceP

    VinceP TrainBoard Member

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    Shine on silvery moon
     

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