soda blasters

A while back the forum had a post about soda blasters. I am considereing purchasing one. I know where to purchase them but what I'm looking for is some feedback from folks who have used them.
1. Do they work well? Are you satisfied with the result?
2. Cost of the soda versus rate of removal. Are they fast?
3. What size of the soda works best.
Any and all information is appreciated.

Badger,
This the one I have and it is awesome! Best resto investment I have ever made. Having a good compressor is key. The higher CFM rate the faster you can blast, it's just that simple.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXLW3y2gJhc&feature=related

Dan

Dry Ice Blasting is faster than Soda but at 10X the cost and needs massive equiptment. There's less than 25 companies in the country with a 2" or better setup. If you live near one your good and as a plus Dry Ice Blasting will remove minor warps and dings as you blast. But the $$$$ is way out of my range...

I have the Eastwood "Dual-Baster" and for less than $500 I got everything they offer for the system and 200lbs of soda! And I'm a "Happy Camper"

Dan

I have one like dan's and use it with a 33 gal craftsman compressor with another 30 gal tank to increase my volume. It works pretty good, if you have the time and don't mind a lot of mess.

Good timing for this topic to come up. Im looking at a solid no rot 67 5 window Econo pickup near me from California that was stripped 3 years ago and left bare metal to surface rust in a garage. Now it has no paint at all but totally covered everywhere inside and out with surface rust,even underneath. Its still sitting on a rotisserie at a body shop. Unbelievable that this was allowed to happen. The owner has given up and I may go rescue it. Its a factory automatic and comes with lots of new and extra parts.
Im concerned about the heavy surface rust. I dont think soda wil take it all off and Im worried that sand will warp the panels. The body overall is cherry minus the heavy surface rust. Comments welcome from those with experience on this.

After reading the posts on this topic I purchased a dual blaster from Eastwood. At this point I have conflicting feelings regarding the blaster. I'll list the good points first.
1. It does remove rust, paint, scale very quiclky.
2. Play sand purchased at home depot is cheap and works well.
3. The nozzle orifices are very durable. Also the exact part can be purchased at Harbor Freight.

Now the flip side.
1. The dual hose nozzle is very awkward to use especially in close quarters like under the vehicle.
2. The media control valve is located on the bottom of the tank and is difficult to operate. According to the instructions it needs to be turned on and off each time you stop blasting for any period of timer. Pretty hard to do when your in the van or under it.
3. You have to change orifices when you switch from one media to another.
4.. Eastwoods tech helpline is a recording. They tell you to leave a message and then will call you back in 24 hours or so.

My solution.
Im going to Harbor freight today and purchase another control nozzle (the working end of the hose assembly). Im going to split the hoses into two seperate units and install a new control nozzle on the soda blaster side. This will eliminate the dual hose assembly at the control nozzle. In my opinion It will be lighter, more flexible for hard to reach places and will eliminate having to change orifices when switching from soda to sand or other media.
Ill post the results and cost of the modification in a couple of days.

I have the Clarke version except single tank. You can use any media you want just have to empty holding tank. Local equipment rental companies carry the blasting sand in 3 different sizes from very fine to heavy coarse..Don't get the coarse even if you want to blast frames, it is not sceened well and clogs the nozzle. The fine will do all panels and frames. The trick to keep from warping body panels is to move fast and not heat the area. Buy all the replacement tips you can afford at the time cause the sand eats them up(they are ceramic) You MUST wear a respirator when blasting with sand as it is silica and is carcinogenic.Your blasting hood plexi sheild will wear out as quickly(from the sand bouncing off it) . Don't but the overpriced replacement shields, go to home depot or lowes and get thin plexi sheets and cut your own shield replacements. You can reuse the sand if are not blasting greasy areas, Don't use the recycled sand to do body panels as you will be blasting grease into the panels.

I made the modification to the Eastwood Dual blaster. Purchased exact duplicate blasting nozzle with three orifices from Harbor freight for $17.99 plus tax. The modification is simple and took less than five minites. With only one hose going the abrasive nozzle, the unit is much easier to use in close quarters and it appears to function better. May be my imagination. Now I have seperate blaster nozzels for the soda and the sand, with the correct orifice in each nozzle. The only drawback is not being able to mix soda and sand at the nozzle but I dont know of any reason to do that anyway.