I want to clean a Powerglide transmission case and have been thinking of using Armex baking soda. Never used it before and wonder if it will work in my syphon-type beadblast cabinet? Normally I use glass bead, but in this case I'm thinking soda blasting would be better since it's water soluble and I could be more assured that it's flushed out of all of the passages by pressure washing after blasting. Thoughts...experience? Thanks Lynn
Sounds like it would work if you can be sure the cabinet is truly empty before you add the soda. Coca-Cola actually has acid in it. How about blasting with Coke to clean up the aluminum? Set up the power washer in the driveway with all the flat Coke from the back of the pantry.
Lynn, I use soda in a Jeggs 81502 benchtop cabinet. Soda doesn't flow like sand or glass. Add a little humidity and it gets worse. If you fill the bottom of the cabinet, a funnel forms around the pick-up tube and you stop siphoning. I tilt and shake the cabinet. After a while, you end up lifting the grate and piling up media over the inlet. Lately, I made a hopper by cutting a gallon bottle to fit the "funnel" bottom of the cabinet. It is cut just below the grating. I put the media in a box off to one side and fill the hopper as I go. It's a bunch easier/faster than opening up and clearing off the grating to lift it to push the soda around. I thought about a vibrator. It's not going to move the stuff right to left, only down the sides of the cabinet's hopper. Still could use one as the funnel still forms in my bottle hopper. I'm glad I didn't bolt the cabinet down. I end up doing some lifting and dropping to keep moving forward. I have a great big bag of dessicant that came out of an Italian injection molding machine. (I actually probably have 50 of them). I put this in the cabinet and then dry it out in the oven about once a week. That helps the flow a bunch. I've done about 30 carbs with mine. Still on the initial ~10# fill. The 35# bag will last a while. It works great ! I flush the soda out with warm water in an ultrasonic cleaner. Good luck ! Mike
alchemy.....I just wouldn't be able to bring myself to clean it with Coke. I'm a die-hard Pepsi guy. Mike....Thanks for the info and how it worked in your experience. That's exactly the type of helpful info I hoped to get. Sounds like a 50# bag of Armex would last me forever, or until it turned into a solid clump, whichever comes first! Thanks Lynn
I use it in one of these and just wash it off the driveway when done. Takes a lot longer on heavy corrosion than glass beads.
No doubt. It is great for blowing the carbon and stains off of carbs and aluminum stuff. Not worth shit on rusty steel or good paint on anything. Any greasy residue is always tough. I have the benchtop cabinet in my basement, where I do carbs. I just built a new barn, I think I need a bigger cabinet with some cobby abrasive in it, for everything else. I have room out there. Pressure fed is really the answer for any blaster. Every siphon/gravity cabinet I have ever used needed at least some love to keep working. Soda is just a little more sticky. Mike
I used soda to clean a distributor, it worked good except that I did outside in the grass next to my shop. The soda killed the grass!
I had my local sand blaster do my 1962 Powerglide case and he used a mild process with small grit sand and stayed a ways away from it. It came out fine and his method easily stripped all the previous rebuilder's paint off and did no damage whatsoever. I then cleaned it at the local car wash before building it.
Me too!! At times though I add a little bourbon in the cup first to kill any germs that might be lurking there!!
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