A blaster without the need for cabinet? I'm in. Now I need a larger compressor.

Yeah I was thinking about that. You could go to Walmart and buy one of those giant plastic storage tubs and just work down inside of that, and re capture most of your media.
 
They make a mess though, sand or whatever all over the place. But wait, where you two are, there's sand all over the place anyway, lol. I use it out in the middle of my backyard. For limited use, to blast an occasional small item, they're great.
 
And if you want to do a quick and cheap test of the soda blasting it can be done pretty easy with stuff you probably have on the shelf in the garage/shop.

If you have a compressor and an air nozzle with a small pipe on it like this one:

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Take a couple feet of some small hose about twice the inside diameter of the outside of the pipe on the blow gun. Cut a slit a couple inches from one end of the hose just big enough to push the end of the nozzle through and just shot of coming out the end. Then when no one is looking go into the kitchen and grab that yellow box of backing soda. Stick the other end of the hose into the box of soda and go to work.

The air from the blow gun coming out the end of the hose will create enough suction to draw soda up the hose and mix with the air. It will be messy and not the best stuff to breath so a dust mask and doing it out side is strongly suggested.

Best thing is the mess in driveway or where ever is easy to wash away with a garden hose.

I am planning on buying one of those Harbor Fright hand held guns in a few days to use on the carbs for my 1978. If I do I'll try to remember to take some before and after pictures and post them to the site.
 
Robin has made a couple of mini-spray booths out of cardboard boxes with strategic reinforcement and they have worked really well.

As 5Twins said though - would anyone notice if Mailman and Daniel sprayed a little sand around in Arizona?

Sort of like if Fred blew snow all over his yard - in February....;)
 
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Feel like I can contribute a little to this conversation. Here's what I did, I bought a bottom feed gun at HF. I ran a piece of tubing off the bottom into a 5gal bucket which contained the soda. I bought a case of soda at GFS (Gordon Food Service) Hopefully you have a local bulk food service distributor near you. This is the same place that delivers school pizzas in my area. While I was there, picked up a case of those. Haha! Anyway I blasted on my lawn. The shit will kill the grass, so if you care, lay a tarp down. Me, I figured less mowing = bonus. The top feed gun posted above, works fine but I got frustrated having to constantly refill.
 
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Feel like I can contribute a little to this conversation. Here's what I did, I bought a bottom feed gun at HF. I ran a piece of tubing off the bottom into a 5gal bucket which contained the soda. I bought a case of soda at GFS (Gordon Food Service) Hopefully you have a local bulk food service distributor near you. This is the same place that delivers school pizzas in my area. While I was there, picked up a case of those. Haha! Anyway I blasted on my lawn. The shit will kill the grass, so if you care, lay a tarp down. Me, I figured less mowing = bonus. The top feed gun posted above, works fine but I got frustrated having to constantly refill.
I have done the same. It makes a mess. I would look at the baking soda made for blast cabinets. It is different than the baking soda used for cooking. You have to have a good separator to keep the air dry otherwise it will clog.
 
Yes, something I learned rather quickly once I got a blasting cabinet is you need a water filter on the line. I also learned that the closer that filter is to the cabinet or blasting gun, the better. I originally had it right at the compressor but by the time the air had gone through 25' or more of rubber hose, I had water again. I made my water filters "portable" so I could place them closer to the work.

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Anytime you pull the trigger on an air tool, you get a pressure drop in the delivery line. Per the Combined Gas Law (Boyle, Charles el al) pressure and temperature are proportional. The drop in press. gives a corresponding drop in temp. When humidity conditions are just about right (most of the time), that drop will get the temp below the dew point. Water vapor condenses to water. The longer the delivery line, the more condensation. That's a good thing. Always make your run from the compressor as long as possible and put your water separator at the end of that run where most of the condensation has already taken place. I generally run 2-3 hoses just for that reason.

Class dismissed... ;)
 
I have set my carbs aside for now while I get a parts list together. I have decided to just use my ultrasonic cleaner for hardware and such and I will clean my carbs the old fashioned way, spray cans and elbow grease. I really don’t want the expense of a blasting cabinet or the mess of not having one, plus it would require a bigger compressor than I have and....and....and...where does it stop? Haha!

Today I finished up the repair of my original left side handlebar switch. Complete disassembly, cleaned, shined up all contacts, lubricated and various replacement parts for things that were either broken or had fallen out and gotten lost. I also replaced the silver PVC wiring loom. It’s all boxed up now ready to install.
Thanks to forum members Daniel Black and KsHansen for making it possible for me to save the original switch by providing me with donor parts. You guys rock!
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Then I started working on my right side switchgear. I just wanted to open it up and give everything a good cleaning.
This assembly is unique. It also incorporates a pull lever for the decompression / starter combo.
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I removed the E clips and pulled the run-stop-run switch apart and cleaned up everything and shined up the contact points.
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After getting that back together , that’s when I noticed this! Well crap! I didn’t see that before.
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A big old crack. I don’t really understand that, it’s not under any strain. I’m unsure, is this solid aluminum? Or some weird alloy? I suppose if it’s aluminum I could get it heli arced. Or.....try to source a replacement. Sigh...is this a test? It’s always something.
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Cheers, Bob
 
Nice! Yeah thinking back I did have a clogging issue. The filter-regulator setup on my compressor musta let some moisture thru. My powder gun has a inline bla
Yes, something I learned rather quickly once I got a blasting cabinet is you need a water filter on the line. I also learned that the closer that filter is to the cabinet or blasting gun, the better. I originally had it right at the compressor but by the time the air had gone through 25' or more of rubber hose, I had water again. I made my water filters "portable" so I could place them closer to the work.

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Nice! Yeah reflecting I did have some clogging issues. I have a filter/regulator inline on my compressor. This had to help. Working in manufacturing, there's always FRL setups sitting around and up for grabs. I've always had them on my compressors. My powder gun has a black bowl for this right at the handle. Reading these post, next time I go to soda blast, I'll thread this in at the blast gun on top of the existing FR. I'd like to find a place for various media. All I have locally is Menards, Lowes for steel shot and not a lot of options. This is what lead me to get creative for the baking soda. Felt like I needed so much, shipping would be $$$ for other media. Really if I stay in this hobby, vapor honing is where it's at.
 
This is pretty cool , I gotta say. I picked up some simple green today and now I’m cleaning hardware. I had all my hardware tagged and bagged.
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And now I’m immersing them group by group.
I used to spend hours with a brass wire wheel in a drill shining up bolts. But this is just too easy. Run for about six minutes , rinse them off and let them dry.
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Pretty nice results!
 
A little video of my ultrasonic cleaner in operation. Check out the plume of junk coming off of that gunky washer near the top of the screen.


Solution is 2 cups Simple Green and 2 cups water. I pulled up the MSDS for simple green and there is absolutely nothing toxic or harmful in this product, no fumes , nothing. The worst I could find was that if you drank it, it would give you an upset stomach! Haha! :laugh2:
 
Hey guys,
Something I’ve been wondering about. Prior to my buying this bike I believe it sat for over 30 years. I’ve heard it run, I know it’s not frozen, but the guy I bought it from was a knucklehead who took no care prior to starting this bike.
Do you think I should do anything special to the motor prior to starting it?
I have no idea if any of the rings are stuck in their grooves. The top end has probably been dry as a bone for 30 years.

Do you think I should let some penetrating oil soak in the cylinders for a while? Or squirt some oil in there? What about the valve train?
I’ve got a lot of time before I’ll be ready to run this motor again. And I have no experience with bringing an old motor back to life.

I know I asked about oil additives before but this is a different question. I’m more concerned with prep prior to first start up.

Any thoughts?
Thanks Bob
 
Well you know what I think LOL I am firm believer in the head stud retorque before I run it and I tend to spray PB in the cylinder and on the valve stems before start up but since yours HAS already run you might skip the PB....... I remove the plugs, set valves and cam chain, check ignition timing, advance rod is luberd free, springs tight, kick the bike over a lot with the plugs out, You can crack open an oil pipe banjo to ensure oil is reaching the head before firing it. Set valves, cam again after 1-200 miles or sooner if they get noisy.
 
Well you know what I think LOL I am firm believer in the head stud retorque before I run it and I tend to spray PB in the cylinder and on the valve stems before start up but since yours HAS already run you might skip the PB....... I remove the plugs, set valves and cam chain, check ignition timing, advance rod is luberd free, springs tight, kick the bike over a lot with the plugs out, You can crack open an oil pipe banjo to ensure oil is reaching the head before firing it. Set valves, cam again after 1-200 miles or sooner if they get noisy.

Thanks Gary!
Exactly the info I wanted!
 
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