For the week of November 7th, 2011, we completed a job soda blasting paint off wood and concrete surfaces at a large house in Drexel, Missouri. This mobile job was in the works for some time but we were waiting for the customer to get everything cleaned out of the areas we intended to blast. The customer was in the process of remodeling the house and wanted to restore the walls to the original finish. This job was completed on schedule and only took a portion of this week and not the full week.

We cleaned off remaining mortar from two stripped brick walls to a building in Grandview, Missouri. This job took one of our crews less than a half day to complete. The walls were 10’3” tall by 39’ wide and 10’3” tall by 30’ wide. The customer was on a tight budget so we used our traditional Sand Media, typically we use Baking Soda to keep from profiling or cutting into the brick surface as deep, but that media was out of the customer’s budget. Therefore to accommodate his needs, we use the cheaper alternative sand and turned down the pressure on our blast pot.

In Kansas City, Missouri off Thomas Meyer Drive, we utilized a mixture of baking soda and traditional sand to clean soot and char off a concrete slab for an apartment complex that recently had a fire. Like the previous job, this one was completed in about a half day. This job was a rush to get complete. The customer called us late the previous week and needed it done. We completed the job as scheduled, on time and in order.

At the shop we cleaned the inside of six thin metal hoppers for a local Kansas City specialty chemicals supplier. The hoppers came to us with a medium coat of rust on the inside including the hopper shute, doors, and walls. At first, we planned on using our baking soda application because we did not want to warp the thin metal, however after completing a demo using Baking Soda we found that cleaning was not adequate in removing the rust to the customer’s satisfaction. Instead, we spoke to the customer of the risks of using crushed glass instead of baking soda, glass being more aggressive than soda but involved less risk of warping than sand. Upon using our crushed glass media on a low pressure, we were able to achieve the level of clean for our customer without warping any of the metal structure!

Inside Metal Hopper Before

Inside Metal Hopper After

We also cleaned paint off of 17 house vent covers for a home owner. These covers came as a specialty job because typically pieces that small cost just as much to blast as they do to replace with new vent covers. In this situation, the customer could not replace the vents because the home was built in the 1950s; in this day and age it is very unlikely that she finds duplicate vent covers. We completed this job using our Baking Soda media because the covers were made of a thin steel metal.

Vent Cover Before

Vent Cover After

Our last job at the shop for the week of November 7th came as a Corvette Frame for a previous customer. We cleaned the deep rust off of the frame and rear differential as well as about thirty plus additional small rusted pieces also part of the vehicle. This situation proved more time consuming than usual due to the handling time associated with each of those small pieces. The job was still completed in less than a half day’s time. Since the frame and extra pieces were made of a heavy steel metal, we were able to use our traditional sand media which aided in removing the embedded rust and giving us a fast production rate.

Corvette Rear Differential Before

Corvette Rear Differential After

Corvette Frame Before

Corvette Frame After

This week also featured another weekend job. On Saturday, one of our crews went to clean the failing paint off the upper tier of a fountain located off Broadway in Kansas City, Missouri. For that job, we utilized our Tobo Blast system, which aided in keeping the level of dust to a minimum because Torbo allows us to add water to our traditionally dry baking soda media.

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