For those of you who use soda blasting as a method of cleaning your suppressors, I have a question.

I have a small pancake style air compressor (3 gallon, 1/3 HP) Is that enough to use for soda blasting if I just blast, wait, blast, wait, etc so the compressor can keep up?

I understand that isn't optimal, but will it work? I also have access to a 20 gallon air compressor, but even that still only puts out 4-5 cfm @ 90psi. I do not have access to anything that outputs 8+ cfm and do not want to nor have the funds to spend $800-2k on a bigger compressor.

As long as you can put out around 90psi for even a bit you will be fine it will just take a little while.

Blasting is best done with a 2 stage compressor.

trust me, blasting sucks with a single stage. it takes forever, and the compressor motor will get really hot

I have a 4 gallon compressor that I've used with my DIY soda blasting rig. It only takes about 10 minutes or so to clean my AAC Prodigy core. You do have to wait for the compressor to recover, and I'm sure it's faster with a big shop compressor, but it'll work just fine.

ETA: I bought a bag of medium grit soda from Harbor Freight and that speeds the process over using household baking soda.

Thanks for the replies guys. I'll give it a shot.

Well, I picked up a cheap $17 harbor freight gravity fed blaster and hooked it up to my friend's 20gal compressor.

It worked great removing the thin caked on carbon and lead build up. However, the blaster I bought sucked and does not feed properly, had to continually shake it otherwise you would just get air instead of air+soda.

My suppressor hasn't been cleaned for at least 400-500+ rounds and some parts had caked on fouling I'd estimate at least 1mm+ thick and the soda blasting had a hard time with it. I may try tumbling with SS media next as I'm looking for alternatives to using the dip.

Ultrasonic cleaner and some purple power?   $40-$50 from Harbor Freight with the 25% off coupon you can find everywhere online. No mess, dust, or fuss.  Not for aluminum baffles though.

Avoid breathing the dust produced by blasting, lead being bad for you and all that.

I have a blasting gun with a reservoir underneath for the media. I had the same problem, if I didn't shake it I would just get air. When I shook it, I'd get a huge cloud of soda.  I made a DIY blaster that you see all over the Internet and with medium grit soda from Harbor Freight, it worked tons better than the blaster I bought.

Tried this, it doens't do anything about the caked on lead. Though vinegar + ultrasonic cleaner works great. But I am trying to avoid the lead acetate. (since it is essential the dip with ultra sonic as agitate instead of the h2o2)