Newspaper Articles about me

Below are a couple of different newspaper articles that were written up about me.

 The Mail Tribune, Tuesday, March 2, 1999

Photo by Bob Pennell

Geno Gates cleans paint and rust from a vintage car in his "media blasting booth" on North Pacific Highway. The leavings from the project will get new life as yard furniture, thanks to an Ohio company.

This work's a real blast

Waste from auto restoration becomes lawn furniture

By DAVID PRESZLER

CENTRAL POINT -- The paint particles from one person's auto restoration project can now become the furniture in another's yard.

Southern Oregon SodaBlast, owned and run by Central Point's Geno Gates, has purchased a "media blasting booth" where Gates removes paint by blasting it with tiny pieces of plastic.

The waste material -- the paint, plastic and any other debris -- is swept into a hopper and sealed in barrels that are trucked to Canton, Ohio. There, a company called U.S. Technology Recycling Corporation uses all of the waste, adds other plastics and produces Marblike brand lawn furniture.

"They use the entire waste," says Gates, adding that the company fully encapsulates the potentially toxic materials so it's safe. "They add things to it and make marble-looking lawn furniture. Not an ounce of the waste off these cars is going to the hazardous waste landfill."

Marblike's brochure says its furniture is made with at least 70 percent recycled plastic and it is 100 percent thermosetting and thermoplastic materials.

Gates bought the blasting booth, which is 14 feet wide, 26 feet long and 10 feel tall, late last year and began using it in January. He does the blasting in a portion of a warehouse at 3610 North Pacific Highway in Central Point. The company phone number is 664-5013.

More than three years ago, Gates, a 34-year-old Grants Pass High graduate, launched Southern Oregon SodaBlast as his full-time business. He has two mobile soda-blasting units that take off paint with bicarbonate of soda. Both sodablasting and the plastic blasting he does in the booth remove paint without damaging glass, chrome or rubber. He does up to 10 vehicles a week.

Since buying the booth, Gates has encouraged customers to bring their autos, boats, machinery and other blasting jobs there because he has full containment, making for a cleaner job. He's kept the mobile units to handle jobs that need to be done on-site.

Gates says the media blasting requires about 35 pounds per square inch of pressure, down from 120 pounds of pressure per inch in sodablasting.

The booth is equipped with a dust collector with tightly woven filters designed to make sure clean air exits the booth. While blasting, Gates wears a helmet through which clean air is piped.

Once the blasting is finished, the dust is swept and sucked into a vacuum system. From there, it goes into a separator that divides reusable plastics from waste and debris; the reusable plastic is recycled directly into the blaster. The waste is stored in airtight drums and shipped to the Ohio company.