Stratergies for treating rust in our Keel

[ribbony]

I have heard of a thing called a Vaccu Blast or similar, it uses a vaccum cleaner attached to an elbow containing the blasting nozzel. After the grit hits the paint it is immediatly sucked away. Could be good inside the vessel though it must have a skirt to be effective with all the chines and frames to get around.

Does anyone have a photo of one ?


PS: I like the idea of the stainless sump. I will check out the scrap dealer to see if they have any 316 offcuts for making that from.

[Boracay]

I have just used a water blaster to clean part of my bilge with minor rust with my wet/dry vacuum to get most of the water out.
I repeated using a water soluble degreaser and then spot dried using a hot air gun.
Followed this with spot wire brushing and vacuuming, then a spot prime and a full topcoat.
During times of high solvent concentrations (degreasing and painting) I used a Norton mask with filters to remove the solvent.
My $99 water blaster is powerfull enough to remove paint.
I think that a water blaster can get a lot of the rubbish out of the way and reduce subsequent work. The next step up would be a wet abrasive blast.
I console myself with the thought that steel boats have been sailing the oceans for over 150 years (thats a lot more than this new fangled stuff), they all rust, and that it takes a lot of rust to compromise steel.