Soda Blasting

[Gulfislander]

I am looking at stripping the hull on my Niagara 31 this spring. I am looking at finding the easiest way. I would like to hear what peoples thoughts are on the diiferent techniques especially Soda Blasting. Thanks in advance.

[Chief Engineer]

I am a big fan of soda blasting.....as with any work like that get references or ask to see their work. Any decent guy will be more than willing to showcase it.....

It is, as you probably know , not a DIY thing.

Finally....try to have it done in an area away from other boats....that baking soda does carry and can damage varnich at times.

[GordMay]

See some previous CF discussions at:

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...-it-11050.html

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ast-14307.html

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ium-19728.html

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ast-12206.html

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ss-4658-3.html

[perchance]

Any one ever hear of C02 blasting? When I worked in a aluminium foundry where they made low pressure die cast rims they used C02 to blast the release agent ( a form of calcium I think) from the moulds when the build up became too thick. The only mess was from the release agent. I don't know if this would work on boat hulls or how costly it would be but it may be worth looking into.

[GordMay]

Yes CO2 Blasting is feasible, tho’ expensive for boat hull cleaning.

CO2 Blasting, Cryogenic Cleaning, or Dry Ice Blasting, uses rice-like pellets of solid carbon dioxide (dry ice) blasted via high-velocity airflow ,as a non-abrasive cleaning medium to clean or strip substrates of surface contaminants.
Thermal shock occurs due to the temperature difference between the dry ice pellets and the substrate being cleaned, changing from a solid to a gas upon impact. The CO2 application freezes the contaminant and breaks the bond with the substrate. The dry ice vaporizes on impact (sublimation) , leaving no residual media to dispose of.

[Chief Engineer]

I am sure Al Gore would love that...

There is also a process called ice-blasting with Water

[cburger]

I used to own a company that performed high pressure wet sand blast and have prepped many bottoms, so I thought i would add my two cents for what its worth. There are many different mediums (Sand, garnet, walnut shells, glass beads, Co2, baking soda, etc.) that can be added to blast equipment to strip, cut and clean surfaces depending on the material to be removed and the type of substrate involved.

Baking soda cleaning was oriogionally introduced as a much gentler and more environrmentally friendly method. For the right type of application baking soda will clean with out damaging the surface (No stipple) and as the soda eventually liquifies there is one less aspect to the clean up.

Where we live in NY there are two outfits perfoming blast work for stripping bottoms. One shoots plastic beads the other soda. As the soda is the latest and greatest it tends to cost more. Bead blasting has been going on for years and is a very accepted meathodology for removing bottom paint.
We bead blasted my buddies Cape Dory 27 this spring prior to doing a blister job. For $800.00 the company came in with a self contained box truck with a three man crew, completly tented the boat, ran powerful vacuming equipment into the tent to capture the old paint and had the boat prepped in about an hour. I would say that that due to environmental concerns, (Making sure the toxic paint that is removed is cleaned up and disposed of properly) it is a job best done by the pro's.

[mastconfusion]

Sounds to me like you may be considering doing this yourself. I have striped 4 hulls we tried chemical strip, and then sanding, but using a 5.00 paint scraper works best. I did my 35' in one day and then followed by hand sanding with 200 girt and then DA sanding with 400. Good luck

[cburger]

I second that opinion, chemical stripping works very well. You don't have to by the very expensive products labeled as "Marine" stripper. In the US I get a big 5 gallon pail of the stuff for about $40.00 from Home Depot. I will check on the brand name.

[mastconfusion]

Make sure that it is made for fiberglass gel coat I used the regular stuff to remove a boat name (with Neptune’s permission of course) and it turned the gel coat yellow. The fiberglass stuff is available at automotive paint suppliers