Update on
sanding ablative
bottom paint without polluting:
I bought the Mirka DEROS sander (BIG bucks), and a used Ridgid shop vacuum off Craigslist (cheap) and lined the vacuum with a catch bag and a cloth sock Ridgid sells to put over the filter. I put a Home Depot Dust Buddy (a passive centrifugal dust trap) in between the sander and the vacuum. At the marina foreman's request--his only request, once he saw the sander-- I put down a plastic drop cloth to catch chipped
paint. The whole arrangement worked well. No dust came from the
sanding. True, I spilled some dust detaching all that
gear the first time (and vacuumed it up after), but otherwise, the vacuum sucked virtually all of the dust though the abrasive
screen (used instead of sand paper) on the sander. The other good thing is that the sander weighs next to nothing, which is a huge advantage when lying on your back sanding the bottom. The sander was expensive, but the other
gear saved a couple of hundred over a professional dust remover.
Thanks for all the
advice, folks.