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Soda Blasting

  • Thread starter Thread starter ryanwetzel
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ryanwetzel

ryanwetzel

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Sep 24, 2009
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  1. OWNER - I own a Hatteras Yacht
Hatteras Model
50' MOTOR YACHT (1964 - 1968)
Looking for a reference for a contractor that can soda blast my 50' Hatt down. Anyone have any recommendations in the New England area?
 
I will assume you intend dry soda blasting. Depending on the purpose of the soda blasting, a possible alternative is wet soda blasting. A good quality pressure washer is fitted with a special tip, which in turn is fed by dry soda. The water at high pressure 'sucks in' the soda and the soda does the blasting.

I have a pressure washer, plus the dry soda feed unit, which comprise a wet blast unit and used it to strip my std bottom paint to convert to VC17. Yes, it was a lot of work, so far, because it is about 1/2 done. The blaster would take paint off, but did not seem to remove the barrier coat that had been applied earlier.

Please don't ask why I did not have the VC17 applied after the barrier coat was applied, but truth be known, I was not aware of VC17 at the time. Otherwise that would have made all too much sense!
 
Thanks for the suggestion, but this is something I want to leave to the pros.

Unfortunately, everyone I talk to is against doing the topside. Has anyone worked with a paint stripper like Aqua Strip? The stuff ain't cheap, but if it will help me remove the topside paint than all for it.
 
NEVER strip off old finishes unless there is a critical failure. Use it as a faired base for new primer/topcoating. Unless someone took a belt sander to it, sand it clean and go from there. Even then, I would repair the gouges rather than strip it.
I wonder how the experts here feel about that. Hmmm. ws
 
Absolutely fine to do as long as you can "feather edge" the paint. If you cannot get a perfectly smooth transition frpm one surface to another than you should sand or strip paint off, since the paint didn't adhere to your prior surface and will fail anyway. ZYou should be able to go from one paint surface to another without being able to feel the edge of the paint at all or else the solvent in the paint will travel under the old surface and leave a "ring". And always use a two component sealer to cover the feather edged surface and your good to go.
 
PM me. I used to have a biz doing this and have a guy using the same system. It will do what you want with no damage.

K
 
The problem with blasting the topsides is that blasting removes softer material faster than harder material. The paint on your topsides presumably Imron or Awlgrip is harder that the fiberglass and fairing compounds beneath it. which means it that by the time you remove the paint you will have damaged the surface beneath the paint to the point of requiring and enormous amount of filling and fairing before re painting. Your probably much better off sanding the topsides.

Bottom paint is much softer and blasting works pretty well but even there a lot of filling and fairing may still be needed. Wet or dry blasting with sand works very well and any blasting contractor can do it. Soda blasting is done more for enviromental reasons so if your in a yard that allows blasting with sand consider that instead of soda.
 
After much thought I chose a green system called the "Farrow System". It uses heat, low pressure air,water,and a chemical-free and natural volcanic crystal. The equipment os portable so it can be brought to the boat and a skilled operator can remove one layer at a time if it is required to save previous coates of paint. Our boat, a 1986 43MY, had nver been stripped. It turned out great. The total bill was $4600.00 including barrier and antifouling as well as a markup by the marina. They would let the guy on the premises
without it.Check it out on google.
Any questions give me a shout.
Werner-MIRAGE
 
spartonboat1 said:
Here is a youtube link to Farrow System, that gives a broad ranges of uses, in action. One of many such youtube posts.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVJpuq_53tI
Click to expand...


Yep, a great system and the marinas love it. I know where there is an almost brand new machine system for sale in New England if any wants to get in. It actually is a good addition to a contractor who does building restoration, fire remediation, and wants to get into the bottom blasting biz as an added extra.

K
 
Werner Schoenknecht said:
After much thought I chose a green system called the "Farrow System". It uses heat, low pressure air,water,and a chemical-free and natural volcanic crystal. The equipment os portable so it can be brought to the boat and a skilled operator can remove one layer at a time if it is required to save previous coates of paint. Our boat, a 1986 43MY, had nver been stripped. It turned out great. The total bill was $4600.00 including barrier and antifouling as well as a markup by the marina. They would let the guy on the premises
without it.Check it out on google.
Any questions give me a shout.
Werner-MIRAGE
Click to expand...

How long did the bottom striping process take? Did you do the topsides?
 
I had the bottom of Blue Note soda blasted and I think it is a great system. I would not do this as topside prep. Far better to sand it and go only as far as you need to in order to get a good base for a repaint in two-part paint.
 
Think we are going to go with a soda blaster and sand the topside ourselves.

Bought a couple of grinders and have some orbital sanders. Grinders take the layers right off and sanders smooth it out pretty well. About 3 or 4 layers on there. I think I'll go down to the last layer of original paint from what I can tell. Just not confidant in the others.

Anyone have any tips for getting the surface smooth as possible?
 
hi you can call/email church and dwight makers of arm and hammer baking soda/worlds largest producer of trona........system is called armex accustrip.........they will tell you the new wizards in new england.......im the old wizard........regards
 
If you have access to a large compressor use a straight line sander, thats what body shops use to make the bodies appear to be "straight". The trick is to move it around a lot and change the direction that you are sanding and to use a lot of sandpaper. Sanding is a lot like using a wood planer, if you have a sharp edge or new sandpaper it takes down the imperfections quiclky and you wind up with a good "straight " finish.
Do not fool yourself and thimk that you can get a good finish with the random orbital sanders, they are used to mostly feather edge your surfaces and to smooth down your surface from one grit to another. The more you use the random orbital sander the less "straight" your surface will be, and when you fianally paint it, you will have a "wavy" surface.
Use the best primers and sealers you can buy, do not skimp here, as that id what will make you look good when your done.
I have always used the best paint products that I can buy, not to make my bill higher, but because of the results I get.
A lot of paint maufacturers have a second , cheaper line of products, you pay with second rate results and longevity. You want your finish to look good in twenty years? Buy a premioum paint. You pay for what you get here, no free rides.
 
In my comments on paint removal using the Farrow system some one wanted to know if we did the topsides. No, top is in great shape. They also wanted to know how long it took to strip the boat. I finally got ahold of the guy and his reply was "that up to a 50 footer it takes him the better part of a day".
For those in the greater Michigan area you might want to look at his web page. www.greatlakesmobilemediablasting.com.
Werner-Mirage
 
rrrestorer...thanks for the suggestion, but unfortunately we don't have access to a large compressor. I suppose we could long board the surface by hand...

Going to give the grinders with a flexible backer pad, orbital sandars and long board a shot. Will let you all know how it works out!
 
Hit it with a slow 9 inch grinder with a #36 or #24 pad. That'll get 80 percent fast, then finesse sand it. Big patches of loose stuff will pop off with a sharp wood chisel.

"You got the money honey, I got the time..." Willy Nelson
 
A 8.5 cfm compressor is adequite to run a straight line sander. That is the ONLY way to get a wave free surface. My Sears 9.0 cfm compressor runs on 110 volts and is portable for boat yard use. It is also noisy. The oil free vertical tank units are about $200.00 and an in-line sander at Harbor Freight sells for less than $50.00. The stick on paper is expensive though. 80 grit comes in full length strips while the finer papers are in rolls. Just load it up with Awlgrip 545 or equivalent high build primer and sand away until smooth and flat.
 
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