DIY Antifouling

smeaks said:
I have been looking at patio magic to get the green off my canvas work. This is meant to be an algea killer ..... if you mixed this neat in some regular AF would it also work to add potency to the AF and stop the slime?
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The biocides in stuff like Patio Magic are highly soluble compounds such as oxalic or boric acids. They would leach out very quickly and not provide the long-lasting effects required of an anti-fouling substance. Being fairly potent acids in their own right, they would probably also wreck the chemistry of the paint.

If it was that easy, a) it would be on the market and b) it would have been discovered centuries ago and the Royal Navy wouldn't have had the edge it acquired in the late 18th century when it discovered that copper kept ships clear of fouling better than any magic formula - and believe me, they'd tried plenty!
 
A club mate uses tbt's suspended in a soluble paint of some kind which really works.
No fouling at all!
 
ianj99 said:
Stir in some weapons grade chilli powder. That works. Available on ebay.
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I use chilli powder, the hottest I can buy, add lots to the cheapest paint, so it's still paintable, the finish is slightly rough on the fingertips but as I cruise not race it is not a problem. Had the tip some 4 years ago from a guy in Barcelona who claimed to have the cleanest bottom in the med, it has worked well for me, also in the med in a high foul area.
 
AntarcticPilot said:
The biocides in stuff like Patio Magic are highly soluble compounds such as oxalic or boric acids. They would leach out very quickly and not provide the long-lasting effects required of an anti-fouling substance. Being fairly potent acids in their own right, they would probably also wreck the chemistry of the paint.

If it was that easy, a) it would be on the market and b) it would have been discovered centuries ago and the Royal Navy wouldn't have had the edge it acquired in the late 18th century when it discovered that copper kept ships clear of fouling better than any magic formula - and believe me, they'd tried plenty!
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They did not have patios in the 18th century...... That's why they did not have it the admiralty had a special projects team desperately trying to develop paved terraces into patios .....
 
smeaks said:
They did not have patios in the 18th century...... That's why they did not have it the admiralty had a special projects team desperately trying to develop paved terraces into patios .....
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The trouble was, they were too busy fighting the French to discover their wonderful patios, that's why we suffered with paved terraces for so much longer than we needed to.
 
VicS said:
Going to need a little product development to overcome the fact anything water based will take longer to dry than the solvent based AF that you are rejecting because they take too long to dry.
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Fair point.My head of research has now decided cheap anti-fouling paint thinned right down with several magical ingredients mentioned here is now the way to go.
Should be possible to spray it on the same tide as the scrubbing is done on & though it won't be as thick as if I plastered it on.It may well last 3/4 months.With the added bonus of less moon like bottom in the long run & far less preparation.:)

Eat your hearts out all you 'experts' :D
 
chewi said:
Have I undertood this right?
The OP says he hasn't antifouled for two years, yet the effort of even that it is too much, so he would rather set about a load of illegal experiments to end up with an illegal product than spend a couple of hours using proven legal products.
He also appears to think that in less time than it would take to apply an off the shelf product he will out-tech both the research depts and the environment agencies to concoct a spray on snake oil.

I think he is deluded, but if he is right, and confident, as another has said, the market genuinely awaits the OP, and there is money to be made.

On the other hand, if he were confident, he wouldn't be asking here, where he doesn't like the answers he gets.

I am mystified at what the OP is trying to achieve.
Is he trying to save an hour or two once every two years, or beat the antifouling industry at its own game?
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It's hard to see how anyone can be as confused as you seem to be.You would'nt happen to be one of the systems engineers setting up the various IT projects the Government is always trying to role out would you by any chance?
 
Have you tried going somewhere in the boat periodically? Perhaps an 80 mile weekend trip? This seems to get the antifouling working.

Nicholas123 said:
Fair point.My head of research has now decided cheap anti-fouling paint thinned right down with several magical ingredients mentioned here is now the way to go.
Should be possible to spray it on the same tide as the scrubbing is done on & though it won't be as thick as if I plastered it on.It may well last 3/4 months.With the added bonus of less moon like bottom in the long run & far less preparation.:)

Eat your hearts out all you 'experts' :D
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As seen in a book from the thirties.
Some kind of cyanide mixed with mercury and copper oxyde.Worked like a charm.
By the way isn't TBT still available for ships antifouling paints?
 
30boat said:
As seen in a book from the thirties.
Some kind of cyanide mixed with mercury and copper oxyde.Worked like a charm.
By the way isn't TBT still available for ships antifouling paints?
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Not any more. There is a world-wide ban on its use for antifouling, because it REALLY messes up the environment. It is produced for use as an intermediary in some chemical processes.

Incidentally, the environmental issues include all sorts of organisms doing things like changing sex. Maybe it doesn't sound like such a good thing any more?
 
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Nicholas123 said:
Fair point.My head of research has now decided cheap anti-fouling paint thinned right down with several magical ingredients mentioned here is now the way to go.
Should be possible to spray it on the same tide as the scrubbing is done on & though it won't be as thick as if I plastered it on.It may well last 3/4 months.With the added bonus of less moon like bottom in the long run & far less preparation.:)

Eat your hearts out all you 'experts' :D
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You seem to have a knack of ignoring anything that does not fit with your pet "theory".

Several people have told you that the principle of antifouling is that the coating has to be of a thickness that holds the active ingredient in a matrix and slowly releases it over time. So what do you want to do? Make the coat thinner so that it can be "sprayed" - so that means less volume of active ingredients which will lead to even lower levels of effectiveness.

Then you are told that there are no "magic ingredients" that are effective or if they are more effective than the ingredients already available they are illegal. So you are are adding "several magic ingredients" - unspecified but magic.

This approach suggests 3 things

First, you have not got a clue what you are talking about

2 You believe in fairies

and

3 You have time on your hands and are desperate to find alternate ways of wasting it.
 
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