DIY soda blasting for antifoul removal

[webcraft]

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Has anyone tried this? This soda pot is only £70 and £16 for 10kg of soda

Does anyone know

a) How much soda would be required for a long-keel 27-footer

b) An easy way to set up tenting to contain the spray?


I also see ALDI do an 1800W compressor that appears to be powerful enough to run it.

The soda pot says
Air Consumption 8.5cfm @ 90psi
Working Pressure 35-90psi

The ALDI compressor says
Air displacement: 262 l/min, 9.3 CFM
Operating pressure approx. 8 bar


- W

 

[Elessar]

Re: DIY soda blasting

.
Has anyone tried this? This soda pot is only £70 and £16 for 10kg of soda

Does anyone know

a) How much soda would be required for a long-keel 27-footer

b) An easy way to set up tenting to contain the spray?


- W

What compressor do you have W?

The amount you need is simply impossible to say. You won’t know until you’ve done a couple of M2 and multiply it up.

Soda is almost impossible to contain.

You’re good at websites and can earn money faster doing that than pros will charge to blast your boat.

 

[ganter]

Seriously - don't bother.

I really tried doing this a few years ago. Soda just doesn't cut it as a blasting medium.
It's okay for small items that you don't want to blast to death - just remove a water-based paint from - even then it takes an age.

27' to do?

It will feel like purgatory.

Spend the extra £250 or so and get the boys in to sand blast it.

 

[webcraft]

Re: DIY soda blasting

What compressor do you have W?

The amount you need is simply impossible to say. You won’t know until you’ve done a couple of M2 and multiply it up.

Soda is almost impossible to contain.

You’re good at websites and can earn money faster doing that than pros will charge to blast your boat.

It will cost me at least £1000 to get someone to travel to Seil and blast Fairwinds.

That is probably a week's work website design-wise, and frankly work is not pouring in at the moment, as people are keen to use Wix, Weebly etc even though it takes them weeks or months to produce something a bit crap.

The ALDI compressor at £80 looks up to the job. Taping plastic sheeting round the waterline should contain most of the soda, I thought??


- W

 

[Yellow Ballad]

Re: DIY soda blasting

That compressor looks like a 25lt jobbie, I had a 150l that I used for a small blast cabinet cleaning motorcycle bits. It took an age to blast the smallest of things and was pretty much running constantly to keep up.

Honestly pay someone to blast it professionally you'll be on it for weeks doing it yourself. You need something like the first pic on this site to be in with a chance.

https://anglianblasting.com/blog/what-is-sandblasting-for-removing-paint/

 

[Elessar]

Re: DIY soda blasting

It will cost me at least £1000 to get someone to travel to Seil and blast Fairwinds.

That is probably a week's work website design-wise, and frankly work is not pouring in at the moment, as people are keen to use Wix, Weebly etc even though it takes them weeks or months to produce something a bit crap.

The ALDI compressor at £80 looks up to the job. Taping plastic sheeting round the waterline should contain most of the soda, I thought??


- W

I used to use a 90cfm compressor. And that was small. Doing it with an Aldi compressor just won’t cut it. It will be like using a felt tip pen and you will use loads and loads of soda.
And tape won’t work.
If you must do it, buy plastic tarps from b and q. Get some ratchet straps.
Tie the tarps to the toe rail, take a rope from the port forward cleat round the starboard side of the boat. A ft below the top of the tarp. Tie the ratchet strap to the back stay and the line and pull it TIGHT.
Do the same the other side.
But I think scraping will be quicker. Still slow but everything is relative.
And don’t try chemicals.
And please please use decent PPE. If you have stubble or a beard shave it off to ensure a good fit.
And it will take more than a week if you do it yourself.
Not trying to be negative - promise - just helpful.

 

[DownWest]

Re: DIY soda blasting

Don't even think about it. I looked into this for steelwork, as in ancient gates.. Ended up building a 100 cu/ft /min compressor.

 

[lw395]

Re: DIY soda blasting

Long keel 27ft boat?
That's 27ft LOA?
LWL about 23ft?

What exactly are you trying to remove?

I've done slightly smaller boats quite quickly with either hand tools or w&d.

Thick antifoul, either attack it with w&d while it's still soft from coming out of the water, or let it dry out as much as you can, then scrape it.

An air powered polisher with an abrasive mesh disc on it is another effective weapon, used wet.
If you're going for wet sanding keep the hull wet, spray it with water every day, a bit of detergent in there helps IMHO.

Just turn your brain to other things while you crack on with it.
Or pay someone to do it.

 

[webcraft]

Re: DIY soda blasting

That compressor looks like a 25lt jobbie, I had a 150l that I used for a small blast cabinet cleaning motorcycle bits. It took an age to blast the smallest of things and was pretty much running constantly to keep up.

It does 262 l/min, 9.3 CFM

Here's a PBO article which goes into a bit of detail - they talk about a 13-14CFM compressor

https://www.pbo.co.uk/expert-advice/antifouling-everything-need-know-17104

We hand -scraped Fairwinds last tme we took her back to the gelcoat. It took weeks and weeks.




- W

 

[Graham376]

Re: DIY soda blasting

It does 262 l/min, 9.3 CFM

Compressor figures quoted are often displacement, not for example 9.3 cfm at say 80 psi working pressure. As others have said, I think you're wasting your time with that setup.

 

[Elessar]

Re: DIY soda blasting

It does 262 l/min, 9.3 CFM

Here's a PBO article which goes into a bit of detail - they talk about a 13-14CFM compressor

https://www.pbo.co.uk/expert-advice/antifouling-everything-need-know-17104

We hand -scraped Fairwinds last tme we took her back to the gelcoat. It took weeks and weeks.




- W

As I said W I used to use 90cfm.

How long it took to scrape last time is not an indicator of how long it will take this time. The paint may be very different.

 

[Elessar]

Re: DIY soda blasting

It does 262 l/min, 9.3 CFM

Here's a PBO article which goes into a bit of detail - they talk about a 13-14CFM compressor

https://www.pbo.co.uk/expert-advice/antifouling-everything-need-know-17104

We hand -scraped Fairwinds last tme we took her back to the gelcoat. It took weeks and weeks.




- W

The article is correct that the smaller the cfm the smaller the nozzle.
I also said earlier you would use loads of soda.
The article says a bag per sq m. It may even be more with a small compressor but go with that.
I reckon you will be 25 sq m. (Guess of dimensions I may have overstated lwl - use (lwl * (beam+draft))*0.8 )
At the PBO prices that’s £750 of soda. You seem to have found smaller bags cheaper even so you will use a lot of soda.

 

[SteveSarabande]

Re: DIY soda blasting

How much are pros likely to charge to sand blast a 27’ yacht?

 

[Daydream believer]

Re: DIY soda blasting

If I was going down that route, I might try swopping the soda for bird sand, at half the price. To see if it worked. It is very fine & dry.

But I only paid £200, cash, to have my 31 ft fin keeled boat sand blasted.

 

[ridgy]

Duty cycle young man... . That thing would be running full chat and it won't do that for very long. You'll be spending most of the day waiting for it to cool down. Compressors that size are barely useful for anything nevermind what you suggest.

 

[duncan99210]

On the topic of compressor size, there was a boat in the yard near us using a needle gun on a steel hull. He had a compressor the size of the Aldi one: he got about 3 minutes out of it before needing to stop for 5 whilst the pressure came back up. He gave up after 2 days and hired himself a larger compressor plus a commercial needle gun: he had the job finished in a day.
So, if you can’t get a contractor to come and do the job at an affordable price, have a look at hiring some decent gear. Don’t bother with Mickey Mouse stuff, it’s just not worth it.

 

[Yellow Ballad]

W mine was 14.5cfm and like I say it was tedious blasting small motorcycle brackets etc, I tried a cast wheel and gave up after a few square inches as I could get them blasted and powderboated for £20.

Looking at an alternative have you thought of wet blasting through a jet wash? You can hire powerful ones for a decent price and the water should cut down on dust etc.

And it's a Vega!

 

[Elessar]

W mine was 14.5cfm and like I say it was tedious blasting small motorcycle brackets etc, I tried a cast wheel and gave up after a few square inches as I could get them blasted and powderboated for £20.

Looking at an alternative have you thought of wet blasting through a jet wash? You can hire powerful ones for a decent price and the water should cut down on dust etc.

And it's a Vega!

he's using sand.

Sandblasing works by the grains splitting and releasing energy when they hit the hard surface. You cannot us sand for sandblasting despite the name.

The free silica in split sand is as bad as asbestos fibres. It can give you and everyone in the yard around you silicosis.

He has saved a few £ and almost certainly shortened his life, and those of others. Oh and a mask is no protection.

 

[webcraft]

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I've been quoted £1250 + VAT, so it looks like it's back to scraping or hire a more powerful compressor.


- W

 

[Elessar]

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I've been quoted £1250 + VAT, so it looks like it's back to scraping or hire a more powerful compressor.


- W

ouch. I thought boat rip off prices were reserved for the south coast.

lets hope the anti foul you've used since the last scrape is softer.

Or how about a sailing holiday to somewhere less remote and get it done at a more reasonable price?