Dry ice hull blasting

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We need to do this but am very nervous about asking a contractor to blast aggressive substances at our precious hull. Dry ice blasting is the latest suggestion and a firm called Arctic Fox make encouraging comments about no hull damage and being able to remove a/foul whilst leaving an epoxy paint intact. See here: http://www.arcticfox.co.uk/

Does anyone have any experience of dry ice blasting (or Arctic Fox) which they would be willing to share?

TIA

Rob

 

[MM5AHO]

No experience of the specific company, but have use dryice (solid CO2)blasting before to great effect - on substrates more delicate than fibreglass.
Have also used sodium carbonate and while that's much milder than most shot, would not recommend it for this application.

 

[Elessar]

We need to do this but am very nervous about asking a contractor to blast aggressive substances at our precious hull. Dry ice blasting is the latest suggestion and a firm called Arctic Fox make encouraging comments about no hull damage and being able to remove a/foul whilst leaving an epoxy paint intact. See here: http://www.arcticfox.co.uk/

Does anyone have any experience of dry ice blasting (or Arctic Fox) which they would be willing to share?

TIA

Rob

it's still an abrasive blast, but expensive. This is because the dry ice is very hard to store, if you order 25kg today there is only 17kg left when it arrives tomorrow! Even the most aggressive of the systems (dry grit blasting) claim no damage. With a skilled operator that's true. The more aggressive the abrasive, the quicker and cheaper it is and the higher skill required.

 

[FullCircle]

I had a quote for both this year.

Dry ice 850 quid

Sodium blast 500 quid

both plus VAT with me doing prep.

As Elessar points out the dry ice disappears. Could be more economical if you can get a gaggle of boats together to do at the same time.