Polishing the Mast

[Andrew_Palmer]

I am sure this will have been covered before, I wish I could work out how to search the forum archive but does anyone have any suggestions on how to polish an aluminium mast. I don't want to damage the anodising but would like to shine it up and protect it. Abrasive or just wax?

 

[reeac]

Not an abrasive, surely. Try a good quality car wax e.g. Autoglym.

 

[Twister_Ken]

Blakes has a product called Mast Care. I've used it in the past with limited success.

"Mast Care - 500ml

A special product for cleaning and protecting masts, booms, various rigging fittings and wires made of aluminium. It contains a silicone free oil with excellent penetration into aluminium, ensuring extremely long term protection.

Instructions for use: Before starting to seal the surface, clean with Boat Shampoo, rinse with fresh water and then allow to dry."

 

[Krusty]

Certainly NOT anything abrasive. The anodised layer is quite hard, but very thin.
A detergent wash to get rid of deposits; then any good auto/boat wax-based polish.

 

[Tradewinds]

Well I wasn't impressed with Mast Care at all.

Cleaned the mast as per instructions, applied the Mast Care. Within minutes it was covered in small black flies which seemed to like the stuff but got stuck in the coating & by the time the mast was raised it was also impregnated with a layer of dust from the yard.

In fact it looked worse than before /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif .

 

[PeterGibbs]

I have never read of any wonder product that achieves that just new alu look- but at little risk to the mast's anodising, I suggest you take some Brasso and rub gently - cheap too.
As they say "try an inconspicuous corner first" - could save a lot of eblow grease for a small benefit.

I use Brasso on my GRP to good effect so I don't think I'm suggesting anything harmful here.

PWG

 

[giraffe]

here's a thread
http://www.ybw.com/forums/showflat.php?C...amp;Search=true

 

[Twister_Ken]

Not sure you can blame Blakes for flies or dust!

In my case it seemed to work well, but the resulting satin finish didn't last long - a few days of rain and it was back to matt.

 

[sailorman]

T-Cut & McGuires Canuba Wax

 

[johnalison]

Brasso is certainly abrasive, and very useful for some jobs but I wouldn't let it near my anodised bits. The only answer is to regularly use a wax-type polish from new.

 

[Tradewinds]

Ken,

Mine was matte the next day!!

It seemed to me that the oil coating sat on the surface rather than dried off like a polish does - hence my problems with airbornes. I won't be using it again that's for sure.

Cleaning & polishing was much more effective (& satisfying).

 

[lw395]

Its good to use something oily and fluid to penetrate the joins around fittings and rivets, to help slow the corrosion. I use GT85 or silicone spray, except for rotating bits where a proper grease is needed.
T-cut seems to be the only thing to shift Portsmouth Grime, any wax polish will help.
Tesco's cheapo aerosol furniture polish is quite good, dissolves some of the crud and leaves a water repellant film behind. Particularly good for removing adhesive tape residue!

 

[davidfox]

There was a post on Polyglo a hull cleaner a week or so ago, if you look on their site, they have an Aluminium cleaner called Aluglo or something like, the pics look very impressive.

 

[Refueler]

Any polish actually is abrasive to some degree. Don't believe me ? Polish a car hard and see the cloth.

Personally - dull and fading alloy masts is par for the course and unavoidable. I don't think there is any real product for it. Anodizing is 'fragile' on a mast and easily "cut through". Brasso, T-Cut and such certainly would be serious news to it !

 

[ff_nick]

Hi,
Protection is the easy bit - good auto polish or similar. I used Teflon boat polish from International with good results on two different masts. Best to do it from new and reapply each year.

Cleaning is a pig.
I did an experiment with an old gold anodized dinghy boom a couple of years ago, trying pretty much everything I could lay my hands on. Wish I'd photographed it.
Anodizing is usually a two step process - 1st just in sulfuric acid to give the very hard but porous aluminium oxide layer then nickel salts (typically Ni acetate) are added (plus any colour etc) to seal the pores. Problems start when when the surface becomes porous again through loss of the Ni layer. Anyway, here is what I tried:
1. Alkaline stuff like dishwasher powder or NaOH (oven cleaner) strips the anodizing - DON'T DO THIS. Also the reason why bird crap is so corrosive.
2. Organic acids etch the surface (probably strip the Ni) - this works but it is very messy as you get lost of black metal salts coming off and have to keep washing and re-applying until the wash runs clean. Then the porous surface needs to be sealed with wax and the wax maintained forever. NOT RECOMMENDED unless your mast is so far gone that nothing else will work (i.e. lots of ingrained black stuff)
3. Abrasives (Scotchbrite or Brasso) - just seem to strach the surface and don't get the black marks out.
4. Detergents - mild soap works best. Washing powder is way too alkaline. Strong indutrial cleaners usually contain chelating agents (EDTA) that strip the Ni.
5. Solvents - acetone, MEK and IMS are all safe (watch your halyards and any plastic bits) but don't do much really unless you've got grease or wax on there.

Sorry about the length of this post. Bottom line is try mild detergent with a nylon brush 1st. If that doesn't work try a strong neutral detergent and resign yourself to yearly washing and waxing.

Nick.

 

[oldsalt]

Why bother at all? The work involved in polishing a mast is a lot, and the gain extremely little, if at all. There is always the danger of harming the surface.

For me there are more important things in life to do...

 

[ianat182]

When the mast maker Proctors were in being(now Selden) they used to have a mast polish/cleaner that gave the mast a silicone -like surface finish. Iused it on my Merlin Rocket mast(it was a freebee) and it kept the anodising bright and was not an abrasive. Perhaps with the advent of Black anodised masts production it wasn't needed/required. Selden may have the product name.

 

[[2574]]

There is reference to Aluglo here: http://www.burgessgalvin.ie/galtec1.htm but the product doesn't read too well for anodised aluminimum - see below extract:


Galtec Aluglo
Aluglo is a heavy duty, fast acting product suitable for removal of road film and corrosion from aluminium sided trucks and trailers. Aluglo will clean but will have only minor brightening effects on stainless steel or lacquered aluminium. Aluglo will attack the protective surface of anodised aluminium.
Available in 5 litre and 25 litre pack sizes.

rob

 

[boguing]

I've investigated this recently, for a couple of projects.

Firstly - avoid anything abrasive or containing Ammonia.

You want to remove dirt and protect, so I'd go for a strong detergent and a hard cotton cloth (old denim jeans) and then something like Autoglym Super Resin Polish (really easy to put on and buff).

I wanted to go a stage further, so went through wet grades 240 to 1,200 and then finished with Peek on a woolen mop. This will take hours, but in my case was worth it. Mirror finish. It's not obvious, but the components in Peek are not conducive to this. Keep the workpiece 'wet' with Peek until finished, then polish the whole lot off.

As a now 'expert' on mirror finishes on metals - please pm for more details.

 

[rays]

I wanted to remove the grime from my boom. Spoke to Z Spars who made it. They said you can buy all sorts of expensive stuff but they use T-Cut (or similar) mixed the white spirit. It won't polish the mast/boom but will make it a lot cleaner and looking better. Worked for me and cheap!