Preparing for copper coat

lydiamight said:
In the past I have used a Bosch Power Scraper PSE 180E with great effect when stripping back the AF on my Dehler 36. Regretfully they are no longer made but you can purchase used models on Ebay for around £60/60
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Is that similar to an oscillating multi tool with a scraper attachment?
 
On the basis it is probably slightly easier to fair fairing compound then scrape old anti fouling, is it perhaps worth taking the old stuff aggressively with a sanding disk on an angle grinder. Accept it’s not going to be a fair finish and or expect to put a layer or two of fairing compound on the hull to smooth it off before the CC?
 
Sea Change said:
She's far from a new boat... and has previously had the hull stripped and epoxied. I don't know what that means for the task in hand.
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Ah, you said taking back to gel in your OP, but it's actually taking back to that epoxy?

In my experience that means that a scraper is less inclined to bite into the surface but that the blade will be blunted by the epoxy - carbide blades are really hard to sharpen, so sort out a method for that, or lots of (expensive) spare blades. People on here talk about only wet sanding antifoul, but doing so upside down under the hull sounds like an electrical nightmare to me, donning the spacesuit and dry sanding might be quicker and easier - if you can do so away from other people and the yard permits it.
 
KevinV said:
Ah, you said taking back to gel in your OP, but it's actually taking back to that epoxy?

In my experience that means that a scraper is less inclined to bite into the surface but that the blade will be blunted by the epoxy - carbide blades are really hard to sharpen, so sort out a method for that, or lots of (expensive) spare blades. People on here talk about only wet sanding antifoul, but doing so upside down under the hull sounds like an electrical nightmare to me, donning the spacesuit and dry sanding might be quicker and easier - if you can do so away from other people and the yard permits it.
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Not direct knowledge, but I understand that US environmental rules regarding antifoul are stricter than UK ones; dry sanding would certainly not be a good idea because of the impossibility of capturing ALL the dust, and wet sanding would probably require considerable care to ensure that all the residue was captured.
 
Dry sanding is definitely not allowed by the yard, rightly so tbh.
We will have up to two weeks to get the old AF off before we fly home for the winter. If we don't get it all off in that time, it's not the end of the world, it's just more to do when we come back.
 
If you can't blast then perhaps Coppercoat is not the way to go. No way would even 2 of you hand remove then fair a boat that size in 2 weeks, nor, I would suggest get a good enough finish for Coppercoat. I am assuming you are not doing the keel either.I know the attraction of Coppercoat having had it, but success is all down to the prep.

I decided not to do my current boat because I am not keeping it long enough so use a "professional" AF (Cu-Pro) and it has done 2 years with one wash and sill only had slime very similar to Coppercoat. Maybe a 2-3 year AF is available in the US for DIY application.
 
lydiamight said:
In the past I have used a Bosch Power Scraper PSE 180E with great effect when stripping back the AF on my Dehler 36. Regretfully they are no longer made but you can purchase used models on Ebay for around £60/60
Click to expand...
Blades are becoming hard to source, as I recently discovered.
 
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