Thinners for antifouling

Judders

Judders

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I've got half a tin of basic Plastimo antifouling from August 2010 and only a small boat to paint (and it'll be coming off again in August) so I don't want to splash out on new. What sort of thinners can one use to revive it?

The plastimo website just says 'use plastimo thinners' but funnilly enough they dont have that in Homebase!
 
My guess is any brand of antifouling thinner.
International thinners no 3 is a mixture of light aromatic solvent naphtha and trimethylbenzenes.

Plastimo antifouling thinner is mostly xylene

White spirit is heavy hydrosulphurised naphtha.
It'll thin it I'd guess but is less volatile than xylene. Probably good for brush cleaning
 
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Echo doug748's comments- I used white spirts to eke out a remnant tin of AF when putting on 2nd coat- looked OK & went on OK, tho I guess acid test will be when she comes back out @ end of the season.
 
Hammerite (Xylene) thinners if you've no option other than a DIY store. Go to a car body shop or paint suppliers and buy some normal spray thinners
 
Hammerite (Xylene) thinners
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Hammerite thinners are not xylene. They used to contain xylene but not now. They smell like amyl acetate to me, but according to the data sheet are white spirit, acetone and butyl acetate.
 
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VicS said:
Hammerite thinners are not xylene. They used to contain xylene but not now. They smell like amyl acetate to me, but according to the data sheet are white spirit, acetone and butyl acetate.
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It's a while since I bought any, what I bought many years ago was Xylene so I stand corrected. I've recently bought some thinners for some proprietary roofing compound from the builders merchants which was Xylene and some of the body shop panel wipe liquids are Xylene (or were).
 
As I understand it, and this is purely an educated guess, antifouling is formulated to dry quick so it can be applied between tides so the solvents evaporate fast.

Xylene and acetate type splvents are good at evaporating, to the point where I had to splash a bit of solvent on my roller tray half way through a coat as it was getting thick faster than I could get it on. Acetone is volatile but a different sort of solvent. it may not mix in so good.

White spirit and Dulux gloss type thiners exaporate slowly to give a nice finish and longer working times. These less flighty solvents may be Ok if it's going to be a week or two before you launch.

Having said all that I'm not a paint technologist so I may be totally wrong. I did some flashpoints and auto ignition temperatures on a couple of samples a while ago though.
 
Petrol is a good brushwash for the eroding A/Fs that I use. (Blakes/ Hempel & International ).
Even at £1.30/ litre, it's cheaper than proprietory thinners so, for a small, left-over amount of paint, I'd be tempted to use that. A/F shouldn't be thinned too much anyway.
PS:- Recommended for non-smokers only, of course!
 
plastimo!

Judders said:
I've got half a tin of basic Plastimo antifouling from August 2010 and only a small boat to paint (and it'll be coming off again in August) so I don't want to splash out on new. What sort of thinners can one use to revive it?

The plastimo website just says 'use plastimo thinners' but funnilly enough they dont have that in Homebase!
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The worst antifoul I have ever used, I brought a boat last season and two tin of plastimo came with it compliments of the vendor, half way through the season the hull had about 5"
of weed hanging from it the antifoul had no affect whatsoever.
When hauled out the yard workers who steam clean the hull were astonished at the forest of weed. so good luck to you perhaps your area it might be fine (the boat was in the solent before coming to the river crouch on the east coast.
 
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