DIY Soda Blasting
 

OK guys I'm interested in soda blasting the hull of my 1983 V-20. She was bottom painted with black anti fouling paint.
I've tried some chemicals with no luck, If I have to sand it, then I'm sure I'll have to repaint which I don't want to do.
I see these online vids of guys taking down to the gell & a bit of polishing - BAM!
Almost bought a Harbor Freight machine last week, but something told me no...
Haven't been able to find a rental machine, local guys are big $$.

What do you think, anybody have a machine to recommend?

Doug

My son is restoring a Datsun 240Z for a guy and bought a sand/soda blaster from Summit Racing. Don't know what he paid, but he said he didn't trust HF brand and it's been working well for him. He's done quite a bit of sand and some soda.

I just looked on Summit's site and don't see anything that looks like it. I also don't know squat about blasting down to gelcoat.

If you're interested in his comments on the blaster and how it works with soda, I'd be glad to talk to him about it.

I have the HF unit. It works quite well. BUT... just be aware that soda blasting makes a HUGE mess. If you're going to do it tent the boat with plastic sheet, and make sure you have plastic on the ground also. You'r going to have this white powder all over the place. That being said, soda blasting is fairly fast and easy to learn, and it gets the job done with no damage to the gel coat as long as you keep the blaster moving. I'm sure the commercial units with the bigger gun orifice will do a quicker job, but for the one time use and then it sits for 5 years the HF unit fills the bill nicely.

Ive been contemplating doing the same thing. I saw a few sodablasters on ebay but dont remember what brand they were. I think they were around 100.00 for the entire kit. I buy 13 lb bags of baking soda from sams club really cheap. I wonder how many pounds of soda it will take?

NO.. Don't so it!!! Although the chemical is the same, blast media is processed differently from baking media. The granules are larger and hollow with blast media and they hit with such force that they literally explode when they hit the paint. It's that mini explosion that creates the paint removing. You don't get that effect with the much smaller granules of baking soda. You would waste your money if you tried to use it.

A guy did the bottom of his 23 foot Striper on another site I'm a member of. He tented and covered the ground. after he stripped the paint off he wet sanded and buffed the bottom. It looked good. Make sure you wear a good respirator and not just a dust mask.

Thanks for all the info.

Destroyer what size tank does your blaster have?

I see adapter kits to use a regular sand blaster, not much cost difference.

They have the media in big sacks & it's definitely not arm & hammer.

I saw one online that adds a jet of water to eliminate the dust.

I have plenty of room to make a mess but I still need to rig a way to lift the boat.

I have the 40 lb unit. My biggest problem was supplying 80 lbs constant pressure to the air line... I solved it by running both of my compressors and manifolding them together. I use the Armex media that Harbor Freight sells. It's made by Arm & Hammer. Never saw the water jet type. Seems reasonable, but talk about a mess...You'd have a white soup everywhere.... UGh! At least with the dry you can just sweep it up afterward. The big trick is to make sure you tent under the boat as well as all the sides... I used Visqueen from Graingers ... a 2o x 100 foot roll and duct tape to seal the seams.

IMHO
don't lift the boat off the trailer... If it's a bunk trailer jack up the boat and place a couple double stacked 8x8 blocks between the bunk (directly over a bracket) and the hull in two places.... blast and then reposition the blocks to blast where they were... then repeat the process on the other side....

If it's a roller trailer then simply blast in place and then roll the boat back to get the spots where the rollers were.

a Tyvek suit and a forced air (from outside) hood are your friends.... The job gets easier when you can just lay in the mess without worrying.

You can make your own air supply with a small blower and a length of flexible hose BUT make sure you put a filter on the intake.... you don't want to have a very pissed off yellow jacket blown into your hood!

Thanks smoke that sounds much less scary than hanging it or using boat jacks!

Been planting & tilling around the house, next I have to finish a shed & a porch on my shop, THEN, I'll get to boats.