Steel Boat Repair

Sounds like the voice of experience!
Good advice.

 

Thanks Andy and Nick
These are great advices Andy
I am going to ultrasound all the hull just once I finish to take out all the furniture and wood.
I think corrosion is because salt water inside , the outside hull seem ok but I will know more once I ultrasound all the hull from outside and inside. So I can make a plan to change plates. Because know that have the hull naked I think it s better to repair the hull for long term other things I can do later on,
I have some tolls in my back yard , air chipping hammer, needle air, even i am trying to do sand blasting .... i f I can ...

 

It sounds like the boat is in good hands

I blasted mine myself (well, it's not finished yet, unfortunately the weather broke before I could finish it last year.) It's not difficult, but at first I tried with a compressor that was too small which used a lot grit. Since then I have done some paid blasting work with a larger compressor (450cfm 1.7m3/h) which is a lot more economical on grit and not much more expensive on fuel.

Nick

 

It does indeed

It's sort of like painting with a roller vs. a 1" (25mm) paintbrush - if you have a week to dedicate to blasting, then renting is worthwhile. If you have random evenings/days then buying a used unit may be better - you'll sell it for what you paid for it at the end.

Maybe try to get some scaffolding or towers up, both to work from (messing about on ladders is overrated) and you can then tent the boat with some tarpaulins to stop the dust going everywhere - some blasting media stands up to being swept up, sieved and re-used if you have a tarp to catch it.

While the boat is new enough that it won't be lead paint, the anti-fouling is not something you want to be breathing and even the blasting media can cause some nasty problems if you don't have proper breathing protection (Don't use plain sand - blast media has low silicon levels). Clean the dust up asap rather than letting it blow over your property.

Mask off engines and winches thoroughly too.

You can achieve in an hour what would take a week with a grinder and wire brush - it's actually very rewarding.

 

Yes..
I bought a helmet that was big enough to wear a respirator underneath. (Scorpion). Although the helmet itself is air fed, whenever you take it off (especially when loading the pot) you breath dust. I wear the respirator all day. Same goes for ear protection. Reading up on copper slag convinced me that it wasn't something I wanted in my lungs!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJNiulRFh3s That's me doing a very corroded inshore barge (standard as instructed).
Crushed glass seems to be the most inert blast media, but it has about half the mass of copper slag so is less efficient. It is important to find out where the glass is from and what process is used to clean it. Sources can include lead rich CRT glass or food container glass from recycle bins.