Boat Sandblasting?
 

I hear people talk about having boats sandblasted. As a "sandblaster" myself, I would think that this would chew the hell out of fiberglass:confused:
Does anyone on the board do this type of work?

I have heard of walnut(I think) sandblasting. Maybe slingshot will chime in. I know that he and his brother do this type of work and he was telling me about blasting with walnut shells I think...

I used a pressure washer with a sandblastin attachment to blast the bottom paint off a boat I have. It worked well, with only a couple spot on points that I got a little deep on.

The second boat, I had the bottom paint bead blasted off. It was much rougher than the sandblasting. I had to sand it back smooth afterwards.

What we blastin
 

Just curious as what your thinking of sandblasting ..Old paint , prep for new , bottom paint etc.. Id think it would be good for old bottom paint removal..They say a satin finish is faster than super gloss anyway..I like the fine sand for metal parts ..

Pantera, I am not blasting anything right now but, I do blast and paint work on construction and other eqipment as a side job and would like to expand into boat work if possible.

Trailers
 

Id think you would find more trailers that needed it than boats IMHO just an idea:D

PLASTIC MEDIA BLASTING WORKS AWESOME, SAND IS ROUGH YOU CAN DO IT ON ALUMINUM BOATS AND STEEL HAVE DONE SOME OF THEM, WOULDNT DARE TRY IT ON FIBERGLASS

slingshot does this strip off gellcoat to bare fiberglass? Also w/plastic media do you have to use any nozzles or pot pressures that would be different than regular sand?

Pantera, I have done many trailers.

Over in the UK I had anti fouling removed by high pressure mix of baking powder and water fired out of a nozzle by an industrial compressor - it left the fibreglass completely untouched, but removed all of the anti fouling. I hope that helps a little?

Soda blasting is often done on Vettes.

Here in Germany there is a company they doing it. They work with a system called Low pressure wetsandblasting(translated)
They work with 3 bar pressure and sand with 0.09 to 0.25 milimeter for antifouling they also prepare the hull for osmosis works. They sell also the stuff you need I post the link from there website. But it is in German but maybe you can call the guy and ask him. http://www.sandstrahl-gang.de./
Good luck

Here in Germany there is a company they doing it. They work with a system called Low pressure wetsandblasting(translated)
They work with 3 bar pressure and sand with 0.09 to 0.25 milimeter for antifouling, they also prepare the hull for osmosis works. They sell also the stuff you need. I post the link from their website. But it is in German but maybe you can call the guy and ask him. http://www.sandstrahl-gang.de./
Good luck

As far as "walnut shell" blasting, I have had it done before & my 42 Post is getting it this week.
It is less harmful that sand blasting but there will still be work to do after it is blasted.
It opens up and small voids in the gelcoat which will need to be filled & faired out (useless if your trying to strip the paint & buff out your gelcoat).
People often have it done when their boats develop small blisters.
This opens up the blisters & they let the bottom dry out. Then they repair where the blisters were & roll on a barrier coat so water can't penetrate it again.

Except for walnut blasting same experience as DJD..
Have done two boat bottoms with sandblasting and I would think that if you're already in the business you have a good feel for the system.One practice on an old clunker and you can come and do my next one !