Blasting Bottom Paint Problems
 

In another thread I read about using baking soda to blast bottom paint off a fiber glass surface with out hurting the gel-coat. It works but I am having trouble with a clocking gun.

I have just tried this method and found it works ever so slowly. I bought a cheep (home depot) Husky sand blaster. It worked OK for about 30 minuets and then it just did not seem to be pushing enough of the Blaster type baking soda. I took the nozzle apart and found that moisture in the air line had caused a caked up residue of baking soda in the area of the venture. I cleared the obstruction and drained a small amount of water out of the water trap @ my compressor. The thing worked for about 30 seconds and then clogged again. After repeated attempts to clean the gun I gave up. Any ideas ?

I rented a pressure washer with a sand blasting attachment to do one. It came out a helluva a lot better than the one I paid to have bead blasted.

The air is still too wet. A moisture trap at the output of the compressor usually won't do much because the air is still too warm to have the moisture effectively removed. If it's an inexpensive moisture trap, don't expect too much from it. Put it further down stream in the air line, and buy one of those disposable filters with the dessicant in it. You put that right at the gun. I use one on my powdercoat gun, and on my blasting cabinet. It helps to keep everything nice and dry. Also, if it's a high humidity day, good luck! Bottom line: Bone Dry Air.

Paul:)

As Liberator said you need the water trap as FAR away from the compresor as you can. The other thing is if you get water through the trap then it is in the line. So once the water is in the line you need to run the air through a air nozzle to get the water out of the line.

Jon

Water "falls out of suspension" when the air cools. Air cools at any junction where the pressure drops significantly (like at the orifice of your gun).

A cheap homemade aftercooler (made from a coil of copper tubing) between your compressor head and the tank will help "some" but you are going to need to use a centrifugal water separator AFTER the regulator (and like these guys say) close to the gun.

just use peelaway and be over it.