[Rhodes22-list] Home Made Peel Away Bottom Paint Remover

[Michael D. Weisner]

For those who save these gems of advice, I created a pdf document (attached)
of Rob's method (the 2 emails and the photos) so everything is in one place.
Rob, I really appreciate the "chemist's" view of the ingredients.


Mike
s/v Shanghai'd Summer ('81)
Nissequogue River, NY



-----Original Message-----
From: rhodes22-list-bounces at rhodes22.org
[mailto:rhodes22-list-bounces at rhodes22.org] On Behalf Of Rob Granger
Sent: Monday, January 16, 2012 12:05 AM
To: The Rhodes 22 Email List
Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] Home Made Peel Away Bottom Paint Remover

It is the hydroxide that is the active ingredient.  The sodium or potassium
is just a spectator ion that goes along for a ride with the hydroxide
ion....so .... NO it does not matter.

I would not use brown sugar.  It is more expensive and you are correct that
brown sugar is more acidic than white sugar.... and it would neutralize
part of the hydroxide in your mix. Hydroxides are basic. So it would work
against you.  You could possibly even skip the sugar and just simply mist
the pastw with the garden hose a couple of times a day for a few days to
moisten it and reactivate it.  That would save you money and probably work
just as well.

The garden lime is just a binder to give you a paste like substance that
will hold the hydroxides against the paint.   I'm guessing flour would work
just as well.  I'm not sure how big the bag was.  I think Lowes only
carried once size bag and I'd guess it at 25 ish pounds.   Make sure you
get hydrated lime (also known as slaked lime, or garden lime).  Mason's
lime would work even better if you can get it since it is also very basic
(Calcium oxide) You do not want the crushed limestone.  The hydrated lime
looks like a fine white powder.  Make sure that is what you are buying.

Mix the hydroxide salt with the lime, add water and stir until you have a
consistency similar to pancake batter.

Be VERY CAREFUL not to get this on your skin or in your eyes.  It will burn
you skin and will damage your eyes.  Wear long sleeves, long pants, gloves
and eye protection.  Especially while mixing it.

I have a Ph.D. in chemistry and I'm the chemical hygiene officer where I
work so I'm being serious about not getting this in your eyes.  WEAR SAFETY
GLASSES.  I used a paint roller on a long pole so never got my hands near
the stuff.


It really does work so if you have a pressure washer this is the easy way
to get your bottom paint off of your boat.

Now to the environmental issues.  If you want to collect the bottom paint
chips that will be stripped off by the pressure washer, get some of that
black cloth used in gardens.  The water from your pressure washer will pass
through and the chips will remain on top.  I personally raked mine up and
disposed of them that way.


It really does work so... have fun,

the other Rob
On Sun, Jan 15, 2012 at 11:44 PM, Rusty Gesner <rgesner at gmail.com> wrote:

> Rob,
>
> What size bag of garden lime?
> Do either either sodium or potassium hydroxide work equally well?
> How much glycerol?
>
> I've heard that (in baking) brown sugar is more acidic and hydrophilic
> so it absorbs more moisture than white.
>
> Thanks - Rusty
>
>
>
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