3M Scotch Brite paint remover

[Anastasia]

Any views out there on 3M Scotch-Brite Paint and Varnish Remover pads that fit on drills. They claim to have minimum gouging. Are they too abrasive for taking paint off wooden boats?

I've got lots of little soft spots and am thinking they might also be used to get down to good wood, but am also concerned about them gouging good wood as well.

Has anyone used them with success?

[Aramas]

Can't help with the 3M pads - I usually prefer to use strippers on 'quality' areas and a disk sander for everything else tongue.gif

Can you expand on the 'soft spots' thing? Where are they and how widely are they spread?

And in case someone feels like being a smart buttocks - I always provide the strippers with overalls and gloves so they don't get splinters or ruin their nails ;)

[ 10-23-2003, 11:34 PM: Message edited by: Aramas ]

[Bob Smalser]

"Soft spots" are probably rot. Forget strippers and abrasives for now...that's done after structural/mechanical repairs.

Use a chisel instead and see. Rot is soft, often honeycombed and dark brown...and smells bad....good wood is light and hard. All the rot has to come out and be replaced by good wood....or, in a repair of lesser quality and longevity, isolated and reinforced by epoxy.

Tiny spots can be filled with thickened epoxy. Larger, but non-structural spots (less than half the thickness of the board) can be chiseled out and new wood epoxied in and faired. Larger areas of rot...the whole piece comes out and a new piece made and put in or a new piece scarfed in like on a rotten plank end.

So how hard this will be depends on what, if any, pieces have to be replaced. Repairing/replacing a frame or knee isn't difficult. Replacing a plank on a lapstrake boat is difficult, as is replacing the transom or part of it. Replacing stem or keel is as involved as building a new boat...and you will need help.

Tell us where these soft spots are first, and how big they are. Probe them with an ice pick as previously suggested.

Once you have a picture of the rot from probing you can decide how and what to repair and when. Some repairs may lend themselves to some of the Goo Brothers (your West epoxy book) solutions I'm not a fan of if they are too difficult for you to do or too expensive to pay somebody else to do.

[ 10-24-2003, 02:00 AM: Message edited by: Bob Smalser ]

[Wild Wassa]

For the soft spots, ... I put a wire brush straight in the drill. Marine ply copes
well, but I do go gently on timbers like Douglas, Hoop and Huon.

Some time ago it was writen on the Forum (author unknown), that restoring a hull was like a dentist fixing a decayed tooth. I associate a dentist with a drill.

Warren.

[ 10-24-2003, 12:54 AM: Message edited by: Wild Wassa ]

[Anastasia]

With my ice pick I've found only a few small spots of dark, honeycombed wood; however, I
am finding quite a few softer areas where wood tends to be a bit darker than the light
pitch pine hull wood. I've finished picking at the inside of the hull and am now probing
inside.

I'm hoping to use as little epoxy as possible,
but rather chisel out the bad and put
in some new good wood.

Thanks for your help. And if there are any other views on these 3M paint remover pads
for getting paint off in the future I would be glad
to read them.

[Concordia..41]

The Scotch Brite pads may work, but take it extremely easly and go slowly and lightly until you have the feel. Be especially careful around edges and corners. Some generally good rules to follow:

</font> Start in an inconspicuous spot.
</font> Once you get the feel for it, do the hard to reach areas first. The natural thing to do is start with an easy area like a seat bench or bulkhead right in front of you, but at the end of the day when you're tired and sore then you're left to get down on your elbows and get the underside of something. You'll have a much better job overall if you train yourself to do the hard areas first.

</font> Know that what works in one area may not work in others. An area that was exposed to the sun may come up with just scraping, while a protected area a few inches away may require sanding or even a chemical stripper.

</font> If something isn't working try something else. It's seldom easy, but whatever you're working on you should be able to tell that you're making progress. If not, stop and figure out what's wrong. If the sandpaper is clogging up, you may need a different brand or type for the job. If the sandpaper doesn't seem to be taking anything off, you probably need to go to a heavier grit.
</font> Keep a shop vac handy to pick up the sanding dust and/or scrapings. A dust collection system on a power sander is best, but if you don't have that, keep a shop vac right next to where you're working - project or work bench - and vacuum frequently. If you're sanding in a pile of sawdust or paint dust, you're not seeing what you're doing and you'll clog up your paper twice as fast with the debris. </font>I could go on forever, but maybe those are some things toget you started (and hopefully make it go a little easier.

Cheers!

[Scott Rosen]

I tried the paint remover pads and hated them. They don't work as well as 80 or 60 grit pads on the RO sander with a vaccuum hooked up to the dust port. The biggest drawback with the pads is that you can't use them with any kind of dust removal system, so they really make a mess with dust everywhere.

[Ed Killian]

Bob Smalser
. Replacing stem or keel is as involved as building a new boat...and you will need help.
It looks like I need to replace the stem on my 30'Richardson. I knew it would be the most involved part of the restoration, but now you have me nervous. I assume you mean professional help. I figured I'd remove the old one to use as a template and then possibly take it to a good wood working shop, or if it seemed fairly streight forward take a stab at it myself. At what point would you anticipate that a first timer would need help with this?
Thanks
Ed

[Bob Smalser]

Depends on a lot of things, Ed...and not just woodworking experience....especially in a boat too big to be turned over by a gang of your neighbors.

Unfastening and freeing the backbone or any part of it for removal is brutal and tedious but relatively straightfoward...the problem is supporting the remaining structure without distortion, as that structure depends upon that backbone for it's integrity.

By avocation I'm a joiner, not a shipwright. I've built some small boats and helped build bigger ones....but I've never torn a backbone out...and I'd be consulting with a real shipwright on the worst case scenario before I jumped in.

I'm worst-casing it because I have rarely seen rotted parts come out without adjacent parts also affected...deterioration you never see until you dismantle it...I suspect you'll wind up scarfing in a piece of new keel, floors, plank ends and lower frames, too.

[ 10-29-2003, 01:32 PM: Message edited by: Bob Smalser ]

[Barnacle Pete]

What are scotch brites?

[Ed Killian]

Thanks Bob. There is some rot right at the deck joint and half way down the very front where it looks as though it had beeen banged hard and crushed the wood. Nothing I can see yet down at the joint with the keel. The surveyor said I could "patch and pray" or do it right and replace it, which is what I will do. He also said I'll learn a lot about boat building when I do it(!) and gave me the name of a guy in the area who has done extensive restoration of an old Wheeler. I'll have to do some serious planning about supporting her when the stem is out.
Thanks again. - Sorry Anastasia for borrowing your thread
Ed