Chipping Hammers.

[Jim Brady]

Lets talk about the Merch it'll make a change LOL.Anyway I was talking to a young Filipino seaman yesterday in the mission somehow it got around to chipping hammers.He was telling me that they now use a power hose where once chipping hammers and electric chippers were used and it does the job perfect,he went onto to say then give it 2 coats of primer and then the top coat.Anybody any views on the strength of the power hose and would it do the job (obviously it does as the young man said.)

He was telling me that he is qualified to sail as third mate still sailing as cadet but it is getting a job.The ship is registered in the Marshall Islands first time Ive come across that one.

Regards.
Jim.B.

[Lewis McColl]

Jim what he is describing I think is a Hydro Blaster. It is like a high powered Karcher pressure washer. A problem with the ones I have seen was water consumption, the hydro blaster used sea water, but after using that the crew would then have to fresh water rinse and then air blow dry before primming. Okay on heavy scale. Before I retired the preferred method was air driven needle guns/jet chisels, also spot chipping. It was rare to see a full deck being roller painted. A lot of this is also down to the small crews and also todays ships are built to last 10 to 15 years, a throw away society. BP seem to renew the tanker fleet around the 10 year mark.

[Keith Tindell]

Also it seems modern paint formulas are so much better. Even with electric chipping hammers in my day it was a never ending job at sea. kt

[Tony Taylor]

Lets talk about the Merch it'll make a change LOL.Anyway I was talking to a young Filipino seaman yesterday in the mission somehow it got around to chipping hammers.He was telling me that they now use a power hose where once chipping hammers and electric chippers were used and it does the job perfect,he went onto to say then give it 2 coats of primer and then the top coat.Anybody any views on the strength of the power hose and would it do the job (obviously it does as the young man said.)

He was telling me that he is qualified to sail as third mate still sailing as cadet but it is getting a job.The ship is registered in the Marshall Islands first time Ive come across that one.

Regards.
Jim.B.

Shell have quite few registered there

[Tony Taylor]

Also it seems modern paint formulas are so much better. Even with electric chipping hammers in my day it was a never ending job at sea. kt

Keith,
I have been in the corrosion protection business since about 1990, you are correct, there are some excellent surface tolerant coatings available these days, but good adhesion and therefore good life expectancy is down to good preparation. There are so many different types of prep equipment and media available these days it has become something of an art, but we must remember that even with this stuff available it eventually comes down to the training and skill of the person doing the job, so I suspect that it will be the same old story of issuing kit and letting the boys get on with it, when actually they could do a good job with a little training.

[Doc Vernon]

Could they use a Sandblaster at all on cleaning!
We used sandblasting on the old Catcracker Units in Durban to remove any old Piants etc,made a very good and clean finish that could be painted with whatever after.
Just asking LOL
Cheers

[Lewis McColl]

Only time I have seen grit blasting on ships was either when in Dry dock or in ballast tanks etc! The mess that stuff makes !!!!! also the health issues as well.

[Tony Taylor]

Only time I have seen grit blasting on ships was either when in Dry dock or in ballast tanks etc! The mess that stuff makes !!!!! also the health issues as well.

Lewis, you are dead right regarding the mess, however that would be using conventional blasting grits. These days garnet is widely used as a blast medium as it is more inert that chilled iron grit, but dust is a problem maybe because it is pink in colour doesn't look as messy ha ha. They had a spell with sponge blasting which was fine grit embedded in sponge, sounds crazy but you could stand next to it without a problem. Theres all kind of other gear like quill blasting and small blasters with grit recovery so less dust.
I did sail on one 210,000 ton ship where we loaded 3 or 4 big silos of grit and a blasting and painting crew from International in Rotterdam and sailed to Nigeria if I recall and they blasted and painted the deck at sea. After crossing Biscay we were shadowed by a Russian warship for a couple of days and eventually curiosity got the better of them and they sailed quite close to get a better look at what the silos of grit were all about.

[Tony Taylor]

Could they use a Sandblaster at all on cleaning!
We used sandblasting on the old Catcracker Units in Durban to remove any old Piants etc,made a very good and clean finish that could be painted with whatever after.
Just asking LOL
Cheers

Doc, that's correct, there are actually standards of cleanliness for various methods of preparing steel work, originating from Sweden and used universally, so grit blast to white metal finish is SA3, meaning there is no rust / scale at all; SA2.5 which is near white metal and is the most common minimum standard specified for coating systems. There are also standards for wire brushing also which is prefixed ST and so on. But don't want to bore you with any more. The whole coating business is so high tech now you would not believe it and "paint inspectors" have a whole range of qualifications to achieve these days.

[Doc Vernon]

Yes agree with the Health side Lewis,as said i used to do it and my job was actually inside the Oil Tanks (Very Large ones at that) has to be cleaned every so aften,and sandbalsting in inside was the only way then,it was hot and terrible in those Steel Tanks,and with the extra use of all the Goods one had to wear,plus the Face Breathing Masks Oh Boy!
But if using in outdoors etc was not bad at all.
Cheers