How we Stripped our Anodized mast FYI

[wesleysherman]

After reading allot of information about stripping an Alum mast, I started out sanding my 36' Aluminum Mast, after 15 min of sanding about 1 foot and realizing its taking a bit of Alum with it, I decided on another route.

I went to Home Depot and got a Dewalt orbital sander and 3 packs of Green Scotchbrite pads the big rectangular ones.

Cut circles using a sanding disk as a template, cut the pad with a pair of scissors, they stick well to the hook and loop type pad of the sander. You can get two pads per sheet of Scotchbright. Total this job took 2 packs of ten pads.

And put the sander buffer on high and went to work, Two hours and half hours later, my Thirty six foot Alum mast was done.

One thing to note, if you do this you have to stop using the pad and change out if you see it starting to leave a black smudge. Its from the fine Alum building up on your green pad.

My mast was original anodizing and was pretty banged up. Not sure how this would work on painted masts, I am assuming the paint would clog of the pads. Yet on our old anodized mast, it took it right off to the bare metal.


One last thing is if you want to get rid of the circles and uneven from the circular pad, which i have now done but not shown in pictures, is take a full green pad and rub it in one direction, back and forth the length of the mast and it will even out the bright shiney spots and makes in all uniform and matte, don't need to rub hard.

Alas Winter is upon and my baby is about to get wrapped, pout!

 

[Ralph Johnstone]

Excellent idea.

Never thought of sticking a Scotch Brite to a hook and loop orbital sander but I can see a number of other applications due to the openess of the pads.

Thanks for the idea.

 

[choover]

Great idea! Thanks for sharing. Do you plan to seal the "raw" aluminum or let it oxidize?

 

[wesleysherman]

Yes I will sand it once more lightly with the green pads in a straight line to make the finish more matte so all the swirls are gone. I will then coat with a product called everbright Protectaclear I have had a history of great success with this product both on masts and aluminum hull of my Bass Tracker. I redo my mast about every four or five years. I have never had it yellow or crack as some have said.
But anyway this is what I do and have always done for my aluminum boats and my sailboat in salt water.

I like a nice looking matte gloss mast on my boat.

I will say though that in my opinion when i redo my mast or bass boat, I clean off the old and put on a new coat, very easy with a cheap solvent and not alot of elbow grease.

One mistake in doing this is that one must really not skimp on the coating or on the cleaning. You do this and regrets do come along when finish.

 

[wesleysherman]

FYI using a scotch bright pad with just an ordinary orbital sander dosent work, has to be something like 20+k speed. Also the nice thing about using these pads for me on the Mast is that the pads don't destroy the small rivets here and there holding the tube inside.