Hi Steve and anyone interested,
For years we have dealt with towers and Steve's problem.
In many cities around the USA there are galvanizing companies. I am sure
in 8 land there are many. In Atlanta and Jaxsonville Fla. there is a co.
called Metal plate galvanizing co. They charge $ 30.00 per 100 lbs. for
pre-galvanizing. It looks better than new Rohn.
The only effort is shipping,
Bill @ Antenna Mart
Steve Miller wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> I just thought I would relay my recent experience removing red &
> white paint from some used Rohn 55G. After looking at the available
> options, I selected soda blasting as the method of choice. Soda
> blasting is similar to sand blasting but uses a sodium bicarbonate
> (baking soda) abrasive that does not harm the galvanize layer
> unlike sand blasting (or so I am told). This seemed advantageous
> since about 90% of my tower's galvanization was intact. The soda
> is also environmentally friendly.
>
> Last weekend I soda blasted 15 sections of tower. Equipment rental
> was $200, material cost of eight, 50 pound bags of soda was $25/bag
> and $50 of diesel fuel ran the compressor. Total cost was $450 or
> $30/section.
>
> The soda blasting worked as advertised stripping the paint but not
> the galvanize except for a small amount of flaking adjacent to
> rusted areas where the galvanize layer was very thin. It easily
> removed the areas of loose surface rust.
>
> Blasting a section of tower takes awhile since the legs and braces
> must be blasted 3 times to remove paint the full 360 degrees around.
> I averaged about 1 hour 20 minutes per section using the soda at a
> very slow rate. You can speed the process by increasing the soda
> flow rate but you'll use more soda. It is hard work and loud. In
> retrospect, I would consider paying extra to hire someone else for
> the task but if you don't mind hard work and loud noise you can do
> it yourself.
>
> Overall, I am pleased with the results. The next step is to wipe
> down the sections with water and a little vinegar to remove soda
> residue then spot treat the rusty areas with a coat of ZRC cold
> galvanize paint followed by a coat over the entire tower.
>
> Hope this is useful to someone - I certainly had a blast doing it! ;)
>
> 73,
>
> Steve
>
> --
> Steve Miller N8SM millersg@dma.org http://www.dma.org/~millersg
>
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