Re-Galvanize Spade Anchor

[BruceK]

"This message is hidden because **41 is on your ignore list."
A wonderful tool!

Not sure about the "wonderful" bit.

 

[sunchaser]

eheffa
I couldn't agree more, stick with your proven spade. You may want to try the rattle can zinc. I used some on my old anchor and chain and it held up very well. I was pleasantly surprised. My concerns were rust stains on deck, the rattle can stopped them for several months before I hit it again.

 

[Todd2]

PS, I'm a Metallurgical Engineer for whatever its worth and can't argue with Lepke's techniques.

HA! So am I. Got my P.E., and all that. Made a decent living at it. We don't meet many of us walking around in the real world (much less on a boating forum). Maybe we will meet up someday and have time for a conversation...........(and drive the girls to drinkin').

Take care.

Todd

 

[eheffa]

eheffa
I couldn't agree more, stick with your proven spade. You may want to try the rattle can zinc. I used some on my old anchor and chain and it held up very well. I was pleasantly surprised. My concerns were rust stains on deck, the rattle can stopped them for several months before I hit it again.

Hi,

I've been using the cold galvanizing spray paint but it abrades off very readily; even with more meticulous surface preparation prior to spraying it on.

I think the galvanizing torch & stick method will be my next attempt.

-evan

 

[BruceK]

Hi,

I've been using the cold galvanizing spray paint but it abrades off very readily; even with more meticulous surface preparation prior to spraying it on.

I think the galvanizing torch & stick method will be my next attempt.

-evan

Why not give painting on Galvafroid or similar with a brush and see how that lasts. You`ll get a thicker coating and can do multiple coats. Of course, if there is no adhesion it won`t matter how much you get on,but worth a try imo.

 

[eheffa]

I got out to the boat & took some pictures...

This is the anchor after using cold galvanizing spray & one trip with ~ 4 anchor sets.

It's mostly cosmetic but I'm not keen to have to keep spraying the anchor to stay on top of it...

 

[Nomad Willy]

I’ve used a lot of Rustoelum cold gal on many of my anchor testing and modifications. Works fairly well.

Anchor chain living it’s life in a chain locker may typically have a oil film on most surfaces. Idea ... get a 5 gal bucket half full w solvent and see-saw the chain up and down for every 2 feet or so of chain.

Has anybody used the industrial “high solids” primer coating?

 

[Blind Owl]

For what it's worth, the best cold galvanizing compound I've found is CRC's Zinc Mate. Unlike others I've tried, it doesn't clog the spray nozzle every couple of seconds, it levels well and is effective for a long time in outdoor use (on BC's Wet Coast). I don't know how it would stand up on an anchor or chain, but it might be worth a try.

 

[eheffa]

UpDate:

I contacted Spade and they tell me that the rust as shown in the pictures is "Not too bad". They no longer provide their 2 part epoxy repainting kits due to difficulties in dealing with large quantities and FDA restrictions around shipping.
They offered to give me credit on the anchor to be used towards a stainless steel version. I'm not sure that I want to spend that sort of dough though...

______

I tried using the Roto-Metal ReGalv repair sticks. Disappointingly, despite using a MAP torch, I really couldn't seem to get enough heat into the anchor to get a smoothly bonded galvanizing back onto the anchor surface. (I tried one area along the stock dorsal surface - no joy. ;-(

I am now going to try using POR-15 paint and see how that performs.

Will update again.

-evan

 

[eheffa]

Maybe an acetylene torch would be better but I'm not sure I want to go down that rabbit hole.

Next: POR-15 Paint.

-evan

 

[Nomad Willy]

Call Chris at Ground Tackle Marine and see if you can snag a boat show special price on a SS Excel. 250 516 7888

Evan I like POR-15 and I think it comes in grey. The only downside may be adhesion. Not as easy to use as the spray can stuff.
The Spade will probably bring fairly good money on CL and then buying a galvanized Excel may be almost economical.
I’ll be wanting to know how the P15 works though so please report if you go that route.

 

[Mako]

This is an interesting thread and I have not had this issue. If the OP is really stuck on his anchor, then perhaps can he melt out the lead, have the anchor hot dipped properly, then meld the lead and pour it back in?

 

[eheffa]

Update:

After meticulous preparation & multiple coats of regular POR-15 paint & UV resistant Top coat POR-15, the SPADE is back in use BUT;

this paint is very easily abraded off and after ~ 10 sets, the rust is thriving.

The mud comes off more easily but this was a complete flop.

POR-15 is quite expensive But definitely NOT working for this application.

So next step: melt out the lead, strip off the paint & send the anchor for re-galvanizing.

- evan

 

[Nomad Willy]

Evan,
Look at the second pic in post #66. The abrasion is all on one side.

Could the shank flop over one way most every time? I wonder why that would be and the reasons don’t seem to be enough to cause it to happen consistently one way.

Por-15 is a fussy finish. Are you sure you followed all the directions correctly?

When you heat the anchor where will the lead come out? Or will you need to drill a hole? It’s a big chunk of metal so a lot of heat in one small spot may not get the job done. You plan on doing it yourself or have you made arrangements for the plater to do it?

Is the grey anchor color In the pics above the Por-15 or are those pics before you applied the Por-15? If the grey in the pics is not Por-15 you could kick the can down the road by using cold galvanize spray paint for however long you like.

Could have been me that led you down the Por-15 road. I’ve never had a problem w adhesion using Por-15. I don’t recall any application I’ve done that required high abrasion resistance though. Being a bit difficult to use I haven’t used it a lot. Only two Por-15 coatings that come to mind that I’ve done is my BW gear on the boat and my oil tank at my house in Alaska. Harbor Marine did the gear and I did the oil tank. Both had no adhesion problems but obviously didn’t need high adhesion resistance either. Was your Por-15 new for the occasion or did you have it sitting around a long time? That could easily be a problem.

Oh I see in post #71 that I did question adhesion.

Also in post # 69 you mentioned Spade offered (in the past) an epoxy repair kit for the highly used anchors. I’m usually not a fan of epoxy but it does have very high levels of adhesion so a cheaper solution for you may be to sand blast down to metal and apply a good epoxy coating. Many here know what epoxy to use as it’s a very popular coating on TF.

 

[eheffa]

Evan,
Look at the second pic in post #66. The abrasion is all on one side.

Could the shank flop over one way most every time? I wonder why that would be and the reasons don’t seem to be enough to cause it to happen consistently one way.

Por-15 is a fussy finish. Are you sure you followed all the directions correctly?

When you heat the anchor where will the lead come out? Or will you need to drill a hole? It’s a big chunk of metal so a lot of heat in one small spot may not get the job done. You plan on doing it yourself or have you made arrangements for the plater to do it?

Is the grey anchor color In the pics above the Por-15 or are those pics before you applied the Por-15? If the grey in the pics is not Por-15 you could kick the can down the road by using cold galvanize spray paint for however long you like.

Could have been me that led you down the Por-15 road. I’ve never had a problem w adhesion using Por-15. I don’t recall any application I’ve done that required high abrasion resistance though. Being a bit difficult to use I haven’t used it a lot. Only two Por-15 coatings that come to mind that I’ve done is my BW gear on the boat and my oil tank at my house in Alaska. Harbor Marine did the gear and I did the oil tank. Both had no adhesion problems but obviously didn’t need high adhesion resistance either. Was your Por-15 new for the occasion or did you have it sitting around a long time? That could easily be a problem.

Oh I see in post #71 that I did question adhesion.

Also in post # 69 you mentioned Spade offered (in the past) an epoxy repair kit for the highly used anchors. I’m usually not a fan of epoxy but it does have very high levels of adhesion so a cheaper solution for you may be to sand blast down to metal and apply a good epoxy coating. Many here know what epoxy to use as it’s a very popular coating on TF.

Hi Eric,

I did use new, fresh POR-15.

After taking down all the rust and loose galvanizing, in many places down to bare metal, I treated it with POR-15 Metal Prep which they recommend for galvanized metal. I then painted 3 coats of Silver POR-15 (non UV), then 3 coats of Silver POR-15 TopCoat. This was over ~ 5 days in COVID-19 time off...

The anchor was not immersed for at least a week after the paint dried but it was pretty obvious that the paint was not that hard and could be scratched with my finger nail. I hoped that the seemingly harder undercoat POR-15 would be more durable but after ~ 10 sets or so the rust is back with a vengeance.

Here is what the anchor looked like new. In retrospect one can see that the galvanizing is really quite thin compared with what you see on new Mantus, Rocna anchors:

This is the anchor now after ~ 10 sets, Post POR-15:

I just want to get the anchor to a normal galvanized state and if I can figure out how to get the lead melted out of the toe and strip off the paint, I can have it regalvanized for $150 + $150 CAD shipping there and back.

SPADE has offered to sell me a new Stainless Steel anchor at 25% off retail but I not that enamoured with the thought of spending $2000 CAD to eliminate a rust problem that should not have been an issue to start with...

The anchor is stellar... galvanizing not so much.

 

[BruceK]

Surely Spade should be regalvanizing it, rather than trying to turn their failed galvanizing into the sale of an expensive ss anchor.

 

[Nomad Willy]

To the Forum,
Didn’t we have another Spade member having galvanizing problems and was posting about painting their anchor? Seems to me it was two or three years ago.
Anybody remember?

Not sure if hardness is the same as good adhesion. But where the rust is showing adhesion certainly did fail.

 

[Nomad Willy]

eheffa,
What’s the plywood for on the sides of your bow roller?

 

[eheffa]

It’s Starboard.

- An experimental solution to keep the stainless bow roller frame from gouging the anchor.

I plan to just add another Delrin roller down low to act as a bumper instead.

- evan

 

[eheffa]

I found the solution to my Rusting SPADE anchor dilemma.

A Sarca Excel!

Thanks to Steve Goodwin from SV Panope for all his excellent research allowing me to make this switch with confidence.

I had a chance to test the new Sarca Excel yesterday in four different local anchorages that present very challenging seabeds / weeds. The Excel was flawless.

I can now take my time re-galvanizing the SPADE prior to selling it.

The SPADE is an excellent anchor but the Excel fits my bow roller better and with the Excel giving at least equivalent performance, the Excel will stay I think.

-evan