I'm sure this has been tried before, but....

the guys up here at wind toys said something to me about "polishing"... i think what they said was that they use a heat gun... probably a little safer than a torch?

Just before spring comes I will usually pull ours out and run my hands down them. If the surface is really scored or pitted I'll run some 250 grit or higher sand paper over the bad spots. It really depends on the bad spots, sometime 250 then 500 grit, sometimes just 1000 grit. Obviously since I am removing some material the less is more approach is applied here. Mostly I am trying to take out any major high spots, scratches, etc that jump right out and try to keep the bottom relatively smooth. About the same time I will give both kayaks a good once over with the 303 protectant, I only do it once a year because it does make the kayaks harder to handle for a couple weeks, I can image teflon would be much worse.

I have heard about the heat gun polishing method but I am not trying it until I have had some experience with plastic welding first just to get a feel. Fortunately I have not had a reason to learn to plastic weld yet so this works for me.

Jeff

Anybody here ever try "polishing" the scratches and fuzz off their yak bottoms with a quick pass of a torch?

I've heard about it, and seems if it was done carefully it would work,

But I don't know anyone who's actually done it.

I take great care with my equipment at home, but when it's being used, well it's being used...

What do you have against fuzz?   



A couple friends have used the torch to get rid of a lot of the scratches & burrs.  Works decently well; however, I've talked with a guy at Go Bananas in Hawaii that insists that the flame makes the plastic more brittle in the long run.  He suggested using a heatgun instead and being very careful.   

Yeah, a heatgun sounds a lot less dangerous... Imagine the self-loathing you would have from ruining your own kayak!

I take off the burrs with one of those razor blade window scrapers for cleaning paint off of windows.  If I find a small leak or bigger gouge I'll use a soldering iron for more accurate heat application

i would be leary of removing any material.... less is not more, it is just plain less... that is what i think the point of using heat is, sorta remolding the burrs into the yak instead of just removing them...

Heat guns work better than torches for removing burs and small scratches, but they both work.  The thing about the torch making the plastic less durable over the long run may be true.  Not sure on that one.  I've used a heat gun a lot.  The trick is not to heat more than the very surface layer, otherwise the hull will distort.

For deeper scratches here's what I do:  Treat the gouge with a soldering iron to make the skin pliable, then squirt in hot glue from a glue gun.  The yak and the glue are both poly, so they're compatible.  Once cooled, I just scrape off the excess with a single edge blade.  At art supply places sometimes you can find hot glue in similar colors to your yak.

Since I asked the original torch question I guess I'll throw in 2 cents more.  Also hope this doesn't look like a thread jack, since smooth bottoms do make a difference, just seems that smooth polyethylene ought to glide almost as well as teflon, but roughness (not Fuzz ) on the hull can actually create allot of drag. You may not feel it on each stroke but it's there.

Unfortunately I haven't used either of my yaks enought to get them to the point that I think they need any smoothing, hopefully by fall that won't be the case.

The way I looked at it was the torch would be a better choice because the application of allot of heat very fast on the surface wouldn't heat the underlying material that much and so be less prone to a variety of problems from overheating like brittleness and distortion. I visuallized using a propane torch (with a broad flame attachment) like a spray gun, not leaving it in any one spot for any period of time.

However, It's great to get feedback from people who have actually done it, seems like from all this the heat gun would be the way to go.

Thanks
dale