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Spent 45 minutes fighting a 3-inch barnacle cluster on a pier leg near Port Arthur
I was doing a routine inspection on a pier leg in Port Arthur, Texas, and there was this one barnacle cluster that just would not budge. I tried my normal chisel and hammer, then switched to a pneumatic scraper, and finally gave up and used a grinder with a wire wheel. All for something that should have taken maybe 5 minutes tops. Has anyone else had a simple task spiral into a whole afternoon project like that?
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carr.elliot1mo ago
Pneumatic scraper is the wrong tool for barnacles that are really locked on. You gotta hit them with a needle scaler first to break up the hard calcium layer underneath. Once you crack that foundation, the wire wheel will actually do its job without taking twenty passes. I keep a cheap needle scaler in my truck specifically for pier work down here on the Gulf Coast. Next time try a heavy duty putty knife after the needle scaler too, sometimes the whole cluster pops off in one piece.
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sethhernandez1mo ago
Why bother with all that when a little patience and seawater would've done the same job?
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