Sanding Advice

[PERCY]

To all boat builders who have entered the dark side known as sanding and fairing. I am doing a C21 at the moment and have spent many happy hours sweating with a longboard without apparent result.
This week I have purchased a very cheap band sander which has transformed the job cutting the raised weave down in seconds and therefor saving me hours of work.
It needs to be done carefully as the sander is fairly aggressive but does the job quickly allowing the fairing mix to be applied and longboarding to follow to get that perfect finish.
Hope this helps.
Gavin

[DrBones]

Hehehehe - Mr. Beltsander is my best friend!

[TRIKAYAK]

I, too have just entered the Dark Side with my C21. Would a random orbital sander work just as well, or should I bite the bullet and find a belt sander? How well does the belt sander work on the curved surfaces near the bow?

Thanks

[PERCY]

It seems to be ok.....although the tool is fairly large the sanding face itself is only about 3" x 6" and appears to do the trick. Frankly if thats the only area I had to do by hand..after doing the rest of the boat with the sander...I would be more than happy.
I have not tried an orbital sander so cannot help you there but I can say that just two light passes with the band sander and 80 grit seems to do it fine.
Be carefull though as I did go through to the wood once when I got careless.
Good luck.
gavin

[UncleRalph]

This week I have purchased a very cheap band sander which has transformed the job cutting the raised weave down in seconds and therefor saving me hours of work.

Maybe it is just the way you phrased it, but you do not want to sand down the fiberglass weave. You want to fill in the weave and then sand down the surface. If you are sanding down the weave, it will greatly reduce the strength.

Ralph

[PERCY]

Probably a play on words.....you do not sand down the glass itself as such but the raised lines formed by the string that is used to bind the layers of glass together in the cloth ..it seems to grab more resin and can be clearly seen . I understand that some people fill this with more epoxy but, I believe and may be wrong, that it is simply a waste and adds more weight. The fairing mix also deals with some of it.
I'm not an expert so am always open to suggestions.
Gav

[UncleRalph]

Gavin,

What you are doing is fine. One of the problems of a forum like this is that you do not know the people or their level of expertise. I raised the question because I had this awful vision of someone simply laminating the glass in place and then sanding down the fiberglass to make it smooth without first filling the weave. It is now obvious this is NOT what you are doing.

Ralph

[Sandflea]

I have used two different 1/4 sheet finish sanders, both from Home Depot...first the Ryobi $29.00 version, which I wore out quickly...and then a Porter Cable $49.00 model which I love using...wish I had shelled out the extra $20 the first time around...in all fairness through, I was pretty rough (no pun intended) on the first sander...plus I didn't realize how important it was to use the sandpaper "punch"...it really keeps the paper from clogging...the Porter Cable has about a 1/4 to 3/8 " soft foam pad that helps sand around mild contours...use the vacuum container as you sand to collect your own wood flour, too.

[Deedaddy]

Board sanding is for finishing. What ever you do to get to the place where you have a good glass job is ok. The finish work it just that. Your wood is protected by the epoxy. Now making it look like a million dollars is where boardsanding comes in. If you want a great finish you will have to do some board sanding. Switch to paint and paint fairing products when you can ....above the waterline.

[Hoot]

I have a makita random orbital and a makita 3X18 belt.

By the time we get done building these boats.........we'll know how.
I don't see too many people chomping at the bit to build another large boat after they have finished one.

I use mostly random orbiter..but have had a few areas that I had to "build up" with glass and resin. Then I knocked it down pretty close with belt..then finished with random orbiter.

On the bow I used RO then hand sanded.

HOOT