DIY fairing boards

[fallguy]

The sole purpose of the vac holes is to remove waste and keep it from becoming airborne.

The suction is dispersed over the tool and really does very little to keep the sanding board on the hull.

The paper should not clog..

In a dry environment, a lot of static can build with the air.

There were many places I opted to not use suction for the hose hassle, but then you have to vacuum by hand the cleanup.

 

[TristanJ]

Thanks @fallguy , as the boat is situated on the hardstand, and at the mercy of all weather conditions including wind, actually keeping the dust somewhat contained is quite tricky, even with a drop sheet hence the idea of the extraction, but as you note it may not be worth the extra hassle. I note in one of your earlier posts you mentioned you used a FlexiSander longboard. Being that they are pretty expensive and difficult to obtain (at least here in Australia it seems) in your experience do you think that they are much of an improvement over a homemade MDF longboard as described by the likes of @sailhand ?

Again, I don’t want to be ‘all the gear and no idea’ but time is not on my side and I want to multiply my labour with the correct tools, as even if their initial outlay might be a bit higher I will make this back tenfold by not having to spend another year on the hardstand. I do intend to purchase one of the FlexiSander 22” putty knives, as I can see that they would likely reduce the amount of excess filler applied should the hull be reasonably fair before I glass. I’m interested in whether you (or anyone else) has any feedback on this tool as compared to homemade putty knives?

 

[fallguy]

I have the bendy flexisander trowel and the longboard. They are both good tools. The surfaces need to be pretty decent to get the 22” bendy trowel to behave well. My hulls were not round, so not the neet judge of the tool.