Tool for efficient deck sanding

ooooooo the pain , heh

hehehe

 

Yes, sorry to say, You can not use a machine for any of the radius, and most of your deck is rounded to some extent. I know, I did the same for a 38' sailboat a couple of months ago.. The 1much says it all..........

 

Man, I've had to sand a lot of gelcoat, and I never did like random orbital sanders. They're okay for polishers. My favorite tool for this kind of ugly work is a regular old pad sander.

 

wuts a pad sander?

 

Com'on Much you know perfectly well what a pad sander is. You know these days they are made from hard rubber and it holds a 1/3 flat sheet of sand paper. The kind you buy in those Home Depot type places. Not the 100 at a time boxes.
We usually wrap a disk around whatever. or just fold it in 1/2 and use it that way. If it's too rounded for machine sanding it's too rounded for a block. Just use your hand. Thats why we call it hand sanding, not block sanding or pad sanding. There are some soft sponge-like things on the market, but it doesn't pay for production type work, or sanding on anything bigger than a bread box. Come to think of it, I have used them on primer on a mast,--worked pretty good--

 

OOooo ,,,sorry,,,what was i thinkin,,hehe

 

Its OK Much, you can go back to bed now.

 

How do you know when you've sanded enough? Dumb question I know but I have to ask.....

 

if its gel coat,,and everything is faired,,,then what your doing is sanding the "shiny" off.,,look at the gel before,,then take 3 or 4 swipes with ya paper,,,wipe off and look at the sanded area and the area around it,,,now around the sanded area there should be a "gleam" or it should be "shiny" compared to the sanded area,,,,,,see how the sanded area is "dull",,,,thats what ya want,,,,,dull. think of it this way,,,,the shiny parts are like a mirror,,and paint,gel-coat,fiberglass resin,,and bout anything else you could put on ya boat will NOT stick to "SHINY",,,wherever you see just a little hair line of shiny,,,,,the paint you put on will peel off there first,,,,,and it usually just takes touching it, to make it peel off.

 

Cheers Much....

I have taken the rudder off to replace the cheeks and I'm going to practise on it. The westsail rudder is about 7' tall and weighs about 200 lbs

Another question I have - if I can't paint the whole rudder in one session ie 1/2 per day - how do I end and then restart?

When I wash the decks down before I start sanding, what degreaser do I use? I have 202 fiberglass wash, but do I need to scrub the decks first? Will simple green work?

Thanks for all the help, I really appreciate it

 

if you have to end a paint job,,stop on the radius,in the middle of it,,then before starting again, put ya tape line on, sand right up to the tape,,,,finish painting,,then wet sand the tape line.,, but dont do that,,,do the whole dam thing at once heehhe,,if you cant do that rudder in 3 hours by "snail" painting,,,then maybe ya should hire me to paint ya boat,,,cause that'll take ya a month hahaha,,,,( dont take me as an ***(even tho i am lol) im jus playing with ya)(i think,,,maybe,,,not really)

 

OOoo P.S. ,, what are you painting the rudder with ( kind of paint) ?

 

The Porter Cable is a great tool and only $129.00 or so. Lasts and lasts. Good balance. The DeWalt cannot stand a long cord. It will burn up if the voltage is too low so use a short and fat cord. The Porter Cable will stand a lower voltage situation far better. I burned up two DeWalts finding this out.

Alan

 

I would love to hire you to paint my boat...but you know, my budget is probably laughable to a pro like you.
My question to do with stopping is I was going to try it and see how it turns out....I won't be able to paint the whole deck and cabin in one shot I think and was planning to use the same technique to paint the cabin, then the deck after....

I was going to use interlux 2000e on the rudder lower part for a barrier coat and then on the upper part (not in the water) interlux epoxy primekote and then perfection....what do you think?

Maybe I could use the 2000e on the upper part as a primer....? then Perfection

What should I use to wash the deck with?

 

For the price you can't go wrong. Mine lasted more than 15 years, and I woked it hard, but you can't beat the Festool for fast cuttting, or fine finishing like varnish sanding. It really makes a differance.

The only draw back is the weight. After 8 hours holding it up against the hull of a boat you really wish it was a lot lighter.