Sanding Equipment

[Mike Elmore]

All,I'm just thinking about springtime maintenance (nice thoughts topush out the cold and have my first bottom job in my future.The only equipment I currently have for this is a piece of old usedsandpaper. With after xmas sales coming, I need to buy a sander.Do those of you who are experienced sand the bottom by hand(ouch) or do you have a nice sander good for the job? Should Igrab an orbital that doubles as a buffer for waxing or do other designs work better?What are the best tools for this necessary part of the job?Thanks,Mike ElmoreWindward Hull C28(#7)

 

[Richard]

any random orbital

I did my old boat last year using a dewalt sander. It was about 50.00 or so and takes 1/4 of a sheet of sandpaper. Very nice random orbital sander (not the type that spins around and can be used for waxing). I did not sand down to gelcoat, but just roughed up the old paint and applied two coats of the same paint on top. Worked fine.You might want to invest in cheap throw away brushes, paint roller and rolling pan. You toss them when you are done. I still have not gotten the blue off the sander!It is not hard to do a bottom job. Make sure to get under the keel as much as possible. I had them hoist me just before lunch so that I could touch up under the keel and the pad eyes before launching. It would be even better if they could hoist just before closing time and launch first thing in the morning. Somehow time constraints just never allow enough drying time before launch...A decent 9 inch waxer is better for waxing. Much lighter than a combo sander and waxer. You can get one for about 30.00. It is light enough so you can wax the sides in the slip once or twice a year.Richard

 

[LaDonna Bubak - Planet Catalina]

By hand? Are you kidding?!

I would just about die if I had to sand the bottom by hand! I have a boatwright friend who uses a sander & then at the very end uses a longboard to even things out but he's a perfectionist. I say the orbital sander is the way to go. Makita, of course, is the best, IMHO. If you burn it up sanding the bottom, you can usually return it within a year for a replacement. Pretty cool!Have fun (yuck!)!LaDonna

 

[Jim]

Mike,I echo Richard's comments whole heartedly. My Makita worked fine. As a matter of fact, the first bottom job on my 34 footer I started sanding by hand. It didn't take long for me to end up at a hardware store to purchase a sander! I also quickly learned not to be stingy with reloading new sandpaper to let it do the work for me.I live 2 hours from SF Bay so it was necessary for me to have as exact an equipment list prepared as possible. This saved me precious time, and energy, in the yard. After I finished each job over the years I made carefull notes about what methods and tools worked, what didn't, and why. Soon the job became less of a learning experience and more an efficient process.

 

[Bob Camarena]

Air if you must.

The boatyard I use rents out air powered sanders to do it yourselfers. There is no comparison between the ease and power of the air sander and an electric sander. It's a dirty job and after doing it twice myself with the air sander, I saw the error of my ways and had the yard do it. I think it ended up costing me about $150 or so, but was well worth it -- that stuff on the bottom is bad for the lungs!

 

[Stan Rogacevicz srogacev@holycross.edu]

Safer Sanding

To protect yourself and the other living things in the area attach a vacuum to the sander instesd of relying on the dust bag alone. Maybe thatwas assumed in the other replies, I don't know, but to me it's a necessity.Stan

 

[John Finch]

Definitely AIR

I tried sanding with my orbital sander and almost burned it up. It is one with an attached vacuum bag. The Cuperous oxide--from the bottom paint--got into the busness section of the motor and shorted it out (A lot of WD40 successfully washed it out). It was time to drag out the compressor and air-powered sander. It worked fine. No more electrical sanders around metalic paint for me! Good luck on your (ad)venture.

 

[Stan Rogacevicz srogacev@holycross.edu]

Electric is fine

Mike, I completly sanded off a bad coat of bottom paint on my c28 last spring with an electric palm sander and people I know in my marina have been using the same electric for thier bottoms for 10 years on larger boats. If you already have a compressor by all means that is the way to go for you. Another poster mentioned shorting out a sander that had "an attached vacuum bag". I don't know what that means, but when I spoke about "attaching a vacuum" in my previous "safer sanding" post I meant take off the bag that comes with the sander and attach a shop vac to the sander to keep the paint dust from backing up into the sander or going anywhere else it can cause damage. The little mini shop vac I used for the c28 wasn't really up to the task and I looked like a blue Smurf, but the sander held up fine. I'll be picking up a larger shop vac to do my c320 this spring because after watching a friend of mine do his c400 with almost no paint leakage a good vac is key. Of course you still should wear hooded coveralls, gloves, goggles, and a respirator because some of the paint will still escape - it's deadly stuff.Stan

 

[John]

Drywall bag

Thiks is to add on to what Stan wrote. My setup which I've used for two seasons on a 35 footer is a Bosh random orbital (came with removable bag). Bought optional hose adaptor and about 25 feet of about 1-1/2 inch flex plastic hose and adaptor for my shop vac. Important step here: Use a "drywall bag" in the shop vac because it has finer filtration than the regular bags. This keeps the copper particles out of the shop vac motor!!!!It is absolutly necessary to use a shop vac with the sander because of the quantity of bottom paint dust that will come off. The little bag that comes with the sander will fill up in no time. Also, the shop vac suction will guarentee nearly 99 percent of all dust will be picked up by the vac instead of going into the air or settling onto the ground.The adaptors and hose were not cheap, nearly $35 but worth it.