Whenever I get ready to do a project I normally follow Don Casey's advice.
Don has written so many good maintenance books.

So, I am getting ready for spring. I decided I'd start by giving the boat a
good bottom sanding. I looked in Casey's book, he recommends a high speed
disk sander. Off I go to Sears. I ask in tools where the disk, orbital
sanders are. The salesman brings me over to a counter, there are probably 8
or more. All about the same. 5" random orbital disk sanders. I figure
this must be what I am looking for, pick up some 5" disk pads, and off I go.

When I get home and try the sander out on my old fiberglass dinghy, it
doesn't seem to be what Casey is talking about. The disk doesn't spin all
that fast.

I go back to Sears. The salesman looks at the Casey book that I brought
with me. We both decide that the disk sander in the book is not a random
orbital sander. Sears doesn't have a sander that looks like the one in
Casey's book. I go to Lowes. Same story. No high speed orbital sander.

Which brings me here.

Is the random orbital sander the tool to use for sanding the bottom of the
boat. What model? What brand? How much to spend?

Any info on bottom of boat sanding?

Help?

NE Sailboat wrote:
Whenever I get ready to do a project I normally follow Don Casey's advice.
Don has written so many good maintenance books.

So, I am getting ready for spring. I decided I'd start by giving the boat a
good bottom sanding. I looked in Casey's book, he recommends a high speed
disk sander. Off I go to Sears. I ask in tools where the disk, orbital
sanders are. The salesman brings me over to a counter, there are probably 8
or more. All about the same. 5" random orbital disk sanders. I figure
this must be what I am looking for, pick up some 5" disk pads, and off I go.

When I get home and try the sander out on my old fiberglass dinghy, it
doesn't seem to be what Casey is talking about. The disk doesn't spin all
that fast.

I go back to Sears. The salesman looks at the Casey book that I brought
with me. We both decide that the disk sander in the book is not a random
orbital sander. Sears doesn't have a sander that looks like the one in
Casey's book. I go to Lowes. Same story. No high speed orbital sander.

Which brings me here.

Is the random orbital sander the tool to use for sanding the bottom of the
boat. What model? What brand? How much to spend?

Any info on bottom of boat sanding?

Help?


Go back and get a high speed belt sander for about $60 and some 60 grit
belts.

NE Sailboat wrote:
Whenever I get ready to do a project I normally follow Don Casey's advice.
Don has written so many good maintenance books.

So, I am getting ready for spring. I decided I'd start by giving the boat a
good bottom sanding. I looked in Casey's book, he recommends a high speed
disk sander. Off I go to Sears. I ask in tools where the disk, orbital
sanders are. The salesman brings me over to a counter, there are probably 8
or more. All about the same. 5" random orbital disk sanders. I figure
this must be what I am looking for, pick up some 5" disk pads, and off I go.

When I get home and try the sander out on my old fiberglass dinghy, it
doesn't seem to be what Casey is talking about. The disk doesn't spin all
that fast.

I go back to Sears. The salesman looks at the Casey book that I brought
with me. We both decide that the disk sander in the book is not a random
orbital sander. Sears doesn't have a sander that looks like the one in
Casey's book. I go to Lowes. Same story. No high speed orbital sander.

Which brings me here.

Is the random orbital sander the tool to use for sanding the bottom of the
boat. What model? What brand? How much to spend?

Any info on bottom of boat sanding?

Help?

I can't speak from boat sanding experience but if you are looking for
something that spins real fast and sands then you can get a attachment for a
drill that is a sanding disk. I have used these and they go real fast plus
are a bit flexible so they can get all of the curves of your boat. If you
have a good drill that is not cordless then you have the most expensive part
already. Home Depot and Lowes both sell these things. I can't remember what
they cost but its not a whole lot. You just put a sanding disk on the pad
and attach it to the drill chuck.

Hope this helps

Bill

--
Message posted via http://www.boatkb.com

On Wed, 07 Feb 2007 01:32:07 GMT, "NE Sailboat"
wrote:

Is the random orbital sander the tool to use for sanding the bottom of the
boat. What model? What brand? How much to spend?

Any info on bottom of boat sanding?

If you have a heavy build up to remove or smooth, you need one of
these with a 7 inch foam pad and stick on disks:

http://www.hardwareandtools.com/invt/0566349

Anything else is just a toy.

If you are just doing light sanding (but lots of it), this is a good
tool:

http://tinyurl.com/2wdewb

Order extra disks because they can be difficult to find locally.

I own them both and would not part with either.

The small palm sized orbitals or electric drill attachments are
totally inadequate for doing a large surface like a boat bottom.

"krj" wrote in message news:Ncayh.5$tn3.2@bigfe9...
NE Sailboat wrote:
Whenever I get ready to do a project I normally follow Don Casey's
advice. Don has written so many good maintenance books.

So, I am getting ready for spring. I decided I'd start by giving the
boat a good bottom sanding. I looked in Casey's book, he recommends a
high speed disk sander. Off I go to Sears. I ask in tools where the
disk, orbital sanders are. The salesman brings me over to a counter,
there are probably 8 or more. All about the same. 5" random orbital
disk sanders. I figure this must be what I am looking for, pick up some
5" disk pads, and off I go.

When I get home and try the sander out on my old fiberglass dinghy, it
doesn't seem to be what Casey is talking about. The disk doesn't spin
all that fast.

I go back to Sears. The salesman looks at the Casey book that I brought
with me. We both decide that the disk sander in the book is not a random
orbital sander. Sears doesn't have a sander that looks like the one in
Casey's book. I go to Lowes. Same story. No high speed orbital sander.

Which brings me here.

Is the random orbital sander the tool to use for sanding the bottom of
the boat. What model? What brand? How much to spend?

Any info on bottom of boat sanding?

Help?
Go back and get a high speed belt sander for about $60 and some 60 grit
belts.

Before getting too carried away, I would ask, "What are you trying to
accomplish?" If you want to remove existing bottom paint, I would recommend
first that you try wiping it with some dry 80 grit on a sponge pad. Does the
paint come right off? If so, you can do a good job, with much less dust to
worry about, just by going over the entire bottom by hand -- or even with a
good stiff brush. This works exceptionally well on dry ablative bottom
paints. Before repainting, scuff the surface with 60 grit and clean with
acetone.

One thing you want to be careful of is being too agressive, using 60 grit
belt sanders and the like. You can eat a hole through most modern plastic
boats in short order with one of those.

Wayne.B wrote:


If you have a heavy build up to remove or smooth, you need one of
these with a 7 inch foam pad and stick on disks:

http://www.hardwareandtools.com/invt/0566349

Good tool but much too heavy for bottom sanding.(Just had mine stolen)

Better choice is a Milwaukee 0-2800 sander/polisher (also stolen) with
an 8" foam pad and 3M "Green StikIt" discs available in boxes of 25
from any decent marine supply house.

A 6" ROS /w/ 80 grit does a nice clean up job.

I like a 3727 Bosch with disks from Klingspor.

YMMV

Lew

scbafreak via BoatKB.com wrote:
NE Sailboat wrote:
Whenever I get ready to do a project I normally follow Don Casey's advice.
Don has written so many good maintenance books.

So, I am getting ready for spring. I decided I'd start by giving the boat a
good bottom sanding. I looked in Casey's book, he recommends a high speed
disk sander. Off I go to Sears. I ask in tools where the disk, orbital
sanders are. The salesman brings me over to a counter, there are probably 8
or more. All about the same. 5" random orbital disk sanders. I figure
this must be what I am looking for, pick up some 5" disk pads, and off I go.

When I get home and try the sander out on my old fiberglass dinghy, it
doesn't seem to be what Casey is talking about. The disk doesn't spin all
that fast.

I go back to Sears. The salesman looks at the Casey book that I brought
with me. We both decide that the disk sander in the book is not a random
orbital sander. Sears doesn't have a sander that looks like the one in
Casey's book. I go to Lowes. Same story. No high speed orbital sander.

In the old days Sears tools were good. Now a lot of Ryobi re-badged
junk.

I have a 5" Porter Cable and a 6" Porter Cable right angle random
orbital sander. The 6" has about 40% more area and about 100% more
grunt and is a really good tool for all sorts of heavy duty sanding.
Don't bother with the velcro pads; use self adhesive stick on types.
Try to get D or E weight paper with say 80 grit. The heavier paper
costs more but the paper doesn't tear and the disks last longer.

For SERIOUS bottom sanding try to rent a Fein 8" with a dust collector
vaccuum. Very nice to work with and very agressive with bad bottoms or
lots of old paint.

Final tip - try to find a local teenager who wants a small part time
job. It's nasty and hard on your back and arms. Better to pay
somebody $10/hr than doing it yourself

Evan Gatehouse

Totally agree with Wayne .... you need a 'manly' tool: variable speed
auto body shop polisher with 3M arbor for attachment of 3M velcro
backed 7" sanding discs. A little on the heavy side but will sand off
paint like a hog rooting in a sandpile ... "get it over with and done".
A vibrating 'palm' sander takes 10 times as long to do the same job.

Then you can also use 3M knobby foam pads to buff and polish the
gelcoat too !!!!! .... or the BEST autobody polishing (with 3M
Finese-IT AND 3M Perfect-IT).
Best e-source is probably Jamestown Distributors , although you can
probably find the same thing cheaper if you look hard.

In article , Wayne.B
wrote:

On Wed, 07 Feb 2007 01:32:07 GMT, "NE Sailboat"
wrote:

Is the random orbital sander the tool to use for sanding the bottom of the
boat. What model? What brand? How much to spend?

Any info on bottom of boat sanding?

If you have a heavy build up to remove or smooth, you need one of
these with a 7 inch foam pad and stick on disks:

http://www.hardwareandtools.com/invt/0566349

Anything else is just a toy.

If you are just doing light sanding (but lots of it), this is a good
tool:

http://tinyurl.com/2wdewb

Order extra disks because they can be difficult to find locally.

I own them both and would not part with either.

The small palm sized orbitals or electric drill attachments are
totally inadequate for doing a large surface like a boat bottom.

Evan ,, thanks for the info.. Just what I was looking for.

I am going to purchase the Porter Cable 5". Good compromise, I think.



====================



"Evan Gatehouse2" wrote in message
...
scbafreak via BoatKB.com wrote:
NE Sailboat wrote:
Whenever I get ready to do a project I normally follow Don Casey's
advice. Don has written so many good maintenance books.

So, I am getting ready for spring. I decided I'd start by giving the
boat a good bottom sanding. I looked in Casey's book, he recommends a
high speed disk sander. Off I go to Sears. I ask in tools where the
disk, orbital sanders are. The salesman brings me over to a counter,
there are probably 8 or more. All about the same. 5" random orbital
disk sanders. I figure this must be what I am looking for, pick up some
5" disk pads, and off I go.

When I get home and try the sander out on my old fiberglass dinghy, it
doesn't seem to be what Casey is talking about. The disk doesn't spin
all that fast.

I go back to Sears. The salesman looks at the Casey book that I brought
with me. We both decide that the disk sander in the book is not a
random orbital sander. Sears doesn't have a sander that looks like the
one in Casey's book. I go to Lowes. Same story. No high speed orbital
sander.

In the old days Sears tools were good. Now a lot of Ryobi re-badged junk.

I have a 5" Porter Cable and a 6" Porter Cable right angle random orbital
sander. The 6" has about 40% more area and about 100% more grunt and is a
really good tool for all sorts of heavy duty sanding. Don't bother with
the velcro pads; use self adhesive stick on types. Try to get D or E
weight paper with say 80 grit. The heavier paper costs more but the paper
doesn't tear and the disks last longer.

For SERIOUS bottom sanding try to rent a Fein 8" with a dust collector
vaccuum. Very nice to work with and very agressive with bad bottoms or
lots of old paint.

Final tip - try to find a local teenager who wants a small part time job.
It's nasty and hard on your back and arms. Better to pay somebody $10/hr
than doing it yourself

Evan Gatehouse

nice thread...i have a pretty good bottom pjoject
on a ericson 23 this spring...here is a photo to
see... http://tinyurl.com/2cajgd
any tips or sugguestions always appreciated...i
will be picking up a sander, or two for this one......






On Feb 7, 7:23 am, "NE Sailboat" wrote:
Evan ,, thanks for the info.. Just what I was looking for.

I am going to purchase the Porter Cable 5". Good compromise, I think.

====================

"Evan Gatehouse2" wrote in message

...



scbafreak via BoatKB.com wrote:
NE Sailboat wrote:
Whenever I get ready to do a project I normally follow Don Casey's
advice. Don has written so many good maintenance books.

So, I am getting ready for spring. I decided I'd start by giving the
boat a good bottom sanding. I looked in Casey's book, he recommends a
high speed disk sander. Off I go to Sears. I ask in tools where the
disk, orbital sanders are. The salesman brings me over to a counter,
there are probably 8 or more. All about the same. 5" random orbital
disk sanders. I figure this must be what I am looking for, pick up some
5" disk pads, and off I go.

When I get home and try the sander out on my old fiberglass dinghy, it
doesn't seem to be what Casey is talking about. The disk doesn't spin
all that fast.

I go back to Sears. The salesman looks at the Casey book that I brought
with me. We both decide that the disk sander in the book is not a
random orbital sander. Sears doesn't have a sander that looks like the
one in Casey's book. I go to Lowes. Same story. No high speed orbital
sander.

In the old days Sears tools were good. Now a lot of Ryobi re-badged junk.

I have a 5" Porter Cable and a 6" Porter Cable right angle random orbital
sander. The 6" has about 40% more area and about 100% more grunt and is a
really good tool for all sorts of heavy duty sanding. Don't bother with
the velcro pads; use self adhesive stick on types. Try to get D or E
weight paper with say 80 grit. The heavier paper costs more but the paper
doesn't tear and the disks last longer.

For SERIOUS bottom sanding try to rent a Fein 8" with a dust collector
vaccuum. Very nice to work with and very agressive with bad bottoms or
lots of old paint.

Final tip - try to find a local teenager who wants a small part time job.
It's nasty and hard on your back and arms. Better to pay somebody $10/hr
than doing it yourself

Evan Gatehouse- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -