Boat Building Forum

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Sanding epoxy before finish tip...
By:Jim Kozel
Date: 7/26/2001, 10:19 am

Well, I've forced myself to stop paddling for a few days so I can sand my Arctic Tern and apply the LPU finish from system III. I've been living on borrowed time not having registration numbers on my boat. Damn Ohio law.
Thought I'd share an excellent tip from Vaclav's OneOceanKayak site. Take a waterproof marker and squiggle doodle the heck out of your boat. Then wet sand. Sand just enough to take off the doodle marks. It works great at providing a visual reference on how much to sand. I'm using my Porter Cable ROS with the hook and loop sanding disks. Turn them so the vent holes in the disk DO NOT line up with the holes in the sander (keeps water out of the unit). All that dust ends up in a slurry on the garage floor and it's FAST. Starting with 80 grit and progressing to 150 grit, the entire hull sanded out in about 2 hours. Deck gets sanded tonight.