GA28 in Bakersfield California

[json]

I have a long board, I couldn’t stomach doing it for very much. I did most of my boat with a random orbit. Honestly I feel like with a light to point out your flaws, you could get 95% of the way there or better with the ro, and then if you really wanted that yacht finish you could put in the work with the board. I can’t wait to see tho if you really hammer it out with the board though.

[Brian.Dixon]

I have a long board, I couldn’t stomach doing it for very much. I did most of my boat with a random orbit. Honestly I feel like with a light to point out your flaws, you could get 95% of the way there or better with the ro, and then if you really wanted that yacht finish you could put in the work with the board. I can’t wait to see tho if you really hammer it out with the board though.

Agree 100%!  Long boards should be used with a light touch, and mostly for a) highlighting where hollows are, and b) final smoothing once all hollows have been filled enough.  A keen eye and a random orbital will do 95% of the work for you, more easily, just like you said.  And depending on how much spit & shine you want, some may never find a need for a long board.  The downside to being too fancy is that you spend way too much time worry about the boat's finish instead of just using the boat!

[ghelland]

At one point I read a comment about making the parts of the boat that will be seen look nice and to let the other portions be good enough.  There is a lot of work to be done after your hull is rolled over, so your bottom may not need to be a 400 grit finish.

[Brian.Dixon]

At one point I read a comment about making the parts of the boat that will be seen look nice and to let the other portions be good enough.  There is a lot of work to be done after your hull is rolled over, so your bottom may not need to be a 400 grit finish.

Yup ... that was me that said that.  Save a lot of work by only making it pretty from waterline to roof line!  That doesn't mean 'ugly' on the other areas, but smooth enough is smooth enough, right?  And on the inside of panels, seeing a neatly-scraped fiberglass edge is fine ... versus spending oodles of time fairing all that interior detail out.  Well ... some hard-working souls around here put in the effort, but for me ... smooth enough is smooth enough!

[jov]

Been spending the week sanding fairing compound. There are a couple spots I have notice will need to be worked on. I plan to go over the boat with a flashlight and a fine tooth comb to look for any spots I missed once I finish sanding. Overall I would say it is coming out pretty good.

[Brian.Dixon]

 Looks good from here! 

[Rbob]

jov,

Sanding does not last forever but it seems like it does.  Looking forward to your build.

You wont need a flashlight if you apply guide coat before you sand, it will show every detail when you start sanding.  You can apply a mist coat of black primer etc, or better yet try the dry guide coat:
https://www.amazon.com/Mirka-9193500111-Guide-Coat-Black/dp/B00GTYHCGG/ref=asc_df_B00GTYHCGG?tag=bingshoppinga-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=79989526392009&hvnetw=o&hvqmt=e&hvbmt=be&hvdev=c&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=&hvtargid=pla-4583589102312306&th=1

[jov]

I have some of the Mirka Guide Coat. I was planning on using it on the primer coats. I will give it a try. Thanks.

[jov]

Still working on sanding fairing compound. Took some time off and headed up north for some vacation to get out of the heat. My shop has been around 104-105 degrees when I get in there in the afternoon. Makes working a real pain.

I had just about finished sanding the fairing compound but my sander died. I had planned on trying to do epoxy coats Saturday and maybe starting prep and paint next week. Guess that is not happening. Trying to decided if I should try to fix it or replace it. It is a 5" Dewalt from Home Depot so I could just grab a new one pretty easily, but I am considering upgrading to a 6".

I did finish up a little project to help with the fillet work. PVC pipe wrapped in sandpaper is how I have been finish sanding fillets but there is always a little groove left behind. I think I may sand too hard or too much. So I thought having a half cylinder with a flat section would be a better way. So I made some with my 3D printer (picture attached). The handle holds the paper in place and so far it is working really well. Then I made rounded scrapers to match. Now I can make 0.5" to 5" fillets and sand them with a tool that has the exact radius. I thought they came out pretty well and seem to do a good job so far.

[Rbob]

Really nice sanding blocks!  So cool to have a 3d printer, wish I had one.  You mentioned leaving a little groove when sanding, not sure what you mean, groove at edge of radius?  My sanding blocks were pretty basic, anything round I could find I used like cardboard tubes, pvc etc.  I did use a piece of scotch-brite between the sandpaper and sanding block on the radius, seemed to work better for me.

On the sander, 5 or 6 inch not that much difference but depending on how much 5" sandpaper  you have on hand may be the deciding factor, maybe you could return it and exchange for 6" if you go that route.

Sanding when it is hot sucks!!!

[ghelland]

I a Mirka  6" sander for building my boat.  A 6" disc covers 30% more area than a 5 ".  I can't really swear that it got the job done faster but I did really like the quality of the vacuum function.  I ate very little sanding dust!!!

[jov]

This is what I meant by little grove on the left side. I know it is just over sanding, but I keep doing it anyway. On the right is how I have been using the new sanding blocks to stop it from happening. I put the flat part of the sanding block on the flat part of the boat do a couple passes then rotate 90 so the other flats are lined up and a couple passes. Seems to be working so far.

[jov]

I finished fairing the boat. I went over it a couple times looking for highs and lows. Found quite a few little spots that needed more fairing compound. It looks good and feels nice and flat now.

My plan for next week is to get some epoxy coats on it and hopefully start some priming. I thought about trying to get all the epoxy, primer, and paint done in one week but was concerned about the prep time. I figure if I do it over a 1.5 to 2 week time frame it should give me more cleaning and prep time. My thoughts are the better the prep the better the outcome.

[Brian.Dixon]

And don't forget the razor blade / duct tape test on your epoxy+primer+paint combo unless you are using one brand for primer and paint, and either they're listed for epoxy compatibility and the primer is listed as 'epoxy compatible'.  I still hear from folks now and then about soft or bubbled-up paint ... taking time to test on a sample piece of wood that's been epoxy-coated and sealed like the boat is a lot faster than scraping paint off the whole boat, sanding and repairing and starting all over.  Even if everything's listed as epoxy compatible, I still believe in doing the test ... but that's just me.

FYI - This is aimed at the crowd at large, not anyone in particular.  The build manual(s) cover this too.

bd

[jov]

I got my first coat of primer on. I used Pettit Protect Epoxy Primer.

I washed the hull down with water to clean off the sanding dust. Then I used ammonia/water mixture and a maroon Scotch-Brite abrasive pad. Pettit recommended using the Scotch-Brite pad. It worked really well to scrub with the pad and then wipe it down with a reusable mop pad. I washed it a couple more time but the abrasive pad seemed to really get the hull clean.

Once it was clean I coat the entire hull with epoxy (picture below). I did three coats in the same day trying to get a good chemical bond. It was really shiny and nice looking. Let that cure for a day and then marked my waterline. Sanded everything below that and then did the wash procedure again.

I then taped the water line using the procedure BoatworksToday recommends. Use a total of three layers with the first being a vinyl type painters tape. That seemed to work well. Rolled on the primer and peeled the tape. One thing I didn't consider when scheduling time was the induction time for the primer. I primed on Saturday so it didn't matter that much but the induction time did add about another hour to the process I hadn't originally considered. Overall, the Pettit primer looks pretty good and wasn't to hard to work with.