Power tools

[STEVEB]

Bosch 1/3 sheet for me, non velcro because their clamping system seems to work better than anyone elses. I wore out the 1st one then replaced it with another barely used from a car boot for less than a fiver!
Steve

[Garry R]

Don't forget that when you empty the dust bag/box after you have been sanding WOOD (not paint!!) to save the dust which you can mix with epoxy as a filler which is generally a pretty good colour match on the timber you have just prepared.

[roger]

Don't forget that when you empty the dust bag/box after you have been sanding WOOD (not paint!!) to save the dust which you can mix with epoxy as a filler which is generally a pretty good colour match on the timber you have just prepared.

Reminds me of when I went round to Chris Bs house and asked to borrow a cup full of dust..... I dont think I ever returned it

[Garry R]

He has been looking for it and inadvertently he knows where it went now!

[Ancient Geek]

Lest there be no mistake, Walnut Shells are really only of great use inside a hull and if the underlying wood is sound, also if the deck is off! They leave a surface ready for priming with varnish, Ed's friends Dragon is of course far from fitted out in the picture, no bulkheads, no shroud knees heres a finished one!

[Michael Brigg]

...and asked to borrow a cup full of dust..... I dont think I ever returned it

Was that the cup or the dust Roger? The quote sounds like a line out of Simon & Garfunkle (...a pocket full of mumbles...)

So either you are using "Dark material" in your restoration or old fashioned ballast (China) in the manner of the Tea clippers?

Back on topic, might it be worth remembering that before you expend all that energy on a sander, it might be worth using a stripper first. On natural varnish these will remove most of the bulk in 1/2 the time and what is left is easier to sand. They also get into all the cracks and crevices. Do be careful of scorching of course. As a household tool I have found that mine makes an excellent firelighter for a coal fire as well.

AG has already commented on Ed's "Damascene conversion" to Walnut shells, although it occured to me that without a blue flash as his old faith(ful) stripper disappeared in a puff of smoking fuse, such a conversion (especially for natural varnish) could only be described as a mere "Epiphane-y!"

[davidh]

Michael,

With puns like that, have you considered that you are getting worser rather than betterer

D

[JimC]

Were I richer I would have an air powered orbital so I could power wet sand. You seem to need a pretty serious air compressor to run one though.

[Ancient Geek]

In the 1960's and 1970 70's when Ken Robertson and Westerly Boats of Rock in Cornwall were building boats of the London Boat Show winning dinghies quality, (Ospreys, Finishing FD shells from Bob Hoare, Scorpions to name a few.) they rather bravely I thought after apply lots sealing coats of varnish and or paint (2 pack.) rubbed them flat with electric orbital sanders WET with 400 emery W&D, God knows what those kill joys "Elf 'n' Safety" would make of it today, but nobody was killed. They were sensible and carefull and did not exactly splash the water around. I did my last Merlin Rocket that way too in 1970 and much more recently my new boat was rubbed down before her final coats with electric sanders - wet. (But not in the UK.) So it can be done. Here's a picture of the hull before it was wiped down.

[Rupert]

I've sanded varnish back wet with a 1/3 sheet sander, too, and lived. Can't say it was my favourite occupation, though!

[Michael Brigg]

I think it's time we revisited those halcyon days of scraping out the corners with shards of broken glass!

Rupert quite sensibly killed that thread off by coming coming full circle and singing the praises of his brand new rubber-handled scraper from homebase, or wherever.

We live in a nanny state and I am advised in my profession that it is legally dangerous to communicate on open fora lest I compromise myself (unwittingly or otherwise) with one of my patients! Daft, yes, but unfortunately fact, and not the only mad cow decision to come out of our esteemed GMC.

I suppose what I am coming round to is saying that we really shouldn't advocate playing with fire or the national grid without the usual caveat of "dont do this at home," or at the very least a circuit breaker and lowest possible power fuse!

Unless of course like AG we are protected by the court of Elsinore.

[davidh]

Hate to be an 'elf and safety' sounding killjoy but let's not forget that it was a wet power sander that killed one of our top multi sailors.

For this year, when I start work on the woodie Contender, it will be long board, then (I hope) a compressor powered sander for wet and dry. But the real work is done with the long board, 80 grit, then 120, finish off with 320... then the detailed work can start.

I'd like to do a similar job on the Smokers but the problem there is the hull has been painted in one pot, so either that all has to come off, or else you are in the end tied to brush painting.

Ditto the decks... and interior.

My guess is that the paint job on the Smokers would cost in excess of £250........

D

[Ancient Geek]

Well I consider myself chastised, the perils of posting on the web are all too clear, a young man from a top line Public School recently got turned down by the Sandhurst Entrance (RAOCB) system because they did not like his facebook picture!
There have been quite a few deaths fishing with Carbon Fibre Rods connecting with overhead power lines (for some reason the utility companys seem to favour The Test and Itchen Valleys for the local distribution lines not the grid!)

[Ancient Geek]

Well I consider myself chastised, the perils of posting on the web are all too clear, a young man from a top line Public School recently got turned down by the Sandhurst Entrance (RAOCB) system because they did not like his facebook picture!
There have been quite a few deaths fishing with Carbon Fibre Rods connecting with overhead power lines (for some reason the utility companys seem to favour The Test and Itchen Valleys for the local distribution lines not the grid!)

[Michael Brigg]

Well I consider myself chastised, the perils of posting on the web are all too clear,

Surely not??!!

For a man who must be well used to avoiding the attentions of the R.O.S.P.A. and who gave us the hidden hazard of Oulton Broad this would be a sad capitulation.

We should all take risks, not to escape life, but to prevent a sense of life escaping us! Cheesy perhaps but true.

I think we only need to say what we have done and not what others should, in order to avoid the wrath of nanny, at least thats what I would do...

An old medical school dean had a favourite quote, after admonishing students after a prank that involved "borrowing" a Black cab...

"which reminds me; did I ever tell you about the time I stole a Train when I was in India...."