Making a Longboard sander for fairing

Flyer · Post by **Flyer** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 10:27 am

I have done a quick search of the forum for any info on making your own longboard hand-powered sander, and did not find anything.

So fitting that the sub-title a newbe to this list is saddled with is "bottom sanding grunt" ! Very fitting for me and this boat. Bought her in Dayton Beach in 2001 and brought her to the St. Lawrence River. When we got her here we had the local yard do a bottom job. I wanted Interprotec 2000 and VC-17 put on. Not having the time I had them do it. Bad idea!

They rolled on the barrier, and bottom paint coats with no sanding at all. The bottom looked like an orange peel. I delt with this for one season. Moved the boat to another yard and sanded down the bottom with a 4" RO square sheet Poter Cable sander. Oh my god!! Not doing that again. Next year 2003, bought a 5" RO round sander. Much better.

At least the bottom is much smoother. It really needs to more fair though.

This year I have to drop the keel for the imfamous re-bed. I have already read the great posts on that topic. So I am ready for that one. Well if you have read this far you may have forgoten about my question.

I would like to make my own longboard sander. I have seen the ones at Jamestown Dist. I would buy those if you guys think it would just be easier.

Thanks everyone,

Figment · Post by **Figment** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 11:52 am

The forum's ears must be burning. I was just about to go downstairs and make one.

I have one of the boards that Jamestown sells. It's great for spot-fairing, but not really big enough to be used for whole-hull or whole-deck fairing.

The handles are the hard part. If you have the time, you can carve your own from whatever scrapwood you have around. I have no such time, so I stopped at the hardware store on the way home yesterday and bought two "dummy trim" doorknobs and some screws. That oughta do.

I've cut a strip of 1/2" plywood about 34" long, as wide as the self-adhesive sandpaper (2-3/4"). I'm going to secure the doorknobs about 8" in from each end with countersunk screws, and apply 5 or 6 layers of duct tape to the bottom of the board to act as a pad.

I'll post back with results tonight or tomorrow.

Post by **Tim** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 12:16 pm

Figment wrote:I have one of the boards that Jamestown sells. It's great for spot-fairing, but not really big enough to be used for whole-hull or whole-deck fairing.

Are you talking about something other than the 30" hook/loop fairing boards made by 3M? I have one of these long ones (the semi-flexible), and found it to work very well on both hull and deck. They are 4.5" wide.

The 30" was about as long as one person could handle easily, though a few inches either way wouldn't really matter.

I debated making my own. In the end, I decided it was easier to buy it, along with its very pricey velcro sandpaper. I am pleased with the board, and figure it will last a lifetime. The cost through my suppliers was not high enough to make it worth my time to build one.

Flyer · Post by **Flyer** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 12:34 pm

[ The cost through my suppliers was not high enough to make it worth my time to build one.]

Tim,

Since I am new to your wonderful forum, I am wondering what you mean buy "my suppliers". Are you in the boat business. I own a small business in another industry. Are you able to get items at wholesale?
[/quote]

Post by **Tim** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 2:09 pm

Flyer wrote:Since I am new to your wonderful forum, I am wondering what you mean buy "my suppliers". Are you in the boat business. I own a small business in another industry. Are you able to get items at wholesale?

Yes. Please contact me offline (tim@lackeysailing.com) and I will be happy to see what we can do.

Dan · Post by **Dan** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 7:38 pm

I noticed that Glenn made his own powered long boards.
http://www.rutuonline.com/html/long_boards.html
Dan

Figment · Post by **Figment** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 7:43 pm

Actually, no, I was referring to the smaller longboard (shortboard?) that jamestown sells. roughly 16" long, uses adhesive paper. It was the very pricey hook&loop sandpaper that turned me off of the larger one.

Yeah, 38" is too long. I'm going to trim a few inches off each end. It just requires too much force to use for more than ten minutes at a time. My arms actually fell right off a couple of hours ago. I'm dictating this post to an assistant/typist.

The doorknobs work like a dream, though. That was a happy find in the bargain bucket.

heartofgold · Post by **heartofgold** » Sat Mar 26, 2005 10:18 am

I use the 30" board (we call it a "banana board") almost daily, and I agree that 38" is too long. I am a tall guy, 6'1" with a 6"5" armspan, and I would not want to use anything longer than 30". I appreciate that the hook and loop paper for this board is expensive, but it has been my experience that this paper goes a long way. I have not done a formal cost analysis, but I feel that the paper used on this board (80 or 150) lasts much longer than the 2 3/4 inch adhesive rolls used a traditional longboard.

I won't tell you that I ever look forward to using this tool, but the reality is that I really like the results achieved with it. With all the major hull repair I am in the midst of these days, it has become one of my tools of choice for much of this work.