20' Whitehall

[Tom Hoffman]

I have finish sanded and faired using 36 grit paper. Should I go finer in preperation for Glass and Epoxy? If so what should be the final grit?

Thanks for any help.

[Joe ( Cold Spring on Hudson )]

Originally posted by Tom Hoffman:
I have finish sanded and faired using 36 grit paper.36 grit paper :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

DAVE !!!!!!! Help this guy.

Tom, I'm an total amateur here, but I don't even own 36 grit paper. The lowest sand paper I own is 80 I think. You can do a lot of damage with 80 grit in a hurry. For final sanding it all depends how much time you have. I usually go 220 and people say I'm still being heavy handed.

Some of the old salts will give you better advice in a few.

[ 06-14-2005, 06:08 PM: Message edited by: Joe ( Cold Spring on Hudson ) ]

[Brahm Thexton]

maybe he meant 360

[JimConlin]

If it's to be bright, i'd go to #150 with a hand block outside, #120 inside. If to be painted, i'd stop after boarding with #80.

[Bob Smalser]

I use 36 grit almost every day on softwoods....and sometimes even on paint-grade hardwoods.

http://pic3.picturetrail.com/VOL12/1104763/6583947/84781830.jpg

Depends on whether you're gonna paint of varnish....I'd go thru at least 60 grit before epoxying and maybe to 80...it'll take a bit less epoxy to fill those scratches and the adhesion is no different.

How much further depends on the wood....I usually go to 80 grit and sometimes 100 grit before paint...depends on whether the paint'll fill the scratches. For varnish I go to either 100 or 120 grit on cedar, 120 on D Fir, 150 on H Mahog, and 180 or finer on harder woods.

Depends on your starting point with how rough the wood is, but in general, starting coarser is much faster, cooler and overall much cheaper to go from 36-60-80, etc in 3 sheets than to accomplish the same thing with 5 sheets of 80 grit.

[Tom Hoffman]

Thank you all, The reason I used 36 grit is that I had a lot of filler to get off after I filled the cracks that I was having problems with. The are filled now, and the boat is good and clean, I have a good ROS with alot of power. Going to 80 grit will not be a problem, I was thinking that 80 grit was the end as I thought that you had to have tooth for the epoxy to grab on to.

I will be finishing bright and will be several days of more work to get ready for the glass, just needed reasureance that I wasn't going to leave it too rough.

[JimConlin]

If you use a ROS instead of longboards, use a chalked batten to guide the shaping.