Best fairing board

Do you mean smoothing of the hull under-surfaces,i.e antifouling paint?

A 'Longboard ' that is approximately 2ft long with a medium cabinet paper would do the job dry ( Mask and goggles essential) also may not be allowed in the area( H & S). Alternatively a wet method using wet and dry medium emery.

The ones I've seen used resemble a large jackplane with a steel flat and with clips at each end to hold the emery. The steel is slightly flexible so can work the flat and curved surfaces, car body finishers use a similar tool.

ianat182
 
the one being used by someone else:rolleyes:
I use a 2 foot long piece of 9 mm ply the same width as the paper, there is also 3mm of firm rubber between the ply and paper and a 1" x 2" piece of hard wood glued to the ends to which I screw a 2" x 2" wooden block so as to clamp the paper and a rounded 2 foot piece of 9mm ply as the "handle".
you can also get an powered board as used in auto finishing but you would need a very big compressor to drive it,
 
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For antifoul I use a "drywall sanding screen", meant for smoothing the joints between pieces of plasterboard. It comes on a long pole and can be dunked in a bucket of water to keep the job wet.

For topsides, I have a simulated-clinker pattern in the GRP and a brushmark-ridden hand-paint job. No worries about polishing or minor scratches, more time to go sailing. And it causes some people to think she's wooden :D

Pete
 
Strip of 3 ply, just under one metre long, same width as sand paper, screw on handles/blocks to act as grips and clamps.

Often called torture boards, and for good reason.

Good luck and fair winds.:)
 
You can say that again!!!

er, I've got one that the OP would be very welcome to - in fact, I NEVER want to see it again...

...EVER!
 
Avocet said:
You can say that again!!!

er, I've got one that the OP would be very welcome to - in fact, I NEVER want to see it again...

...EVER!
Click to expand...

Hi Avocet,

I have to admit it took me a time to realise that 'less on' means 'less off'.

That old straight back saw still works for me.

Did you decide to wait for warmer conditions? or go ahead with the coat.

Good luck and fair winds.
 
They look interesting - same principle as a car windscreen wiper! Mind you, probably a bit heavier than the simple plywood "torture board", and that''s going to be significant additional work! The problem with boat hulls is that at best, they're vertical surfaces - at worst - upside down surfaces!
 
cliff said:
+++1 - the doggies do-dahs (and they don't need that big a compressor (8cfm for continous use) :D) info or for cheaper one here or here or even here (little bit more expensive) :D
Click to expand...

I must admit (Sorry Oldsaltoz!) that I wimped-out of doing the whole lot with the torture board and went for the twin piston Sealey. It did a good job, but not as good as the torture board. It can remove lots of filler in a short space of time, but it was also easy to end up with flats on the curved surface if it was there just a few seconds too long. The foam foot allows the paper to curve a BIT but nothing like as well as a torture board and, of course, a smaller area too.

Also, the compressor needs choosing carefully. The little "toy" ones they sell at places like Machine Mart may claim to produce 8CFM, (and maybe they can for a short period under laboratory conditions), but they can't handle continuous use. I have a 2 horse one and it was running continuously. The nice man who replaced it under warranty (after about a week!) said they were only designed for a 50% duty cycle (not something they shout about in their literature)! So that means you'd need one rated to at least twice the output that the tool needed.

I ended up with a little single phase Hydrovane which, despite having been made in the 1960s and only claiming to be 5.7CFM was actually MUCH better than the 8CFM piston compressor. The sander rand quite a bit faster on it - which made me suspicious about the claimed 8 CFM of the newer one!

Another problem I had was condensation. When using a compressor pretty much flat-out, I was getting a great deal of condensation down the air line and into the tool. In fact, if I left it for a week, it would seize up by the following weekend with rust. Those little water traps and coalescers that they sell in places like Machine Mart for £30 - forget them! I ended up spending £200 (more than the compressor!) on a proper DeVilbiss one and even that didn't completely catch all the condensation.
 
oldsaltoz said:
Hi Avocet,

I have to admit it took me a time to realise that 'less on' means 'less off'.

That old straight back saw still works for me.

Did you decide to wait for warmer conditions? or go ahead with the coat.

Good luck and fair winds.
Click to expand...

Yes, the saw blade was the trick - took me a long time to pluck up enough courage to have a go and put a lot on at once, but it was "the business" in the end. Also, "less on = less off" is true, but I think I went too far the other way on more than one occasion, leading to a "too much less on = having to put a second lot on" situation! The worst thing I did (as I found the hard way!) was trying to convince myself that if I just rubbed a bit longer, I'd get rid of that hollow and wouldn't have to re-fill (which when working with epoxy outdoors, can add another several days to the job)! The result was that I ground out the hollow, but had actually just turned it into a much bigger hollow (with a smooth bottom to it)!

Anyway, yes, the weather decided that for me in the end. It was 5 degrees outside this morning! The local marina has a workshop that they can can let me rent me a space in - compressor, extraction and underfloor heating. I'm sorely tempted because it will mean I can actually get back in the water and sail the bloody thing next season!
 
Avocet said:
I must admit (Sorry Oldsaltoz!) that I wimped-out of doing the whole lot with the torture board and went for the twin piston Sealey. It did a good job, but not as good as the torture board. It can remove lots of filler in a short space of time, but it was also easy to end up with flats on the curved surface if it was there just a few seconds too long. The foam foot allows the paper to curve a BIT but nothing like as well as a torture board and, of course, a smaller area too.
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The air driven type need a little bit of skill / practise to use otherwise one tends to get "flat" spots.
<snip>Another problem I had was condensation. When using a compressor pretty much flat-out, I was getting a great deal of condensation down the air line and into the tool. In fact, if I left it for a week, it would seize up by the following weekend with rust. Those little water traps and coalescers that they sell in places like Machine Mart for £30 - forget them! I ended up spending £200 (more than the compressor!) on a proper DeVilbiss one and even that didn't completely catch all the condensation.
Click to expand...
Oh dear - look at a "commercial" set up - big air coolers downstream of the compressor but before the watertrap / coalescer - cool the compressed air and the water condenses out letting the trap do its job very effectively. If you run the comressed air directly from teh pump to the trap you will get pass through of water vapour - a cheap, but very effective, cooler can be made up of copper pipe.
 
Rogershaw said:
This is a what I call a fairing board
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Sorry thread drift - picture reminds me of doing some maintenance on a forumite's boat in Grenada.

We wanted an electric polisher so went to Island Water world, browsed round but couldn't see any.
"got any polishers?" we asked more in optimism than expectation.

"yes we've got loads out the back" they said to our delight.

We weren't however expecting "what time shall I tell them to come round?".......
 
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