: How do you go about sanding the inside a Kayak? I build canoes and havent
: figured out anthing better than slowing down a grinder with a reastate.And
: plenty of elbo grease.

Takes me about an hour and a half to scrape and sand the inside of a kayak. Come on over after MLK weekend and watch me.

I scrape ALL traces of glue off with a 12” handle paint scraper with a blade I’ve shaped into a curve on a grinder to fit the bildge curve. Sharpen the scraper with a file or on a belt sander with 80 grit. Use the scraper in long fast strokes like you’re pulling the starting rope on an old lawn mower motor. You can get way into the stems with the scraper.

I used to hate sanding. More GD sanding than anything else on a stripper. When I started building in the eighties I used a disc sander like most others did. WHAT a mess of dust and boy you could make some nice ripples in you hull if you weren’t careful.

But then good ROS came into use in the wood shops I worked it and once I tried one on a stripper the nightmare of sanding passed away.

A good dustless Random Obital Sander with variable speed is the trick. The bildge is the only area that poses a problem to using the flat surface of the ROS. You must install an optional soft backing disc instead of the standard hard disc that comes on most sanders. The soft backing pad and quick back and forth movement of the sander will overcome the tendency of the orbital action to cut ridges in the bildge area on the hull interior. You can either come at the bildge from the center/keel line and run the sander up perendicular to the bildge or you can run the sander parallel to the bildge angling the curve of the disc to fit the curve of the bildge. Either way works, you just have to keep it moveing FAST back and forth. You will be using the edge of the disc which will cut faster and ware out the sanding disc faster. I use 60 grit sanding disks for rough sanding. On the hull interior one pass and I’m ready to glass.

Having the right ROS makes all the difference. I’ve used a 2 amp. 3 pound 5” Bosch 3283 DVS for about ten years. This is a low power, smaller ROS with variable speed and dust pick up. The weight is just right. I allows me to hold it with one hand yet has good handles for two hands when I need ‘em. It has just enough power. Not too much like big angle grinder style 6” monsters. The dustless feature is most important for sanding efficiency, but is great because the way I hook it up to my Porter Cable tool activaded shop vac I have no dust at all to deal with. Bosch has a vac hose accessory you can buy, but I found the diameter too small so I just duct tape the reducer nozzel on the end of the vac hose (fits right into the dust outlet of the ROS) to the sander put on the ear protectors go to it! The Bosch ROS has a flexible rubber cowl (accessory) that fits down over the disc to pull all the dust in.

I’ve worn out two of the Bosch 3283s and I’m not happy with the replacement I bought the 3107 DVS. This one is 3.2 amp and wieghs 3.5 pound without variable speed. Too heavy, too much power. I’m looking at buying the 5” Makita 5021K see: http://www.makita.com/product/select.asp?GROUP=SANDERS
This is the most like my old buddy the Bosch 3283 DVS. Wish I could find a new one on some warehouse back shelf somewhere.

Hope this eases you pain.

All the best,
Rob