With great relief and satisfaction I looked at the hull of my Cosine Wherry rowboat and saw it well sanded. It had been hours and hours of dull and mostly boring planing, scraping and sanding but it was finally done. The feeling lasted only until I turned it over and saw this big yawning 52" beam wide inside of the hull. That's when I felt like giving up. How was I ever going to sand this huge concave?
Well the hell with scrapers, planes and random orbital sanders. I drove to the store and bought myself a nice lightweight 5" angle grinder and a hard plastic backingplate and a quantity of #80 and #120 sanding pads. It took a few minutes to get used to this 10000 RPM baby but it's a treat. Ok it's not for the fainthearted but that goes the same for the many extreme sports today. There is nothing dull(sic) about sanding soft WRC strips with an angle grinder. Instead it keeps you totally focused with all your senses all the time. If not, goodby boat.
The secret is to have a good grip on the grinder and softly, softly stroke the wood once or twice and it's smooth. It's a bit like stroking a pussy
cat. I finished the whole inside of the hull in about 4 hours compared to 20 hours or more of convential sanding. WARNING to FIRST time builders. Don't use an angle grinder to sand your boat. It's dangerous.
Anyone out there uses an angle grinder to sand the inside of the hull?
William