There was a thread recently about these wonderful, time saving devices. I was a bit concerned over a comment made. I am only getting to replying now - been busy. Someone had suggested the random orbital sander be used as it cut fast, especially when taking down gelcoat before redoing a hull. In my opinion, do not do this. You do not want to remove your gelcoat. Smooth it out after years of abuse, yes, but not down to the fiberglass. If you are recoating the kayak with new gelcoat, it is a thin, poor substitute for the original, and does not bond as well (anything put on after the kayak isn't "green" anymore, never bonds properly). You don't want to remove your original protective layer of gelcoat. You will also expose thousands of pin holes if you sand gelcoat too much. BTW, a roller is a good way to "brush" on new gelcoat to an old hull after surface preparation. With good wet and dry sanding and buffing, you can get a fairly decent looking hull again. Also, random sanders without variable speed (and even with VS) have a nasty habit of spinning way too fast when not under load, thereby turning momentarily into a "grinder" as you lower it onto your work surface. Be careful. BC'in Ya Doug Lloyd *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:33:06 PDT