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how much to sand hull exterior?
Hello everyone, first post here although I have read a lot. We have built a teardrop and are now working on a Northeaster Dory and the question I have is: the manual says "sand the hull smooth" prior to fiberglassing the bottom but the pictures in the manual leave a bit to be desired as to what that actually means. Can someone describe to me or even show me a picture perhaps of what it is supposed to look like? I am particularly interested in what the edges of the planks should look like- am I supposed to leave a sharp edge? Sand it down to the cellofil bead? Something in between?
Thank you in advance for any help.
3 replies:
RE: how much to sand hull exterior?
Just one small expansion on Birch2's excellent advice - at your current stage of construction what you need to make sure of is that there's nothing to snag the fiberglass cloth when you lay it on the bottom. If you can run your bare hand over the bottom and not get any splinters, you're done sanding for now (but there'll be much more in your future).
Laszlo
RE: how much to sand hull exterior?
» Submitted by Birch2 - Sat, 12/10/22 » 9:18 PM
You have to be the judge of what that means. But my own view (and I have built the NE Dory) is that you just want to sand it fairly lightly. Knock off pointy things and very sharp edges, but that's about it. If you have already filled the seams between the strakes, there will be some lumpy bits of fiberglass to deal with. And again you have to be the judge of how smooth you want it.
The big danger in sanding is that you may sand through the outer layers of veneer before fiberglassing, or that you may sand through the fiberglass afterwards. Don't make those mistakes if you can help it.
But everything can be fixed in a wooden boat. Stay calm about it all and don't try to build a museum showpiece. But, of course, you know all that from your prior building experience. The lapstrake construction of the dory makes it very strong, but also makes it hard to create show pieces.