Howzit onion, don’t wet sand, for one thing when wet sanding you really can’t see what is going on and you could sand into the weave and not know it till you dry off the wetsand residue. The most basic thing is to do a good gloss job which makes the sanding a lot easier. I take the rail bead off with a razor blade then hand sand the rail with 600 all the way to the tuck on the bottom and up to the flater part of the deck. Start with 320 on the bottomthen 400 then 600, shurlustre and then polish. On the deck I start with 400 then 600, shurlustre and then polish. If your gloss job is full of dips and resin breaks don’t even try to rub it out just resand with 100 grit and regloss and hope for the best. Glossing is an art and takes a while to get down. Aloha,Kokua
(remember i cant see the posts you guys have made while im replying so i cant remember all the names to thank or who im talking to at the certain time, so if you think im talking about what you said then i prbably am)
anyway thanks alot…this is all very usefull info for me…
usually the actual gloss coat is laid down smooth as silk on the average day, so thats not a huge concern…
and what you say about sureluster running around 20bucks a gallon, i can live with that, no problem…just wondering how long ago did you work at fiberglass florida?
so, sounds like around 600 dry then the sureluster is enough…sounds good so far…
so what about this liquid ebony? is it also a surf specific product… or can i find it somewhere else? im guessing its more of a finishing compound after the sureluster, any ballpark idea on the price of this stuff, say quart/gallon whatever…
i just want to know where i shoud be looking for liqiud ebony, before i ask in the wrong place and they look at me like im looking for some afro sheen…ha ha… sorry but the name just sounds like something that should be used for jerry curls, or some motion lotion…
thanks
Orion,
I’m a bit of a newbie so consider the source. I’ve done a few gloss coats in the last several months.
Anyway, I use a VS makita. I dry sand up to 320. Wet sand 400, 600 then polish with wool bonnet using fiberglass polish from Foam EZ. The guys I fixed the boards for raved about the polish so I’m not screwing it up.
I know what you mean about suction when wet sanding. First of all, a good stand helps to handle the torque. My stand has foam padding that’s pretty grippy and keeps the board from sliding. You might be able to rig up some masking tape reverse wound like on glassing stands so it holds your board better.
The other thing is angling the pad to break the suction. I do that mostly but only with my soft pad. When I have tried it with my medium pad it’s too agressive. What I’ve learned is that since I use the medium pad to get everything flat, I don’t need to use it for wet sanding. Once I’m wet sanding I’m just going through the grits. When I use the soft pad I can keep the edge up enough to avoid suction and it’s flexible enough that it flattens out where it hits the board.
My pads are Ferro medium and soft.
Good luck.
thanks ryan, ill keep that all in mind…
still want to kill the wet, but yeah your info is good…
i think my sanding pad sucks, i need to either get a ferro or power pad…
right now im on my second 3M soft 8" pad… also the second one that wobbles, and really isnt that soft…
it works fine for sanded finishes or preping for gloss, but the wobble kills the gloss sanding…
sure did cost alot, why i bought two that wobble i dont know…
could be the sander but i think its really more a problem with the pads, wont buy another…
ahhh, who knows my sander cost 30 bucks and has out lasted two $40 sanding pads… i still think its the pads that are off balance…
if i try another pad brand and it wobbles, then ill blame the sander…hell the sander was 30 bucks… i got my moneys worth, i figured it wouldnt last 10 boards…ill still keep it for polishing …30 bucks!ive had this thing for years.and it just keeps on ticking…
We learn as we go don’t we.
Wet sanding is a mess, that’s for sure. It does help with the plugged pads though. The board I sanded today was one that I undercatalyzed one side a few weeks ago. Did some other boards then came back to this one. Glossed the second side yesterday. The side from yesterday sanded dry upto 320 no prob’. The under catalyzed side kept plugging my 220 and 320. As soon as I wetted it, the plugging went away that the paper went a long way.
As a side note, my pad wobbled really bad. Until my HarborFreight sander broke then my pads straightened out. Seriously, my I though both my pads were warped. When I bought the makita they really smoothed out. Not perfect but way better.
Good luck.
I dont post here much but i figure ill add my ways.
I recently switch to Flexpads soft and medium from a couple of powerpads. Its lighter and it dosent have that metal thing inside. As soon as the power pad metal peice bends, things will start wobbling.
If you do a good gloss start dry sanding with 400 wet/dry paper then 600. fair gloss start with 320 grit. Dont be cheap and use one paper per side. sometimes you can get away with one paper for the first grit
I set my sander to the slowest setting for the first grit. then bump it up a tad for next ones. Get one of those sand paper cleaners. or just keep blowing it off with your compressor. Also a good sandpaper and a clean cut helps. Spend some time cleaning the scratches from the previous paper.
To get swirls out you can use a finshing sander. then buffing pad with different buffing/polishing compounds. Ive seen some that stops at 400 and use different rubbing compounds .It may take several (or several hundred) to get to this stage.
Good sanding on your hotcoat and a good gloss helps alot.
so no word on the liquid ebony? just trying to figure out if its a surfboard specific sort of compound or auto or what…
besides that yeah it could be my crappy sander that causes the wobble in my pads… that thing has to die sometime soon, cant believe it made it this far…
either way,wobble or not, my 3M soft pad isnt really all that soft, so i think for sanding the gloss coat i need something much softer… lets just say im using the power pad brand, from what i hear the soft pad is soft enough, they also make extra soft… but nobody has mentioned that so i take it the regular soft works well, and the extra soft isnt really needed?
i feel like the softer the pad the better with this sort of sanding, but lets say im buying one pad for the finish work on the gloss, should i go soft or extra soft?
thanks you have all been a big help so far on this issue of mine…
…man, I told you before
the only important thing is have got a very good gloss coat
sanding that is very easy
the problems comes with a not so good coat…
you need to use a supersoft 8´´ or/and 6´´ pad and a 4´´ for dee rails (start the rails with finer grit)
the powerpad soft pad is too much agressive
and just that
then rub out
oops, yeah you did tell me that before, like i say my memory area of the brain is shot…
so ill go ahead and get the extra soft pad, thats what i figure anyway… the softer the better, if everything is smooth allready…
and ill try switching to the sureluster, but then ill need to finish that off with some finishing compound after that from what im hearing…liquid ebony has been mentioned alot, but would still like to know where i should be looking for it… surf manufacture suppliers, auto, boat?
im sure i could keep using my $50 a quart polish/finishing compound to do the job just fine … but if i can get a gallon of sureluster for about 20 bucks, thats alot better… so id like to get away from my expensive compound, even if it means using two steps (sureluster/liquid ebony) its looking alot more economical.
ok well my harbour freight sander has finally died… it could be fixed, sortof…the trigger switch is shot, i can and might replace it with some other simple switch just to keep it…
it still runs, but the only way to turn it on and off is by plugging it in or un plugging it… gets pretty irritating, not to mention very dangerous…
yes i could get another, but ive been through 3 3M sanding pads that all wobble, and have come to the conclusion that its the sander , not the pads obviously…
so while i might rig the HF sander for odd jobs here and there, i need something quality at this point… i allways hear Milwalkee this and that, is it just hype or what? i know there expensive… but i really need something that is going to run smooth, variable speed, durable…
my $30 HF served its time, and i really need something better at this point…
YES, i did search the archives, diddnt come up with alot… some say milwalkee some say screw it go HF…
im looking at alot of glossed boards, hard to sand well with a wobbly sander…
ding repairs, odd sanding jobs ill use the rigged HF, i know i saw a post talking about this just a few days ago, but cant find it now…
thanks
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