After hearing what lots of people said about sanding my 1990 Carver Montego's dark maroon painted stripe, the oxidation was so bad that I ignored their suggested 1000+ grit and started wet sanding, by hand (not with a block), with 400 grit, moving to 600, 800, 1000, and ending with 2000. After years of my cautious efforts failing and broken promises by detailers, I tediously got it done, breaking through heavy chalk. With one side finished, I'm approaching the other side wondering if I can forego wet hand sanding and use an orbital sander, dry, on such delicate gelcoat. If so, who can say how?
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Sanding by Hand vs Electric
- Thread starter LuBell
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- Jan 1, 2000
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Based mostly on my woodworking experience:
Hand sanding removes material slowly. This means that when you screw up, errors are small and shallow.
Machine sanding removes material quickly. This means that when you screw up, the errors are large, and deep.
I guess it all comes down to: how confident are you of your machine handling skills? How much will it bother you when you dig an edge when using a coarse sanding disk?
Done correctly, both methods will result in an equivalent surface. In practice, hand sanding will tend to result in less material removed than machine sanding.
Hand sanding removes material slowly. This means that when you screw up, errors are small and shallow.
Machine sanding removes material quickly. This means that when you screw up, the errors are large, and deep.
I guess it all comes down to: how confident are you of your machine handling skills? How much will it bother you when you dig an edge when using a coarse sanding disk?
Done correctly, both methods will result in an equivalent surface. In practice, hand sanding will tend to result in less material removed than machine sanding.
Capt. Bill1
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+1 to what Bill said.
But they do make air driven wet sanders. And since they do take off more material quicker than hand sanding you might be able to start with a finer grit and save a step or two of sanding .
But they do make air driven wet sanders. And since they do take off more material quicker than hand sanding you might be able to start with a finer grit and save a step or two of sanding .
Thanks, everybody for your thoughts. My fear with a da/orbital sander is with the wider area at the bow that is concave. Its inside curved terrain seems like it will invite unintended contact with the orbiting pattern. The flat, more narrow area along the sides is easier. After reading your concerns, I think I will tough it out by hand.
I have a Porter Cable random orbit sander with a 5" resilient foam head that's thinner at the edge - it doesn't dig in. I've "heard it said" that the random orbit doesn't leave swirl marks but I haven't tried anything that fine. The work I have done with it has been great.........Lars.
parker2120
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- Feb 18, 2010
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a DA (dual action) orbital sander will work fine but doing it by hand will be easyer for you
- Joined
- Feb 17, 2003
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I have had good luck with a square Porter Cable flat sander (no vacuum), 400 grit wet sanding paper. Use a "squirt" bottle to keep the surface wet and to not electrocute yourself. Works great on wood surfaces.