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For those of you that have or are reconditioning 'senior' Whalers, I am starting the process of redoing a 1969 Sakonnet.

I have a lot of grinding to do on the gel coat and fiberglass. there us lot's of old rusty screws embedded in the hull from prior owners that need to be ground out and prep work on the fiberglass etc.

What tool(s) do you prefer or recommend for grinding these areas of hull down? Dremel, Fein multi-tool, general handheld grinder?,

What about wet sanding the patched areas afterward? Do this by hand or do I get to use power tools?

Thanks,

John
Elkland, PA

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A mini angle grinder is the first tool you need. A 4" -5" grinder can be fitted with many different wheels and discs to accomplish all sorts of chores.

A Dermel tool is good for very tight spots but is a tiny tool that will not cover much ground.

The other tool you will need for sanding and buffing is a random orbital sander which can look just like a mini angle grinder but works completely differently.

Without necessarily endorsing them over other brands, I can tell you I own Bosch and Makita mini-angle grinders and a Porter-Cable random orbital sander/polisher. I use them commercially in my trade and they are nearly 20 years old. Good tools.

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Like Tom, I use basically a 4 !/2" angle grinder, and an orbital sander for fiberglass work. The attachment most useful for the grinder is a flap disc, 60 grit which is basically many pieces of sandpaper. It will make quick work of grinding fiberglass when making major repairs, and even when it looks wornout is still useful in sanding out spider cracks. The orbital sander is used for general finish sanding on glass and mahogany, I have a Dremel tool but never found a use for it. Buy decent tools, Mine are old and worked hard from formally using them in my construction business but still work well.

rich

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Don't know if you have a compressor or not but pneumatic random orbital sanders need a lot of cfm's.

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They need a BIG compressor too, most I`ve seen are in body shops. I`ve always used electric, with good results.

rich

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My dad has a Festool random orbit sander. Great machine! The Fein tool is good too from what I have been told. I currently am using a Porter cable sander (Dad doesn't let the Festool go very often) Works better than most others, but not as fast as the Festool. Sometimes that is a good thing. Whatever you decide on, get and use the vacuum attachment. Again my dad has the fancy Fein vacuum but I just use a good shop vac. The hose is a pain, but the dust goes into the vac and not your lungs. Plus the paper seems to last alot longer with the vac on. A really good random orbit sander is a must.

A small 4" grinder will do anything you need on a Whaler. Bigger grinders that are powerful enough to drive a big disk are expensive and can remove too much too fast making more work in the long run. Use the money you save on the grinder for a better random orbit sander.

A 13' whaler beaten by years of commercial service recently became mine. Local "retired" boat mechanic is cleaning the carb for me. Once the engine runs I'll start on the hull. Patch up the breaks in the fiberglass to keep the water out. We will do a full restore later when the kids are interested in "helping".

Bill

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good advice thanks...so it looks like I've already got/had the the random orbital, the angle grinder, and dremel....

by the way I"ve used the dremel before on a 9ft tender restore to grind around small holes and spider cracks...

the only blade i've ever used on the angle grinder is a sharpening blade to do my mower blades...what kind of disc do I ask for to grind off gel coat and fiberglass?

the one side of this boats hull is in rough shape and is going to need to ground down quit a bit and re-built so I am thinking that a sander and a dremel will not work there.

appreciate the help all,

john
elkland, pa

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You need what they call a flap disc. It is basically sandpaper, many small pieces made into a disc. Hard to explain. They come in different grits. I use 60 grit. When it wears down, you can use it for more finish type work like removing spider cracks. These discs last a long time. Available at Home Depot under $5.00
rich

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how big of air compressor am I going to need? I already have one, and a random orbit sander for that compressor...but looking ahead to spraying gell coat...how much HP will I need?

john