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Sanding jig


Joel

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I made this jig to hold the beltsander at the correct angle while shaping the deck and bottom stringers. It works better than I thought it would. I did one side top and bottom in about an hour. I still need to finish the last 6" near the stem by hand. The belt sander doesn't fit there

joel

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After spending several hours working on the first side, I taped a 4' straigth stick to the side of my belt sander and a small block to the other end of the stick to run along the other edge to equal the offset.

My second side only took about 30 min. I ran my sander vertically instead of horizontally, which ran across the grain of the stirngers. I found it went very quickly that way, but I like your approach just as well. I found that I could get right up close on the bow gussets that way

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And a good job you've done Joel.

I saw that similar jig pic posted somewhere a couple of years ago. Similarly, like most of other jigs I've decided to make, I thought this one would take more time to build than it would save me afterall, so I decided not to build it and instead do the whole thing by hand and just check my progress with a long straightedge. Obvoiusly this is one of the jigs I should have built, for it sounds like a good idea now. I must have spent about 4 hrs. sanding down the stringers on my Vac. When will I learn?

Good job!

Florin

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I thought about using my planer but was also afraid of hitting a screw. As it turns out I did hit about 6 screws on the bottom near the bow. The 80 grit sanding belt had no problem with the bronze screws.

I also saw this idea on another site a while back. I think it was a catamaran being built in Australia. Im pretty sure they had a jig for sale. It was made of metal and held a planer

joel

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Joel, I like your jig.

On the front of my belt sander is a slot for attachments. I tried to attach a wooden straight edge to it, and ended up putting two additional screws in it to keep the angle locked.. but it wouldn't work right. So I abandended the idea and have been doing mine by hand using the straight edge to check the angle.

I am not sure why, but my angle was quite a bit off when I started. I have gotten down to about 1 degree, which I can live with. But it takes a while. I have completed both sides, top and bottom, from the front bulkhead forward. Time invested so far is about 4 hours. At this rate, I figure 12 more hours to finish the outer stringers.

I might have to revisit the jig idea again!

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Phil, I also had one prior attempt at attaching the sander to a straight edge. The Makita belt sander has no provisions for any kind of attachments. This time I used a couple of hose clamps to attach to the top of the sander. It works pretty good.

The stringer angle seems to be right on in the center of the boat. As you go toward the ends its way off. I did not try to make the angle perfect. I figured if its off a little, the epoxy would fill the small gap. I think if you have a tight fitting joint fastened with screws you could squeeze out too much of the glue. So far I have only used epoxy on the transom and lazaret. On all the tight fitting joints I used Weldwood.

joel

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I saw it done with an angle grinder.

aaj.thumb.jpg

Here's the guy's

website

I bought an angle grinder specifically to do this, but I ended up using it freehand along with the belt sander. It all worked out well. I never even thought of using the belt sander, which I had, instead. Hey, any excuse to buy a new tool....

Peace,

Roland

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Well I just had to go find that picture. This is a boat I was thinking of building before I started my Weekender. Its called the Jarcat. I saw one up in Bellingham Wa. Very nice

http://members.ozemail.com.au/~rhturner/index.html

joel

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