Power Long Boards

Fairing a big hull is a dirty tiring job.  A regular belt sander or ROS can't be used and a traditional long board would take weeks.

After a week on a regular long board, I decided to try something different. I made two power long boards.  The first is designed for rapidly bringing down a rough layer of fairing putty. The second is for smoothing the hull down to a finer surface so that hand fairing is minimized.

The heavy duty one is based on an old sears 3x12 belt sander.  I chopped off the front and bolted a frame to one side.  The frame is 1" square steel tubing with stubs welded to the side for the belt to ride on. The front roller was mounted to the far end of the frame and a 1/4" plywood platen mounted in between. The platen is fixed by a pin at the motor end and a pivoting leaver at the front so that it will flex. I ordered some 3 x88 belts made up from Klingspore. It took a little tuning to make it track right but it will rough fair about 300 sq. ft. an hour to the point that the air file long board can take over.

If I were to do it over again, I would find an olf 4" sander.  The 3" motor is not quite powerful enough. I have to baby it and let it cool down during a long session

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The other sander is an air file with the standard board removed and a 3"x36" piece of 1/4" plywood in its place. The front knob was relocated to a slide assembly made from UHMW plastic on the far end of the board. I epoxied some Velcro to the board and use rolls of standard hook and loop sand paper.  This board will get what the belt board misses and a quick once-over with a hand long board finishes the surface out.

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Site last modified:04/12/04