A case for steel wool?

Posted by Jim L on Jul 20, 2006

I know that wet sanding is the preferred approach for sanding between varnish coats and, without disagreement, would work well for boats that are all varnish. For boats with painted hull and varnished deck, however, the wet sand causes some problems. Beyond the extra step of having to move the boat outside of my shop, I seem to end up with somewhat of a mess. Too much water I guess. This is unimportant, of course, but the water un-sticks the 3M #2090 tape I am using wherever the tape lies on top of tape. It sticks well to the boat surface, but then I have all these loose tape ends wagging about. Not tidy at all. Wrong tape?

Anyhow, I have taken to using 0000 steel wool between varnish coats, I think it's more work, but I can control the steel wool with precision; easily removing dust particles, sags, cloudy areas, etc. Is there a shortcoming with this approach? I should admit that my final coat still has some of these problems, so I'm stii struggling to get that coffee table appearance. Any suggestions on that final opertation?

Jim

Jim

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