Cleanup, Sanding and Ready To Go

The sanding discs from McMaster-Carr showed up the day after I ordered them (really fast shipping with standard ship rate) and I blocked off a few hours on Sunday to prep the foredeck and starboard side deck for the top skin.  I haven't torn up the port side deck yet and plan on getting that ready before it gets too cold to work.

After a summer of doing next to nothing on the boat there was a lot of cleanup to do before I started sanding the deck in prep for the new skin.  I filled up 2 garbage bags of detritus that had accumulated and tidied up the workbench so I could get some work done.

Once complete I setup the 6" sander and 20 foot shopvac hose and got busy.   The big sander coupled with the shopvac made for a really pleasant (except for the noise) experience.  I started out with my respirator but quickly found that zero dust was escaping and ended up taking it off. 2 hours later (and 25, 60 grit discs) the balsa and surrounding areas were are ready for the top skin.  Of course I still have to wipe everything down with acetone to make sure there is no contamination, but I am tentatively planning on taking a day off this week since the weather looks to be warm.  With any luck, I'll have the first 2 layers of top skin on by the end of the week.