I think I just found my new shop investment

Rich check out the cost of the sandpapef that makes up the head. I bought one of those sanding mops ar a show but the refills and length of time it lasted were not cheap neither did they lasrt long. Things could have changed tbough.

sent from my Atrix
 
I have the mop that fits in the drill press or hand drill. They have many grits. I chose 220. It is great for sanding. You may remember I mentored a HS kid's project---making a desk. We sanded every thing except the top of the desk using the mop. It worked great!

We ended up with nice soft corners of the legs, stiles, etc. Left us virtually no hand sanding.

Original set up with sanding paper cost about $45.oo unless you are lucky like me. I ordered one from Sears. The delivery company said that they could not find my house and so they returned it. I called Sears. They said I would get a refund. That was about 3 months ago. With their automated phone system I could not find a correct number to press for my problem and I could not get a live person. So mine cost $90.oo because I purchased another one elsewhere.

Sandpaper refills and different grits come separately and, of course, the refills are much less expensive. However, I cannot remember the price on the refills.

It is more expensive than sheet sandpaper. However, it can do hours of sanding in minutes.

The sandpaper grit acts like it is more aggressive than the same grit on a sanding block. I am going to get another refill in something like 360 or 400.

Enjoy,

Jim
 
The guy was saying he had already run 10000 feet of molding through that head before doing this demo. If he is in fact accurate and if it only got 10000 feet thats only 0.013 per foot. not that expensive when you work out how many sanding sheets you go through sanding moldings.

Personally, I don't know about getting that much yield from a single mop but if you dont sand pitchy gummy woods they should last a long time.

The sanding strips on my 38" wide drum sander last me a long long time before I have to discard them as long as I dont try to clean up glue runs or hog out too much stock in one pass which ruins the paper.

I would be surprised if I ran that much molding in a year though. but after sanding that crown the other day it really made sense to have one as I could have been done in a fraction of the time.

It would be great if I could rig it to the outfeed of my shaper so the power feeder would handle both and I would have a finished piece of trim in one shot! :)
 
I make my own replacement sandpaper for my sanding mop.

sanding mop 001 (Medium).jpg

I use these pieces of 1/4" MDF for a template

sanding mop 002 (Medium).jpg

I sandwich the sandpaper between the MDF and use packing tape to hold it together. I cut the slots on the bandsaw with and old blade. If you use a good one it'll be an old one when you get finished!

Here's a couple of pics showing the dimensions of the MDF pieces.

sanding mop 003 (Medium).jpg
sanding mop 004 (Medium).jpg

I use the mop to sand my shaker boxes. It works great on the curves.
 
That's awesome! Thank you for sharing that! Now I finally have a use for the off cuts I get from my wide drum. The rolls that donw quite work out even and I have a foot or two left over. :D:thumb:
 
I would love that! Unfortunately I dont have the volume right now that I could justify the 7000-10000 dollar outlay.
It now has a home on the wish list though:D
 
Ok.. I had a 2 a.m. epiphany. All I need is a shaft, chuck and the mops. I have a 36" lathe that I can mount it on and all I need to do is build a feed table for it! :doh: Ok that part is the easy part. I also took another look at those brush sanders from performax. Just the refill brush is 1400 bucks!
So.... I have found the chuck, the live center and there are a myriad of sources out there for mop refills. Here is my dilema. Does anyone know where I can get a shaft that will not flex like a son of a gun at 2000 rpm over a span of 36 inches?
Im thinking of 320 grit or finer to run cabinet doors and other parts through to denib and scuff between coats.
But also I would like to find a shaft that is only about 6 to 8 inches for sanding moldings etc.
Any ideas?:dunno::huh:
 
Ya might find something here...
http://www.mcmaster.com/#

Awesome! Thanks Jay! I just sent them an email. I'll let you all know what I hear back.
I'm thinking that if I need to have a shaft made why not just have the tapers put on both ends then it is fully supported and those few inches that are in the sleeves will give that much more support to the rigidity.

Full keyway I can add or remove how ever many mops I need or set up mulitple grits and do all the courses in one set up!
 
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