glenn bradley
Member
- Messages
- 11,516
- Location
- SoCal
Any of you who subscribe to Fine Woodworking Online probably saw this as I did. I have some duplicate toy items planned and thought this might be an asset so I took one for the team. The idea of template sanding is similar to template sawing at the tablesaw with an "L" fence or offset template routing with a template collar.
I used a scrap of melamine leftover from a closet project I helped a neighbor with. Size yours however you like.
A slot is cut for a fence. I placed mine so that I had an approximate 3/8" offset from the disc sander's surface. Although you can get quite accurate with a sander there is always the discrepancy of grit size, backing material and bonding method. I set mine up for my coarsest paper assuming finer papers (if used) will leave the blank proud of the line. I've found it a lot easier to remove more material than to put material back on
A "bar" is attached to use the miter slot for positioning as well as a stop to keep the "table" in place. If your sander does not have a miter slot you can make the table oversized and add stops to capture the machine's table and orient the fixture.
As per my usual, when I made the fence I made a couple of extra.
So if I need to sand to a line on a dozen parts I just hold or double stick tape the template in a position that is at the correct offset; 3/8" in my version.
For convex curves the method is the same as for template sawing or non-flush template routing. The template has to provide the required offset. The benefit is that once you make a template you just use it as many times as you need to for your project.
...cont'd
I used a scrap of melamine leftover from a closet project I helped a neighbor with. Size yours however you like.
A slot is cut for a fence. I placed mine so that I had an approximate 3/8" offset from the disc sander's surface. Although you can get quite accurate with a sander there is always the discrepancy of grit size, backing material and bonding method. I set mine up for my coarsest paper assuming finer papers (if used) will leave the blank proud of the line. I've found it a lot easier to remove more material than to put material back on
A "bar" is attached to use the miter slot for positioning as well as a stop to keep the "table" in place. If your sander does not have a miter slot you can make the table oversized and add stops to capture the machine's table and orient the fixture.
As per my usual, when I made the fence I made a couple of extra.
So if I need to sand to a line on a dozen parts I just hold or double stick tape the template in a position that is at the correct offset; 3/8" in my version.
For convex curves the method is the same as for template sawing or non-flush template routing. The template has to provide the required offset. The benefit is that once you make a template you just use it as many times as you need to for your project.
...cont'd