Sanding

Messages
4,834
Location
Goodland, Kansas
After giving it much thought, research, asking and having a long talk with Vince I have decided to go with the electric power sanding vs air. I don't have room for a bigger compressor and mine would being on the ragged edge I didn't want to take a chance with getting something I would be unhappy with. So called Vince at WoodNWonders and talking with him I decided to go with his electric sanding drill and some more new goodies. I bought 2 back up pads. A heavy duty thin and heavy duty thick. Got a 3" interface pad, a 3" tapered pad for sanding right up the edge, and a soft pad per his advice for the higher grits (280, 360, 400, and 600). Also got his disc organizer. I replinished my stock with the blue discs up to 220 and the pink cera-max discs from 280 to 600. So now have a angle drill setup up for the lower grits and one with the soft pad for higher grits. We also discussed pressure, speed of the drill and speed of the lathe. I finished a ash bowl with beads on it and the tapered sanding pad allows you to sand right to the edge with no degradation of the beads. Following Vince's instructions I am extremely happy with the bowl surface. I thanked my wife for her approval on this purchase. I have no affliation with Vinces WoodNWoders but with his advice and product I am a happy camper.
 

Attachments

  • Sanding setup 1.jpg
    Sanding setup 1.jpg
    73.2 KB · Views: 38
  • Sanding Setup 2.jpg
    Sanding Setup 2.jpg
    71.7 KB · Views: 34
Man, you are set up now, Bernie. :thumb: I've been very happy with the products and service I've gotten from Vince.

I've found that for me, it takes a lot of self control to keep the speed down and the pressure light to avoid melting the Velcro on the backing pads, though. I finally started buying 5 or 6 at a time, since I know sooner or later I'll toast them as I use them. (Of course with my shop 800 miles away, that's not a big problem these days.) :doh:
 
Thanks Vaughn. Yep he said the sanding pads were a lot cheaper to buy if you toast one rather than the backup pads. That is one of the problems I knew I had when we started discussing sanding was I figured if I just pushed the sanding disc into the wood hard it would sand better but found out today that is not the case. So will have to get that out of my system. The other big thing for me was sanding at the higher grits with the lathe at around 100 to 200 rpm instead of 500 or so rpm and the VS drill about half speed. He said the Cera-Max discs are being discontinued and will be gone when they are gone but is getting some ceramic discs in that he feels are better yet. The other thing is the organizer sure does make it nice as you can bring all your sanding supplies right to the lathe.
 
...The other big thing for me was sanding at the higher grits with the lathe at around 100 to 200 rpm instead of 500 or so rpm and the VS drill about half speed...

I generally run in the 100 - 250 range for all the grits, and sometimes go even slower on bigger pieces. It has taken some practice to get used to running the right angle drill at about half speed, but it does indeed make things go faster (and I don't burn up as many sanding pads). My Grex is pretty easy to slow down, though. I just throttle back the regulator on the air supply line.
 
Top