STL233: The power of the disc sander
Anissa and Ben debate the pros and cons of different stationary sanders, the best ways of dealing with squeeze-out, and what to do with all of those old jigs.Sign up for the Fine Woodworking eLetter
Question 1:
From Aaron:
I see that a lot of woodworkers have disc sanders for rough stock removal and shaping, and I pretty rarely see stationary belt sanders. Why is that? Is there some advantage to disc sanders that I’m not aware of? They’re priced similarly, and to me it seems that a belt sander is more versatile because it has allows you to sand thicker material. Also, belt changes are much easier than disc changes. Can you shed some light on this?
– Great Results with a Belt Sander by Christian Becksvoort
– Craig Thibodeau’s homemade sanders
– Why You Need a Benchtop Sander
Here is a video demonstrating Ben’s disc sander jig
Question 2:
From Kyle:
I find that the longer I have this hobby, the more and more jigs I accumulate that I just can’t part with.Router templates, special tablesaw sleds, clamping helpers, shooting boards at specific angles, and similar stuff. How do you all manage the lifecycle of these things that you make?
What do you keep, and what do you toss away?Do you disassemble jigs and reuse plywood? How do you organize what you keep, and what is your storage solution like for them?
Fine Furniture with Biscuit Joints by Michael Fortune
Question 3:
From Scott:
There is nothing that I hate more than trying to clean up glue squeeze out. My current prevention/clean up strategy for glue squeeze out is to:
- Not put too much glue on whatever I’m gluing
- Let the glue fully harden before trying to clean up any squeeze out
- Some combination of a chisel/card scraper/knife/sandpaper work to remove the hardened squeeze out. I try to be as careful as I can, but I often find myself damaging some surfaces when doing the cleanup (not to mention the fairly large amount of time it takes).
How do you recommend to prevent glue squeeze out? For the inevitable bit of glue that does squeeze out, how do you recommend to efficiently clean it up without damaging any parts?
– Prevention is Best Cure for Glue Squeeze-Out by Bob Van Dyke
– Strategies for Squeeze-out by Tim Rousseau
– Never Struggle with Squeeze-Out Again by Michael Fortune
– How to Tame Squeeze-out by Hendrik Varju
Every two weeks, a team of Fine Woodworking staffers answers questions from readers on Shop Talk Live, Fine Woodworking‘s biweekly podcast. Send your woodworking questions to [email protected] for consideration in the regular broadcast! Our continued existence relies upon listener support. So if you enjoy the show, be sure to leave us a five-star rating and maybe even a nice comment on our iTunes page.
Comments
“[Deleted]”
Hi Ben. Would you please share a link to the "hamburger box" and other stuff from the cabinet company you mentioned? Sounds cool. Thanks!
It was on Larissa Huff's page: https://www.instagram.com/larissa.huff/
or Lohr Woodworking (the school she helps run): https://www.instagram.com/lohrwoodworking/
I can't find it though!
Love the RBG look!
Where’s the lace?
Ben, the Domino extensions that attach on each side have 2 settings for the pin locator: one for using the extension with the DF 500 and another for the DF 700, flipped according to your model. Almost illegible labelling indicates which. If you use the wrong one, your Domino mortises won't line up because the pin registers against a sloping side of the previous Domino mortise instead of bang on in the middle of the edge. Is that possibly one of the challenges you faced?
I must have misspoke. It was the height setting on the fence that moved. I stopped using the pins a long time ago in favor of the simple tick mark.
Well done guys with the challenges that you faced this week.
Shop organisation is important as you will quickly realise that you have accumulated a lot of unnecessary "crap". When I see this, it is a day of going through it all and try and purge the stuff. The hardest thing I find is throwing scraps of wood out. I see it as a waste, especially plywood.
I thought the welcoming letter was a nice touch, except that it was from Tom not Mike. Hard work ferreting out all the old photos of old staff !
Reminds me that I have a question for STL about the web site.
Why is it easier to find stuff on the site by going back out of the site to Google and searching, rather than using the in-site search engine. With the in-site search you get thousands more seemingly random hits in what seems like the weirdest ranking order ever. What different tricks do you have to make your own search engine work, or do you just go to the magazine index Anissa mentioned. (compiled by humans)
Regarding glue squeeze out, another approach is to use hide glue instead of yellow glue. Even after the hide glue has dried, it is possible to remove the squeeze out using warm water and a rag or toothbrush. As a bonus, if any residue of hide glue does remain, it should not show through the finish that you apply, as is frequently the case with PVA glue.
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