Replies

1. 
   random | Apr 01, 2004 01:02am | #1

   Hello Kenny! I am new also. Trying to stay away from "brand" names here but I can offer this advice on your grade (I hope.) A lot of companies claim to have the answer but most will offer a rep to visit and talk about your needs if you wish. Ask for some free products.

   1. Sanding sucks, let's just get this out in the open right now. You do not want to do it, dust and shavings, from scraping and sanding, gets everywhere. It actually takes "arm wax" and energy to perfect this sport and the less time the better right! Avoid it at all costs and use a wide belt for everything. Pre-sanding is the most important step in a well finished piece and it helps keeps cross-scratching off your finished piece. A good planer should almost clean your piece's up if you have it set properly and with sharp blades. Steel blades may work better instead of carbide for some woods . . . keeping out the saw cuts, chatter marks, and tearouts is where it begins, the best milling process.

   I personally dis-like open coat papers. It seems like, to me, that once age sets in they disintegrate with few passes. I bought some supposed "Premium" white open faced Aluminum sanding disc's and from the start of using them I saw the grain just falling off them.

   Cloth backed paper withstands the heat and retains it's abrasive "sharpness" but tends to clog in the finer grades. Still I like this cloth resin bond best and often time's use my pine belt sander block for various things. An old piece of cloth paper around a pencil can hit a lot of those hard to reach places where as open coat types crack in small diameters and loose their sharpness .

   What are you sanding? Did you sand your pieces before you put them together, what are you making.-

   "There is only one difference between a madman and me. I am not mad."