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Sanding tools

Here its a picture of my sanding tools. Just love the Metabo sander!! The Milwaukee is ok, I'm guessing better than the 35$ angle drills at Amazon. The Makita orbital sander i use with big platters... I also have a , one of those that spins only with the friction of the spinning bowl.... My old soul its been repaired.... The perfect sanding tools!! Whats yours?
 
Here's a picture of my sanding options that are used for the vases that I make in the 10"-13" deep range. I use a Hunter cutter to rough out and get close and a HS scraper to smooth out any ridges. Seem to like the inertia sanders for the lower grits at around 400-500 rpm and the medium/higher grits work better with the quarter angle drill.
 

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John Torchick said:
Informative, thanks. Your shop floor looks like mine.
Click to expand...

:D

You know......we have people around here that won't show us their shop, because it needs to be cleaned up. I don't know why that is. If somebody is going to use that shop, that's just the way it is. We're all in a "brotherhood", of sorts. My shop is a bit messy all the time......and, I'm like everybody else, just don't worry about the usual signs of activity.

(Note: Our woodturning sisters are included in that statement about brotherhood.....as if they didn't already know! Do I really need to point this out! :rolleyes:)
 
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In the stable currently, is a Grex pneumatic RO sander, a new style Milwaukee, an old style Milwaukee, and a Sioux close quarters drill.

Grex random orbital sander (2).JPG IMG_2358.JPG
 
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With mine, you would have to use disks with holes to get dust collection. Otherwise you can use standard 3-inch disks. I do not remember getting a collection bag with the unit.
 
odie said:
:D

You know......we have people around here that won't show us their shop, because it needs to be cleaned up. I don't know why that is. If somebody is going to use that shop, that's just the way it is. We're all in a "brotherhood", of sorts. My shop is a bit messy all the time......and, I'm like everybody else, just don't worry about the usual signs of activity.

(Note: Our woodturning sisters are included in that statement about brotherhood.....as if they didn't already know! Do I really need to point this out! :rolleyes:)
Click to expand...
I try to keep the floor clean, but I turn almost every day... Hard to keep up, lol. Odie, I love the way you hang the drills!! That's my next project!!
 
I keep a half-inch firm interface pad on the unit at all times for two reasons, first to spare the fixed pad hooks from wear and tear, and second to get a bit more clearance between the work piece and the side of the sander body. I may use additional softer interface pads depending on the job at hand.
 
Here's my main sanding tools... Not a fan of the beer, but old Milwaukee is my choice for angle grinders (and non-wood turning drills, etc...)

I put Abranet in there, because I do fine details by hand from 180-600 grit (that I can't powersand). I have tried most hand sandpaper out there, and I keep coming back to Abranet.

I also included 3M synthetic steel wool, since that's always my last step of sanding...just a quick run over everything at a medium higher RPM. Really brings out a shine and also shows any sanding errors before the bowl comes off the chuck.
 

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Zach LaPerriere said:
Here's my main sanding tools... Not a fan of the beer, but old Milwaukee is my choice for angle grinders (and non-wood turning drills, etc...)

I put Abranet in there, because I do fine details by hand from 180-600 grit (that I can't powersand). I have tried most hand sandpaper out there, and I keep coming back to Abranet.

I also included 3M synthetic steel wool, since that's always my last step of sanding...just a quick run over everything at a medium higher RPM. Really brings out a shine and also shows any sanding errors before the bowl comes off the chuck.
Click to expand...
I use the 3M pad in between coats of lacquer, I have to try to use it like you do... Learn something everyday...
 
Dwight R Rutherford said:
I appears as though the Metabo sanding dust is ported out through the back of the handle. Does the unit come with a collection bag?
Does the unit accept standard hook and loop discs or must one use proprietary Metabo brand discs?
Click to expand...
You can buy the extra attachment to hook it up to a vacuum. I prefer to use my dust extraction system. I use regular 3 inch hook and loop discs. They sell the one for the metabo, with holes, so you can use the vacuum...
 
Gerald, I like your setup for the lathe and dust collection. I have a Shop Vac that has a large floor attachment- might see about using it some way.
 
One solution that I really like is a large flex shaft tool. I picked up an older version of this
flexible-shaft-machine-500x500.jpg


Its basically a large Dremel, but with a 1/2 hp motor.

What I like is:
- the motor is powerful and quiet.
- it accepts a 1/4" bit on the end of the shaft, so there's tons of options.
- has two speeds: 1400 and 9600

The nice part is this will run hard for hours without overheating - an issue I had with the electric hand sanders.
The wand end is very compact so I can get far inside of a piece. Last weekend it allowed me to sand the inside of this piece
http://www.olafvogel.com/uploads/4/7/6/2/47621777/7030052_orig.jpg

Where could never figure out any other solution.
I also have a 90d attachment so I can do larger flat spots.
 
Dwight R Rutherford said:
I appears as though the Metabo sanding dust is ported out through the back of the handle. Does the unit come with a collection bag?
Does the unit accept standard hook and loop discs or must one use proprietary Metabo brand discs?
Click to expand...

From the factory, the Metabo port has a plug secured with an allen screw. No bag is available, as far as I’ve seen; the port is for a vacuum hose.
 
My guess is that the machine is a large factor with aluminum oxide - aluminum oxide is durable but not as sharp as silica carbide. Silica carbide lends itself to slower machine sanding with less pressure and also with low pressure hand sanding.
  • For sanding wood I like the 3/32 orbital available from Dynabrade or a Chinese version available from Bruce Hoover at the Sanding Glove. I prefer Eagle Abrasives silica carbide which allows lower pressure.
  • For orange-peel I use the 3/32 sander 3" or 5" with Eagle "yellow" - it's paper backed which is necessary to flatten (eliminate orange-peel)
  • For surfacing after orange-peel removal, I have begun hand sanding with Assilex from Eagle. I can take a clear-coated piece all the way to 3000-grit "dry sanding". A friend took a piece of unfinished oak all the way to 3000 - it is beautiful.
Machines have their place but to have the best machine and not so good sandpaper makes no sense - it's the paper that does the work. And the paper works best when applied evenly - at least for me, I'm much more uniform with hand sanding - never had a burn through
 
John Tisdale said:
My guess is that the machine is a large factor with aluminum oxide - aluminum oxide is durable but not as sharp as silica carbide. Silica carbide lends itself to slower machine sanding with less pressure and also with low pressure hand sanding.
  • For sanding wood I like the 3/32 orbital available from Dynabrade or a Chinese version available from Bruce Hoover at the Sanding Glove. I prefer Eagle Abrasives silica carbide which allows lower pressure.
  • For orange-peel I use the 3/32 sander 3" or 5" with Eagle "yellow" - it's paper backed which is necessary to flatten (eliminate orange-peel)
  • For surfacing after orange-peel removal, I have begun hand sanding with Assilex from Eagle. I can take a clear-coated piece all the way to 3000-grit "dry sanding". A friend took a piece of unfinished oak all the way to 3000 - it is beautiful.
Machines have their place but to have the best machine and not so good sandpaper makes no sense - it's the paper that does the work. And the paper works best when applied evenly - at least for me, I'm much more uniform with hand sanding - never had a burn through
Click to expand...

Thanks for the post, John. I'm interested to learn more about these sanders and your sanding routine. I'd love to hear anything else you'd like to share about how you sand. I've never heard of the 3/32 orbital or even sanding anything but metal with silica carbide. I'm intrigued!

What grit do you start handsanding, once you've fully flatten things out? (I'd never heard orange-peel in a non-painting context, but I get it now!)
Where do you get your paper?

Thanks in advance for whatever else (if anything) you feel like sharing.
 
Owen Lowe said:
From the factory, the Metabo port has a plug secured with an allen screw. No bag is available, as far as I’ve seen; the port is for a vacuum hose.
Click to expand...
Just got my Metabo. On close inspection the allen screw actually holds the port itself in place. It is not plugged. Since I don't intend useing sandpaper discs with holes, sanding dust will not be an issue.
 
olaf Vogel said:
One solution that I really like is a large flex shaft tool. I picked up an older version of this
flexible-shaft-machine-500x500.jpg


Its basically a large Dremel, but with a 1/2 hp motor.

What I like is:
- the motor is powerful and quiet.
- it accepts a 1/4" bit on the end of the shaft, so there's tons of options.
- has two speeds: 1400 and 9600

The nice part is this will run hard for hours without overheating - an issue I had with the electric hand sanders.
The wand end is very compact so I can get far inside of a piece. Last weekend it allowed me to sand the inside of this piece
http://www.olafvogel.com/uploads/4/7/6/2/47621777/7030052_orig.jpg

Where could never figure out any other solution.
I also have a 90d attachment so I can do larger flat spots.
Click to expand...

Olaf, I'm not familiar enough to know. Would I be able to install hex shank chuck in one if these?
 
Mark Hepburn said:
Olaf, I'm not familiar enough to know. Would I be able to install hex shank chuck in one if these?
Click to expand...

Its a normal chuck, 3 teeth / prongs (?), for 1/4" bits. I see no reason why a hex bit of the appropriate size would not fit in there. All you really need it the shaft and a motor to connect it to. There's a few retail versions around (Lee Valley for ex.). The heavier commercial versions are longer and will take more torque. With Either version, you just need to be turning the motor in the right direction. Go backwards and it just winds itself up.
 
olaf Vogel said:
Its a normal chuck, 3 teeth / prongs (?), for 1/4" bits. I see no reason why a hex bit of the appropriate size would not fit in there. All you really need it the shaft and a motor to connect it to. There's a few retail versions around (Lee Valley for ex.). The heavier commercial versions are longer and will take more torque. With Either version, you just need to be turning the motor in the right direction. Go backwards and it just winds itself up.
Click to expand...

Thanks Olaf. I was thinking of getting something like you posted. Something heavy duty as you describe. I've got a couple cordless Milwaukee drivers, Sioux knockoff (Nieko or something I got on Amazon) and the Sorby type spinners that I made but I want something powered that isn't bulky and can get inside small boxes. This looks like it would be perfect.

Off to Google for a search!
 
Mark, one solution is http://www.leevalley.com/US/wood/page.aspx?cat=1,130,43409&p=63449
I dont know who makes it, seems rebranded to me. I have one, it works, should meet most needs.

The heavy duty ones are hard to find now. Used to be popular and seemly still are in India. I found mine on eBay. Suhner seems to be the only current manufacturer and their stuff is REALLY expensive. So look for used.

The aircraft mechanics also have some incredible tools, but also awesome prices.

I occasionally use a a right angle drill drive on the end
https://www.amazon.com/Milwaukee-49-22-8510-Right-Angle-Attachment/dp/B000BYEJ02

Very useful as well. The only quibble with this setup is that the drill chuck sits around palm of your hand. So my ghetto solution is a cut up Coke can taped over the rotating parts.

For a motor, use anything of 1/2 hp or more at the speed you like
(in the right direction - don't ask how I found out! :)
For me that means any old used furnace motor, wired to a light switch box, mounted on the wall.
 
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olaf Vogel said:
Mark, one solution is http://www.leevalley.com/US/wood/page.aspx?cat=1,130,43409&p=63449
I dont know who makes it, seems rebranded to me. I have one, it works, should meet most needs.

The heavy duty ones are hard to find now. Used to be popular and seemly still are in India. I found mine on eBay. Suhner seems to be the only current manufacturer and their stuff is REALLY expensive. So look for used.

The aircraft mechanics also have some incredible tools, but also awesome prices.

I occasionally use a a right angle drill drive on the end
https://www.amazon.com/Milwaukee-49-22-8510-Right-Angle-Attachment/dp/B000BYEJ02

Very useful as well. The only quibble with this setup is that the drill chuck sits around palm of your hand. So my ghetto solution is a cut up Coke can taped over the rotating parts.

For a motor, use anything of 1/2 hp or more at the speed you like
(in the right direction - don't ask how I found out! :)
For me that means any old used furnace motor, wired to a light switch box, mounted on the wall.
Click to expand...

That sounds like a pretty slick setup. I could put that right under my lathe.

And of course, I gave away a perfectly good blower motor about a month ago. I had two and used one for a downdraft table I made. I knew I was never going to do another one and it was collecting dust.

I wonder if a furnace motor could be adapted to a variable speed controller? I know I don't want to spend a small fortune on a controller, and I'm sure a dimmer switch would just catch on fire in about 5 minutes if it even worked. I don't even know if such a setup would be possible without damaging the motor.

But I bet someone here on this forum knows :-)
 
Mark Hepburn said:
I wonder if a furnace motor could be adapted to a variable speed controller? I know I don't want to spend a small fortune on a controller, and I'm sure a dimmer switch would just catch on fire in about 5 minutes if it even worked. I don't even know if such a setup would be possible without damaging the motor.

But I bet someone here on this forum knows :)
Click to expand...

Many "fan" motors are multi-speed, in increments, but usually with different leads to the motor. So rather than 2 leads, you have 6 or 8. That matches up to a motor speed control switch. Neither are expensive. My last one is from the wreckers: $15 for a 2 hp fan motor - shoulda bought more of them...You may have to be careful that the motor gets enough cooling, since they tend to run hot - often a fan blade is mounted on the end, to provide air flow.

I buy all my motors off the local variant of CL (called Kijiji) a suitable motor would be <$30. If you don't like, just sell it again. :)
But there's a lot of 110v motors which will work for this, including cheap grinders.
 
I can rig a duct fan or something and to blow over the motor and put the whole thing right on the wall over my door away from chips, etc.

Craigslist here I come. Thanks!
 
I like the right angle drill attachment, I'll have to get one of those. Here's what I cobbled together, a 55" flex shaft mounted onto a 1725 no name motor, I thought it would be too fast but it seems to work. The aluminum coupler was drilled on my wood lathe 1/4" and 1/2" using a stronghold chuck, and then a couple of grub screws holding everything together. Kind of surprised, it's lasted 6 or 7 years...
 

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That's one of the things I was mulling over; a coupling.

A friend is dropping off a free motor tomorrow. It has a sprocket on it but that may be a plus if I want to step it down.
 
Well that's quite a bit cheaper than I thought, not having checked into it yet. I mean that's about the cost of a value meal at McDonald's or something so I'll just buy one :) especially since I'm getting a free motor

Olaf, on the shaft that you got from Lee Valley, are you using the dust collection capability that it has?
 
Mark Hepburn said:
Olaf, on the shaft that you got from Lee Valley, are you using the dust collection capability that it has?
Click to expand...

No - if I'm sanding on the lathe, then I run my big DC system.
Otherwise, I've built a big cart, with a rotisserie motor that slowly spins a shaft and the chuck on the end.
I roll that out in the driveway and do my big sanding there. Ideally on a windy day. :)
 
I scored an old style Milwaukee drill sander and it just arrived. Boy what a difference between that and the WW sander! Its heavier but has more torque, the variable speed runs much smoother and is easier to hold at a low speed which make the sanding much better. On top of that its quieter. The WW drill has a high pitched scream that will hurt the ears after a while. I’m happy.
Side note I had noticed the WW unit acting a bit odd, thats why I went looking for the Milwaukee, soon as I put the order in for the Milwaukee the WW quit. Spiteful little thing!
 
Gary Beasley said:
I scored an old style Milwaukee drill sander and it just arrived. Boy what a difference between that and the WW sander! Its heavier but has more torque, the variable speed runs much smoother and is easier to hold at a low speed which make the sanding much better. On top of that its quieter. The WW drill has a high pitched scream that will hurt the ears after a while. I’m happy.
Side note I had noticed the WW unit acting a bit odd, thats why I went looking for the Milwaukee, soon as I put the order in for the Milwaukee the WW quit. Spiteful little thing!
Click to expand...
I also have the Milwaukee, and the WW. My favorite is the Makita angle drill, which puts all others to shame.
 
My most recent acquisition for sanding is the Makita angle drill. Have only used it once so far, as my turning time has been zero lately....health reasons. Surgery next week. I also have the Metabo, two Harbor Freight right angle drills, and if I were to need them several other corded professional grade drills under my benches in storage, some being hammer drills, and some just quality variable speed drills. I have Milwaukee cordess M18-Fuel units that are project drills, not used for sanding.

For flatwork, I have a couple of 5” random orbit sanders, a 1/4 sheet oscillating sander, a 1/2 sheet oscillating sander, a 3x21 belt sander, and a Performax drum sander. Generally, none of these are used for bowls!
 
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