Sanding

[Scott1967]

Hi all I'm looking for a few ideas on sanding small and detailed projects, any ideas would very much be appreciated.


I moved your thread to a more appropriate forum to maximize traffic and get you more responses to your request/question.

[Rolf]

I have the larger sand flee. It is bit pricey but I use it on all of my fretwork. It just has to be setup correctly.
Before that I carefully used a variable speed random orbital sander

[Bill Wilson]

Hi Scott,

A little more information might be helpful, in order to answer you question more specifically. Just what kind of sanding are you referring to? Are you talking about sanding flat surfaces, contouring and shaping or cleaning up inside cuts on fretwork. Each of these applications are best served with different types of sanders and different techniques.

[Scott1967]

It is mostly fret work and compound cut Christmas ordiments which are very thin and delicate.

[scroller777]

along with making the cuts with my scrollsaw, I feel sanding is equally as fun. I usually grab the grit sandpaper Im going to use and take my sweet time. Usually I wrap sanpaper around and hard surface, like a pencil. file, block of wood and just sit there and make my pieces shine. I sometimes use my dremel to get the 90 angles round and then hand sand to perfection. Take your time and enjoy making your piece beautiful.

[Bill Wilson]

I always sand my stock to 180 grit or so with a random orbit sander, before I start cutting. That way, the only sanding I do after cutting is touch up work. That kind of sanding is usually done by hand with emery boards, needle files, etc. I recently started using an abrasive finishing buff in my Dremel to clean up fuzzies on the back of fretwork and maybe soften edges a little. That would probably work nicely for compound cuttings as well. A careful, light touch and low speed and you shouldn't damage even fragile items.

[marshall]

Scott : I use my old scrollsaw that I've devoted only for detail sanding , cut a piece of sand paper 5" long by 1/2" wide - fold in half insert into the jaws and turn the tension all the way down as well as the speed . Just thread it threw your fretwork and it'll do you justice . You can use any scrollsaw as long as it has varaible speed where you can slow it down at the slowest speed . Now this has been a great sander for me ............MB

[Scott1967]

Thanks Marshall, great idea i am going to give it a try.