Sanding Sponges

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OLD FORUM POSTS

Posted by Mike Jackson on December 30, 2002

Maybe I have been out of the loop too long, but I just discovered the new Sanding Sponges. Darla bought a couple of them for her crafting projects and we have used them off and on while sanding the little burrs after the first coat of block-out. I sprayed some sanding sealer on some oak veneer doors the other day and went down to the Coast to Coast store today looking for some very fine sandpaper. I ended up buying several of the sanding sponges instead. If you haven't seen them, they are about 3" x 4.5" x 1" blocks of soft foam with a layer of firm, but flexible, sanding medium on the surface. It is not sandpaper. In fact, one of the packages indicated you can even rinse it out in water without damaging the sanding surface. These things worked great knocking down the little raised burrs on the oak, and I can't even tell I used the pad.

Maybe everyone already uses them, but if not, give 'em a try.

Mike Jackson

Rick Sacks

Have any of you used the sanding drums that attach to the arbor of a motor and have an air valve so they get inflated to the desired stiffness. These adapt to the contour of the material pressed against it.

Mike Jackson

Hi Rick,
I bought one of the 12" wide, 3" diameter hand held sanders a long time ago. It looked like a rolling pin with an air hose in one end. I made a jig to hold it on a table top so I could "take the pieces to the sander", instead of trying to hold down small pieces. It worked fine...but it was sold with the shop seven years ago. I believe the brand I bought was called "sands-rite", but it has been a long time.

I bought one of the oscillating drum sanders for here at home. It has five or six diameter drums that interchange as necessary. When I first started looking at them, they were very expensive, but a couple of the big companies started making them and the price became very affordable. My old one was just a washing machine motor mounted in a box. When sanding letters, it would wear down just one area of the sanding drum.

I really like my little 4" Porter Cable plywood/trim circular saw. I had one at the old shop and recently bought one for home.

Mike

Jerry Martin

I have found the purchase of a inexpensive air rotor tool attached to my aircompressor make the handling of objects like sanding letters, carving child's play. There is a wide assortment of tools that you can do almost anything with. The RPMs are so high I had to put a gob of clay under the lever to slow it down. It was so fast the sandpaper drum was flying off the cylinder. It doesn't care what it sands or cuts either. Watch it!