Color coded sand paper...

[Joshua Dinerstein]

Ok so I was working out last night walking on the treadmill and watching Raffan's New Turning Wood dvd. That guys skills are just plain amazing. But anyway I was watching the DVD's intro and he is talking about the sand paper/abrasives that he likes to use.

He talked about some new stuff that is just out on the market, at the time of filming, that is color coded. It is a cloth backed abrasive and that part is normal. But the back is all 1 pretty much solid color. He comment is that you can then pick up a small piece and know what it is without having to look at it and pray that the grit is printed on the back of that piece.

As this happens to me if not all the time at least more often than I would like to admit. So when I saw this I had a "Duh!" moment with a strong need for an "I could have had a V8!" head slap. So I started searching the web. I finally found the company that makes the ones he uses. Sure enough it is an Australian company. They will sell and ship to the US but it was... prohibitively expensive. So I started thinking about just getting some color markers and marking up the pieces of normal sand paper that I have already purchased. But it isn't the worlds best stuff so getting something better kind of appeals.

So before I get out the markers and go to town I thought I would ask here on the creek if anyone knows of a more local supplier, read a US supplier, of the same type of thing.

Baring that anyone have a different trick they would like to share for how they keep things straight once that work bench doesn't look quite so... pristine?

Thanks,
Joshua

[Bob Haverstock]

Joshua,

I've been watching the same video. Is this guy good or what? I now have a concept of what a jam chuck is. Yep, I've been using them as needed. I'm even trying the BLO and bees wax, it is quick and cheap.

Anyway, to the sanding paper, I haven't found any in the cornfields. I think the next batch of paper that I buy, I'm going to hit the back sides with rattle cans of cheap paint. Can you think of any problem that this might create?

Bob

[Mike Peace]

I use one of those turners boxes with rolls of 1" wide strips of different grits. I usually write a 1, 2, 3 or 4 on the back depending on whether it is 150 240, 320 or 400. The other paper I use is usually well marked on the back by the Manufacturer.

[Allen Neighbors]

I have a sandpaper tree. It's a piece of Allthread about 14-16" long, mounted on my rolling tool stand. Along the allthread are 8 pairs of fingers, separated by 1 1/4" pieces of tubing. Each pair of fingers holds a different grit of paper. On the top of the allthread is a peanut can to hold my 0000 steel wool. Makes it easy to keep it all separated, and not guessing which grit is which.
I'll take a pic, if I can remember it, tomorrow, if you want.

[Glenn Barber]

Allen- I, for one, would like to see your "tree". Anything that is functional, and cost effective, is an A+ in my book.

Thanks in advance,
Glenn

[Brian Effinger]

I think that the Norton 3x sandpaper is color coded. It's not cloth backed though.

[Jamie Buxton]

I think that the Norton 3x sandpaper is color coded. It's not cloth backed though.

Yep, it is color coded, and no, it isn't cloth backed. However, it does have a remarkably long life. I don't know what they're doing -- it is still aluminum oxide and paper -- but it sure does cut much longer than other apparently-similar sandpapers I've tried.

[charlie knighton]

turningwood.com/

you might try that site, he does not have color coded backing, but the grit size is on the back of every disc, when you get 320 or 400 it is useful, but 120 to 240??

[Joshua Dinerstein]

Well rats. I just lost my last post. I am really starting to hate the newest firefox version it is remarkably unstable. Anyway to recap what I wrote.

Here is the link I found for the paper that Raffan was using:
http://www.boxmakersbrassware.com.au/cgi-bin/engine.pl?Page=page.html&Rec=19

I found it by pausing the video and zooming in on the DVD player and it was written on the back of the paper.


Anyway, I would love to see that Tree that Allen mentioned. So please send out the snaps of it.


I purchased most of my sand paper almost 2 years ago at Walmart. Hey I had just gotten the lathe and had had no idea before that I would need any. They were close, they were open, and it was what they had. I remember thinking it was a decent brand name though I don't recall now what it was. Anyway I bought a package of 6 or so sheets in each grit. In some the grit was stamped on the back horizontally and in others it was printed at an angle.

What I tend to do is to fold a crease across the page about an inch thick. Fold it one way then the other and do this a few times and it will tear right down that creased line with ease. Leaving you with a 1" x 8" strip. I then fold it into 3rds so that I get a managable piece that I can use.

The problem as I mentioned is that regardless of what the orientation of the printing on the back of the sheet is I more often than not get a piece that might have a brand name or the word grit or nothing rather than a statement of what it was.

Which is what made me think a color code really could be good. Wether it was 1/2" square or a 2x2 piece it would still tell you the grit.

Thanks for the ideas and thoughts. Any others?

Joshua

[Joshua Dinerstein]

Can you think of any problem that this might create?

Bob

Just 1. It might make it brittle. I have run into paint on paper before, projects for the wife, where when the paint dried and cured it became extremely brittle. I would worry that the paint would just flake off or make the paper so rigid that it wouldn't mold to the contours of the wood the way you would want. This is why I was thinking of markers. Actually what I have are Sanford Accent Highlighters. The ink would saturate the paper without becoming brittle. Should mark it easily. But I am not convinced it is a truly good solution. I haven't actually tried it yet as I was thinking about it on my way to work today. My daughter was having a rough night this evening, being almost 1 month old is apparently hard work :), and I haven't had a chance to play until just now. I will try it out and post my results.

Thanks,
Joshua

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Josh, yes color coded would be nice, but if you have different brand names I would suspect the colors would all be mixed up, still a good idea if they have enough different colors, but could repeat at finer grits I suppose.
I usually check to see if there's the grit # is on the back, if not I just write it on the back, works for me ;-))

[Dick Sowa]

Like a lot of others, I tend to rip hunks off of larger sheets to fold and use for my on-lathe sanding. I also have a mix of different brands, some of which are the same color and appearance, but are different grits. Even if the grit is printed on the back, when I use smaller pieces, it's unlikely to be on the smaller pieces.

I know it's a non-solution to your problem (and mine), but I have gotten better at feeling the surface of the paper, and tell how coarse or fine the grit is. The fine grits still are hard to tell apart though. I think the ultimate solution would be to have bins of some sort near the lathe, where each grit has it's own bin. That's one of my to-do projects.

[Kyle Iwamoto]

Wow, no one has an alternate (cheap) line on the sandpaper?
I think this is an awesome idea. I also use the 4 pack roll, and get tired sifting through the dust and trying to figure out what grit is this one. What grit did I last use?
I did a little searcing, and stumbled across a Testors 5 pack of colored sandpaper. Lo and behold, it's available from Amazon. $2.50. 150 to 400 grit. Search for testors mm sandpaper. Don't know if the paper is any good, it does say it's waterproof, so it's at least of marginal quality. And one have a guess or used Testors paper before? Size is a question, I'm sure it's not a full sheet. 50 cents a pop is pricey.

[Burt Alcantara]

I buy large bags of paper from Vinces. They are clearly marked on the outside. When ready to sand I just line the bags up and take a disc out when needed. Eventually, I'll fill up my Craft Supplies utility boxes with labels just to make it a bit easier.

Take a look at the LarMar Crafts web site. There are a few ideas about sorted storage there.

Burt

[Allen Neighbors]

Here is the sandpaper tree I mentioned in my previous post in this thread.
I was not the originator of this item. It came from one of my friends on the Australian Woodturner's Forum, and I just modified it slightly.
Lowest fingerset is 80 grit. First one below the peanut can is 400/600.:)

The next pic is the whole cart. I can roll it between lathes, and keep the current tools in the holders.

[Mark P. Brown]

I use the roll paper for the coarse grits. I have a single row snack clip I got at a yard sale that I use for the finer grits. I fold and tear about 1" widths and half sheet lenths. I clip them left to right as they get finer all the way up to 2000 grit. The rack is screwed to the wall behind the lathe. Ask any of the snack vendors and you can probably get one for a few bucks.
Mark

[Scott Conners]

I just use a pencil on the back of the paper as I tear it up. I use norton 3x, but the 220-320-400 are easy to confuse, especially after some use.