How do you sand your bowls and pens?

[Ed Lang]

Do you use a electric drill or non electric type of bowl sander?

Maybe just sandpaper and your fingers?

Let me know please.

Pictures or links if possible.

Thanks a great deal.

[Chris Lee]

Ed,

For pens and such I just use plain old sandpaper, unless they are acrylic, then I use the little colored sanding pads from BG Artforms. You can pick those up just about anywhere, Woodcraft, Craft Supplies, PSI or from BG Artforms themselves.

For bowls I use a round sanding pad chucked up in an air powered drill. Makes sanding go real fast. I think I picked up the Sanding pad and like 50 sanding discs for about $16. Already had the drill.
Chris

[Ed Lang]

Thanks Chris,


Where did you get the round sanding pads?

the "kit" I have found at Woodcraft is $50.

[Jeff Sudmeier]

I use sandpaper for pens. I go all the way up to 1200 grit on some of the closer grained woods.

When I make my duck calls and want to remove a lot of wood fast, I use old belt sander belts. They work great for fast removal of material!

[Chris Lee]

Ed,

Here is the one I have. I really like it so far. And the price is right!

http://www.woodturnerscatalog.com/cgi-bin/shopper?preadd=action&key=993-5002

Chris

[Tom Mullane]

I have a Souix variable speed angle drill and use either a 2" or 3" sanding pad depending on the size of the bowl... that is when I can get a bowl that does not turn into a funnel.. LOL...
I have sanding disks ranging from 60-400 grit.. plus also an assortment of hand sanding paper that I use between power sanding so that I can sand with the grain...
One of the biggies to remember is to blow off or wipe off the sanding dust and grit between each sanding stage.... this really makes a big difference in the finish...

[keith zimmerman]

Most of the time, I just use sheet sandpaper with the rubber from an old mousepad as a backer. It works really well for me. When I'm sanding a bowl, I will sometimes use a 2" disk chucked in a VSR drill with the drill in reverse.

keith

[Tom Morton]

Google for Rus Fairchild his write up on sanding and finishing of turned pieces covers every aspect.

[Glenn Hodges]

Ed, if you want to make your own here is a useful link.

http://www.aroundthewoods.com/

I use 3 in., 2 in. velcro disk, and 5 in. sticky disk. I buy the velcro backed sanding paper from Industrial Abrasives, and this sanding paper last and last by staying sharper than any I have ever bought. It comes in 36 in. square velcro backed sheets which I stamp out to the size I need. You can sharpen an old pipe an go to it. I bought my velcro disk so long ago I can't remember where, but I buy the replacement velcro disk that stick on top of them from Packard. I buy my rolls of 5 inch disk from Grizzly, and the 5 inch disk from Wal Mart. I have a 5 in. disk for each grit I use. These disk attach to a drill which I run as fast as possible while the lathe is running very slow, about 120. I know that is not possible for some of you, but that is the speed I like to sand on my lathe. Check out the link above, he has a lot of info I think will be useful to you. Hope this has be helpful. If you have any more questions let us know.

[Kent Cori]

I use 220, 400 and then 600 grit for my pens. I then switch to Micromesh and take it up to 12000 grit. This makes the smoothest finish you can imagine. If it is an acrylic pen, I simply add water.