Will it work?

[Reed Gray]

Last night as I was drifting off to sleep, I had an inspiration, always looking for an easier way to do things.... I keep thinking about hollow forms with the long spiral coves carved into them, and wondered if it would be possible to take a reciprocating saw (like Milwaukee Sawzall) and put a sanding attachment on it. Maybe even on a smaller jig saw. They are variable speed...... Seems like I have seen some of the detail sanders that would do this, but very small..... Just thinking you know.....

robo hippy

[Jim Burr]

Those attachments exist in lots of places Reed. My only worry would be tool control.

[ray hampton]

you can buy a sanding or filing machine that will handle this job

[Scott Hackler]

Reed, are you thinking about an esier way to carve the spirals or to sand the spirals....or both?

For sanding stuff like that, I use a Fein Multimaster with the detail sanding heads. Works very well with little hand sanding required, until the you get to 360 to 400. Then I have to do it by hand.

[Robert McGowen]

The spirals are actually straight lines, so in theory it should work. Problems I see would be having to use both hands to hold the saw, putting the saw down to adjust the turning which would take a lot of time, and also you would need to be able to roatate the sanding drum to get to fresh sandpaper. Theory 1, Pratical 0. YMMV :)

[Tim Rinehart]

Why not something like a reciprocating carving tool, with a piece of sandpaper either affixed with double stick strip, or Velcro?

[Harry Robinette]

I use my air belt sander and air file from HF. The belt sander works great to start with then the half round file to blend it down the rest of the way. I then do my hand sanding and finishing. You have to watch the belt sander cause it can get away from you sometimes. I lock the piece in the lathe first. If you don't have an index system on your lathe just use a couple clamps to hold the spindle.

[Reed Gray]

Hmmm, more thinking here, maybe again before sleep time. I am thinking of some thing to use after the coves are carved. The Fein detail sander, rotated back and forth on a pivot point, so not quite there. I have a reciprocating carver, and like some of the inline mini detail sanders, they have a very short stroke. The problem I have had with rotary files and sanders is that they want to climb one side. I had thought about mini belt sanders, but they are flat and won't match a cove very well. The abrasives on a dowel came to mind, but thought there must be a tool that could do a push pull stroke an inch or two long. Maybe a bench mounted reciprocating saw, with a variety of dowels, that you could rotate for full usage of the abrasives, and hold the hollow form in your hand. The Sawzall can go really slow........... Just thinking........

robo hippy

[Reed Gray]

Hmmmm, maybe half round rings to go on angle drills..... That would be a difficult abrasive thing to make though, probably too expensive.

robo hippy

[neil mackay]

Reed I 'm coming to this a bit late.

But as stated the spirals are just straight lines and I reckon you could do it with any number of wood cutting devices. Sanding might not given the detail you require



But if your gonna go that way why not do it with cnc attachment?

http://torchmate.com/how_to_choose/?gclid=CKq0uPaI4bMCFUNMpgodkg8A6A
http://www.multicam.com.au/m-i_series.html
http://www.artcam.com/ software


But some if not most of the attraction that I do is the fact they are hand cut.

[Jeff Nicol]

Reed, I think you could make a "BOW" like a bow saw that would hold stips of cloth backed sand paper for durability. Then depending on how tight you clamp the paper in the bow and how wide the strips are, the paper will flex and roll to follow the flutes. I think it could be made to attach to a recipricating saw or something, but doing it by hand should work just fine.


Hope you figure it out and have a Happy Thanksgiving,

Jeff

[Reed Gray]

From Richard Hasenak in a PM today, how about an electric carving knife? Sounds perfect.

robo hippy

[Harry Robinette]

Reed
The air file I use is a reciprocating file not a rotary so it works like a sawz-all.

[Harry Robinette]

Reed
They air file I use is a reciprocating type not a rotary.It works just like a electric knife.

[Marvin Hasenak]

Grind the sharp blade edge off of the electric knife. Then work up a profile out of some thin wood to epoxy to the blades, one for each side, something that you can use the self stick sandpaper on. It will be a pain to change grits, but Black and Decker knife of Amazon is $10, so buy several, one for each grit. I would switch to hand sanding after I got the basic shape carved out.