$5 well spent to ease a looooong sanding session

[Erik King]

I'm knee deep in end grain cutting boards, making my wife happy by producing them for Christmas presents.

I recently started working on the final sanding of the first 15 or so completed boards and quickly got frustrated with how hard it was to hold them still on my sanding table.

I've tried the special mats, shelf liner, carpet pad, carpet scraps, cookies and a bunch if other stuff and none of them have worked well for long - especially once they get dusty.

But while at Walmart the other day I walked through the bath aisle and spotted a cheapo $5 tub mat. Felt the surface and it was really sticky rubber. Brought it home, tried it out, and it works better than anything else I have tried!

I have it taped into my sanding table. Has a nice soft surface due to suction cups underneath. Really sticky top surface. Even when it is coated with sawdust it still holds pretty well, and a quick wipe with a wet rag restores it to 100% sticky as well.

Well worth the $5 in my book!

[Matt Day]

Nice find!

I'm happy to have a new bench with bench dogs that I can use to clamp things like cutting boards that are hard to keep still while sanding.

[Bill Huber]

Great tip and I am sure it works well...

But I think it is time to get a new tool for the shop. I have made over 60 end grain boards by now and have used different way to get them flat and smooth.

The BEST I have found and I mean the best is a drum sander, it works great and the boards come out really nice. I use 100 grit in the sander and then use a little PC belt sander to get the lines out and finish it up with the ROS and 220 grit.

[Jason White]

Furniture blankets work great for sanding, too. You wouldn't think so because there's no rubber in them, but they really do work great at keeping things still. You can also get them for super cheap at Harbor Freight.


I'm knee deep in end grain cutting boards, making my wife happy by producing them for Christmas presents.

I recently started working on the final sanding of the first 15 or so completed boards and quickly got frustrated with how hard it was to hold them still on my sanding table.

I've tried the special mats, shelf liner, carpet pad, carpet scraps, cookies and a bunch if other stuff and none of them have worked well for long - especially once they get dusty.

But while at Walmart the other day I walked through the bath aisle and spotted a cheapo $5 tub mat. Felt the surface and it was really sticky rubber. Brought it home, tried it out, and it works better than anything else I have tried!

I have it taped into my sanding table. Has a nice soft surface due to suction cups underneath. Really sticky top surface. Even when it is coated with sawdust it still holds pretty well, and a quick wipe with a wet rag restores it to 100% sticky as well.

Well worth the $5 in my book!

[Rob Holcomb]

I agree with Bill. I bought a drum sander a couple month's ago and I've never seen anything become so flat as they do after going through a drum sander. Should have been one of the first tools I bought, not the last! I would get close after a lot of sanding but never dead flat. Now when I put a cutting board down on my table saw you can feel the air underneath escape. Unbelievable and worth every penny I paid!

[Alan Lightstone]

The BEST I have found and I mean the best is a drum sander, it works great and the boards come out really nice. I use 100 grit in the sander and then use a little PC belt sander to get the lines out and finish it up with the ROS and 220 grit.+1 I use my drum sander a ton. I usually switch to 150, then 220 grit on most things, then a quick going over with my ROS and it is flat and great.

[Erik King]

I also use my Supermax drum sander on the flat surfaces, but I still spend a good deal of time finishing the radius edges with orbital sanders and also going finer on the flat surfaces. Most of the time is spent cleaning up and perfecting edges - I like to have a very smooth, seamless round over.

[George Octon]

Congratulations! Sometimes good things happen when we actually use our heads. I know it's rare but it's worth sticking our necks out.

[Aleks Hunter]

+1 on drum sander love. It's not quite a must have but it is my favorite machine!

[Kieran Kammerer]

Which drum sanders do people recommend for small shops.

[Bill Huber]

Which drum sanders do people recommend for small sips?

I have the Jet 10-20 and it has worked for me very well, I just don't make things that are much over 20" so the 10-20 is fine for me.
I never really thought much about a drum sander until I got it and now I am just not sure how I could do without, I use it all the time.
Without question you do need some dust collection with one, I started doing some sanding the other day and did not turn the DC on and it just fogged my shop in 2 seconds.

[Brian Libby]

great tip. I have the Jet 16-32 . Love it -you can't do end grain cutting boards without it!!!!

[Michael W. Clark]

Good tip on the bath mat. I use some old blankets and that works well too. I also have some old bath towels that I use for drop cloths and they do OK. They can tend to slide on the bench when power sanding, but you can clamp them down. I'll have to try the bath mat when I need to replace the blankets.

As far as sanding, the last couple of end grain boards I made, I used my Festool RO 150 starting with 120, 180, 220. Before, I was using a belt sander starting with 80 grit. I am sure the Rotex is no where near as fast and precise as the drum sander, but it was at least twice as fast (if not more) than the belt sander. I sand the top to 320, and leave the sides at 220. FWIW, 320 with the Rotex in RO mode was much smoother than 320 with my Dewalt ROS. Not sure why since it is the same grit, maybe the paper or the action? Either way, it was a noticable difference.

[John Sanford]

FWIW, 320 with the Rotex in RO mode was much smoother than 320 with my Dewalt ROS. Not sure why since it is the same grit, maybe the paper or the action? Either way, it was a noticable difference. Are the papers graded using the same standard?

[Michael W. Clark]

Are the papers graded using the same standard?
Not sure. Festool paper vs Norton or similar.

[Erik Christensen]

I have a 22-44 jet drum sander that see little use - I thought I would use it more but that is not how it has turned out. My planer has a helical head and my new found appreciation of hand planes along with a festool ro150 means that I don't even think of using the drum sander any more.

[Erik King]

I have a Supermax 19-38 which I am very happy with. On all of my end grain boards I no longer plane them once they are glued up, instead I sand them level with 80 grit. Takes a bit longer, but no risk of issues due to the end grain catching, no blades to sharpen, and no snipe.

When they come off the drum sander they are dead level and smooth. So, the finish sanding I do goes quite quickly. What I have finally settled on is using bosch 1/4 sheet orbital palm sanders, and I have 4 of them, each with a different grit. I use 80 first (to randomize the scratch pattern from the drum sander which is quite linear), followed by 120/180/220.

By having the 4 sanders loaded with the four needed grits, I can work very quickly as there is no need to change the sandpaper. I just grab each sander off the shelf, move the Fein vac hose to it and get to work. I have bosch quick connect vac adapters on all 4 sanders so I just slip the vac hose on and off. And, all 4 sanders are plugged into a heavy duty power strip with the power strip plugged into the vac outlet - so any of the four sanders trigger the vacs auto on and off without ever plugging or unplugging them.

I originally used a 6" orbital bosch disk sander for the 80 grit, but discovered that it was really overkill, and it was easier to use the lighter palm sanders and that they gave just as good a result.

[David Nelson1]

Good suggestion. I and many of use most likely do have the same problem