Sanding Contours or irregular surfaces

[Dennis Peacock]

Greetings,
I've spent considerable time thinking through my whole process of making things. I'm spending about 70% of my time sanding to a nice hand-pleasing feel. I'm needing to find faster ways of sanding rounded edges and similar profiles without modifying the profile. I'm not talking about a few surfaces....I'm talking about 100's of similar surfaces in a fashion to where I reduce my time spent sanding to well below 40% of my time.

I'm think sanding mops or fluffy mops or something like that....but I have ZERO Experience with them and I tried to find one in Oklahoma City while I was there this past weekend and found ZERO. Not even at industrial supply stores in the city. They could order me one but they didn't have any in stock. I tried Woodcraft in OKC but they don't carry them any longer.

Advice, tips, and pointers are welcomed.

[Bradley Gray]

I went through this 25 years ago facing a job making 50 rooms of live edge furniture for a state lodge. What I did - I have 2 double-sided horizontal shaft machines both set up basically the same but with different grits.

On one side there is an "air bag sander" - a pneumatic drum that can be run at different pressures. On the other side is a 4" x 10" mac mop - flap sander.

One machine is 100 grit the other 180. Abrasives from Klingspor. Serious dust collection required.

If you get to southern Ohio you are welcome to give it a try.

[Jim Tobias]

Agree with Bradley....Klingspor sanding mops and sanding stars are one of the best methods. I also find a Foredom with small inflatable (pneumatic drums) are also very useful in sanding small pieces and profiles. The options are endless.

Jim