Looking for sander time in NH

[Matt Newton]

I'm redoing my kitchen and am currently making about 20 frame and panel doors. The idea of hand sanding them all is making me quezzy. I was wondering if there was anyone out there who would know of a woodworker or cabinet shop willing to rent time on a wide belt sander. I know there is a club at Brentwood Machine, but the membership fee is a little steep for me. Any help would be much appreciated.

[frank shic]

dan, your goal of building all those doors yourself is admirable. renting shop time on a WIDE BELT sander is just sheer brilliance. sanding is probably the most tedious aspect of woodworking. don't forget to check with the local schools/colleges to see if they have it available. good luck with your search!

[Jim Becker]

...but do understand that the wide-belt is only going to level the doors. You're still in for a lot of work with the ROS afterward to remove the sanding marks from the wide-belt. I've also found that sanding the components thoroughly prior to assembly, especially the inside edges of the rails and stiles as well as the panels, themselves, cuts out a lot of the tedious work. You can work through the grits on just the frames after assembly pretty fast and hand-sand the top and bottom edges with the door in a bench vice to clean up the end-grain exposure. If you do it all systematically, it's not as bad a job as you first might think.