Sanders for Hicks

[Stephen Tashiro]

I'd like to find a power tool that would be useful for quickly rounding off sharp edges and corners in pine lumber. And I mean a tool that would do this by a direct attack, not by starting flush with a flat surface and gradually working your way around the corner or edge. The way that I explain to myself why I can't find such a sander is this:

In fine furniture, it is considered gauche to visibly round off corners and edges with a sander and only a hick would do such a thing. Also, much sanding is done to flat surfaces so it is natural that sanders are designed to work on such surfaces. Perhaps the softer pads work better on such surfaces? That must be why most sanders in hardware stores have soft pads.

However, I'm not making fine furniture and I don't like bumping my knee, hand or head against sharp corners and edges. So I want to round them off. But this quickly eats through the sand paper and into the pad of typical palm sanders. It tears the belts on belt sanders, which are also more cumbersome to use. A board with sandpaper glued on it is an excellent tool for the job but it isn't a power tool. Maybe I need some kind of vibrating contraption that would fit over a board and turn it into a palm sander with a hard, disposable base.

[Michael Donahue]

Router and a roundover bit?

[Lee Schierer]

Router and a roundover bit?

My thoughts exactly. I would only add a selection of roundover bits in various sizes.

[Burt Alcantara]

Lee Valley makes a tool specifically for this purpose. However, it is a bit tricky to use. I just round off with my ROS. No fine furniture maker me. 100% hack.

Burt

[John Sanford]

Perhaps we've found the guy who is the target market for a profile sander. That's what you're looking for, Porter-Cable has made one, maybe still does, and I think that even Black & Decker made one.

[Stephen Tashiro]

A router and roundover bit are a good solution for a person who plans the details of a project carefully and lays out the sequence of operations that must be performed in a logical fashion. If I were this kind of person then....well, perhaps my whole life would be different. But as things are, one a work table or cart for a table saw is thrown together out of 2x4's, it would be hard to get a router on many of the places. I do use random orbital sanders. My favorite is a Bosch palm sander since I like the sandpaper holding mechanism on it. It has a doofus filter attachment that often falls off and I wonder how many people bother changing the filter that goes inside of it. And, like I said in my earlier post, sanding on corners wears a hold in the sandpaper and digs into the sander pad.

[jason lambert]

Profile sander porter cable or festool. But a little bosh or ryobe hand held router with a round over bit will last much longer than sandpaper. Also depends on how much of a round over yoyu want. If it is more than a 1/4 inch it can be hard to get consistant with a hand sander. I alwas round my edges a bit, if for nothing else it holds up better and the finish needs a little of a round over to stick to.

[Dennis Lopeman]

now - if I'm understanding this right - you don't want to bump your head, knees, etc... on these corners?

Well, why not use the Router with a simples round over bit?? You say that it would be hard to get the router in a lot of places... well, would the same be true of your head and knees - they're about the same size... (not being a smart-a$$ here)... It would just be SO much faster... I know I wouldn't want to kill a lot of time on something like that...

Or you could get a draw knife or a spoke shave knife... woodcraft has them... everyone always forget the good ol' fashion ways!!! :)

[Joe Jensen]

Perhaps we've found the guy who is the target market for a profile sander. That's what you're looking for, Porter-Cable has made one, maybe still does, and I think that even Black & Decker made one.

I had the porter cable version. What a piece of junk, maybe the worst tool I've ever owned. Very small piece of sandpaper that would load up to a useless level almost intantly...joe

[Craig Summers]

I'd like to find a power tool that would be useful for quickly rounding off sharp edges and corners in pine lumber. And I mean a tool that would do this by a direct attack, not by starting flush with a flat surface and gradually working your way around the corner or edge. The way that I explain to myself why I can't find such a sander is this:

In fine furniture, it is considered gauche to visibly round off corners and edges with a sander and only a hick would do such a thing. Also, much sanding is done to flat surfaces so it is natural that sanders are designed to work on such surfaces. Perhaps the softer pads work better on such surfaces? That must be why most sanders in hardware stores have soft pads.

However, I'm not making fine furniture and I don't like bumping my knee, hand or head against sharp corners and edges. So I want to round them off. But this quickly eats through the sand paper and into the pad of typical palm sanders. It tears the belts on belt sanders, which are also more cumbersome to use. A board with sandpaper glued on it is an excellent tool for the job but it isn't a power tool. Maybe I need some kind of vibrating contraption that would fit over a board and turn it into a palm sander with a hard, disposable base.

Base on your description, for a rapid corner removal, put 36 Grit paper on a 7" or 9" grinder. That will remove any sharp corners, and you can watch the wood chips leaving the spinning head in a 'shower' formation. :eek: Enjoy the cleanup all over your shop. I remember helping my dad build a fleshing board from a 2x8 that way back in the trapping days.

Then for a "polished hick" look, up the paper to 80 grit for a finish.:)

You could do it "slower" with a 4" grinder

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Well this hick would use a router and roundover bit.
:cool:

[Randy Cohen]

i think what you really need is a portable jig/scroll saw to radius out the corners.

[Perry Holbrook]

Unless you need a large roundover, I'm not a fan of using the router for this. For one thing you still need to sand after the router and for another you'll probably get some chip out on end grain which again needs sanding.

I get the most uniform edge breaking with either a large flap sander or Mac mop mounted on a horizontal spindle. I use a half sheet finish sander mounted upside down as a stationary orbital sander to quickly round over pieces to small for the flap sander.

Perry

[richard poitras]

A belt sander works very fast!:eek:

[Ron Jones near Indy]

Having done this operation both ways, this hick prefers the router and round over bit.:D

[Bill Huber]

I will go for the router and a round over.

Its fast and makes a very even edge and there is no sanding needed.

Woodcraft has a close out set right now for $36.

Includes: 1/8", 3/16", 1/4", 5/16", 3/8" and 1/2" radius bits

http://www.woodcraft.com/family.aspx?familyid=5044

[John Schreiber]

In fine furniture that's called breaking the edge. Just rounding it off enough that it's not actually sharp and it won't be damaged when hit. Hand held sandpaper does it for me. Another approach to avoid those sharp edges while still giving a clean look is to chamfer the edge either with a hand plane and a good eye or with a hand plane and a jig or with a router.