So I’ve recently been in charge of making doors in a cabinet shop and I’ve been trying to make everything more efficient and less time consuming. So far sanding is the largest time sink. For sanding machines and tools there is:
- Timesavers Series 3300 widebelt sander. 52” bed, 4 heads at P120, P150, P180, P220(the 4th head is a combination platen and drum)
- Timesavers Series 4300 orbital sander, 36” bed, 2 heads(2 platens each) all four platens have 80 micron sanding film which is about P180 I believe ( I’m not sure if they are all supposed to be the same, but that is how it is when I started working here), following the platens is a brush head going 1300 RPM.
- Sioux DA Orbital sander with Klingspor pads and P150 sanding disc
- Porter Cable Heavy Duty sander model 505 with P150 sanding paper
Some notes about the machines.
- The widebelt TimeSaver is only 3-4 years old and has only had one accident: an 1 1/2” thick piece of stock was being sanded and another person pressed the automatic thickness setting to .780” while the piece was under the 4th head. The platen(graphite and felt I believe were replaced) was damaged and the bed had to be recalibrated. Both have been fixed professionally, but now anything under 2 Ft tends to coast without a longer piece directly behind it when before you could send 12” long piece without it coasting. I’m guessing the hold down rollers need adjusting.
- The orbital Timesaver 2nd head fuse overheats but the head still remains on until the machine is turned off . Then the fuse needs to be reset with a press of a button to be able to turn on again.
The current sanding process is as follows:
- Doors are unclamped from clamping machine and glue scraped
- Sent through the widebelt taking off 1/32” each side .780” to .750”. 2 passes only, unless sanding a harder wood such as hard maple or hickory.
- Profiles are shaped on the door and edge sanded. The profiles are sanded if need be.
- Fully hand sanded front and back with Sioux orbital sanders to remove any cross scratch.
- Sent though the orbital Timesaver. The method I’ve been taught to do is lightly use a pencil on the face and send it through and raise the bed until it takes off the graphite from the pencil. The wood comes out really smooth.
- Doors are hinged and mounted on cabinets then finish sanded with the Porter Cable sander.
I’m wondering if it is possible to minimize or remove any need for hand sanding with the Sioux orbital sanders. My boss mentioned once that the orbital is supposed to remove the cross scratch without the need to hand sand. I have tried not hand sanding before and sending it through orbital. However for the orbital to even start taking off some of scratch I have to raise the bed to .710” when the thickness of the wood is about .750”. Doing it this way lightly vibrates the bed and takes at least 3 passes at this setting on both sides. This is obviously not much faster than hand sanding. Is the orbital not setup correctly or is the widebelt leaving too deep of a scratch? Would having P150 sanding film be better for the orbital?
Any help is appreciated!