for the hand sander

In message , tom koehler writes

Tom, I had always understood that if the paper in your fingers is too hot, you were overdoing it and needed to back off.. Do you still find the heat issue, or does your "ball" compress so that you can not press too hard ?

Sanding should be done at slow rpms, in the 500 or less range, it just works better. Add to that, higher speeds and more pressure will generate more heat, and cause the wood to crack. As far as sanding pads, an old flip flop works great, or different densities of foam work great to back the abrasives. I guess news paper will work, but doesn't give a very uniform backing. robo hippy

ally hot hands and fingers, and get a bit more uniform pressure on

On Sun, 15 Mar 2009 16:18:36 -0500, John wrote (in message ):

I check the wood for temperature issues, and so far have not been alarmed. Y'know, the sandpaper only has to get up to about 140-150 degrees and it is too hot to hang onto for any great length of time. Yes, there is enough compression in the wad of paper, I think, to keep me from putting too much pressure on the work. In any case, I use just enough pressure to keep the sawdust flowing nicely. tom koehler

On Sun, 15 Mar 2009 20:33:12 -0500, robo hippy wrote (in message ):

You are right, of course, about the speed, and I do use slow speed when sanding my work. I mentioned the crumpled wad of newspaper as a handy expedient - I don't have any bits of foam or old flip-flops on hand at the moment, but I do have lots of newspaper. You are also right that a wad of crumpled newspaper likely won't give the uniform pressure that a foam pad will - but it is more uniform pressure than my fingers could provide, and the paper is always available and very cheap. tom koehler

That is what this group is about: sharing ideas and brainstorming. I couldn't use a two-handed method myself, because with my left hand I hold the dust collector hose to catch most of that dust I'm making.

If your fingers get hot - the wood is getting hot too. That can cause small surface checking. And if you press hard you start loading up the paper, which then stops cutting - and starts burnishing the wood - compressing the grain - which WILL spring back as the wood absorbs moisture - which it WILL do.

Hand sanding also leaves parallel scratches and even fine parallel scratches can still be seen.

A turning club member who puts amazing finishes on his pieces offered this sage advice - "Sand as if the paper was free". By that he meant - use a new piece of sand paper BEFORE it begins to load up.

If you also do flat work, you'll note that finish sanding is typically done with a random orbital sander (ROS). Auto detailers use them as well on car finishes. There are rotating head hand sanders that do the same thing - with velcro for quick change.

Charlie just said it better, but I'll add my 2cents for the 'annoyance factor'. :)

I understand that sanding at higher rpm with greater pressure makes for more heat and that heat causes cracks. Forgetting that (which of course isn't realistic) I _think I find that fast sanding with less pressure produces a 'smoother' surface than slow, but may produce more circular 'scratch lines'.

I also 'think' I find that cutting with gouge or skew at high rpm produces a smoother surface than slow. Maybe all I'm doing is laying the grain to a greater degree at high speed than low. Wax or oil stiffens the fibers and dampening with water raises the grain. Both help prevent burnishing the fibers instead of cutting them and like lather for shaving my beard makes for a smoother cut, but next day the whiskers and wood fibers will rise again. :)

As I understand it, proper sanding is a cutting procedure as with skew or gouge. The consequences of cheap abrasives with dull or poorly uniform and distributed grits are akin to dull tools and excess sanding pressure is somewhat like excess pressure on the bevel of a skew or gouge. Sanding materials are called abrasives, but do we want to abraid or rub or polish our wood with sand paper or should we leave that for metal workers or buffing?

I think that if sandpaper is another tool for cutting wood, then tool selection, edges, bevels, timbers, degree of drying, technque, etc. that apply to cutting tools also apply to sandpaper. Speed and pressure are important in sanding wood turnings, but there are many other things to consider, reverse spin, powered abrasives, etc. Sort of like the things we discuss re grinding and sharpening steel.

I'm often wrong, maybe we woodturners should sometimes abraid, polish, rub, and burnish the spinning wood with abrasives that aren't as sharp as they could be. I don't know, but I admit to sometimes using worn out sandpaper. :)

Turn to Safety, Arch Fortiter