Blank sanding

[GFHWoodWerks]

Hello fellow IAP members. When sanding your pens, after turning, do you ever use a rotary sanding device? Think bowl sander, either powered or friction driven. If you do when do you start and stop using it? Is it for all materials or just some? Dry, wet, both? If powered at approximately what speed, both lathe and drill motor?

 

[KenB259]

Hello fellow IAP members. When sanding your pens, after turning, do you ever use a rotary sanding device? Think bowl sander, either powered or friction driven. If you do when do you start and stop using it? Is it for all materials or just some? Dry, wet, both? If powered at approximately what speed, both lathe and drill motor?

Best habit to get into is no sanding at all. Very important on certain segmented blanks where sanding dust, from darker woods will contaminate lighter woods. If you need to sand you should never be at a point where you're removing very much wood. Also I believe you never use any grit below 400. Personally I would never use a rotary sanding device.

 

[Woodchipper]

There are those who opt for a skew which leaves an exceptionally smooth surface on wood. I agree with Ken B., too

 

[jttheclockman]

You should never need to use any sandpaper but if need be never use a rotary sander. Remember this is such a small object. You could take off too much material in a hurry. If you have to sand use the lathe for spinning and at a low speed.

 

[egnald]

I'm with Ken (KenB259), If I feel the need to sand, I might hit the blank with 600 and/or 800 grit, and on the very rare occasion, maybe 400, such as if I've had to fill a void or something with CA glue and need to level the spot without using a carbide scraper. - Dave

 

[derekdd]

No, I do not use anything as aggressive as a rotary sander.

I exclusively use carbide bit turning tools and my last couple of passes are with the square bit using it very lightly as a scraper. I find it removes most tooling marks. I rarely start lower than 320 grit unless I'm using sandpaper to fine tune the size of the blank to the bushing.

Good luck!

 

[GFHWoodWerks]

Thanks all for your input. I saw someone doing this somewhere and wondered. I have also seen Mark Dreyers 10 minute series where he states you want to be done with just a tool. I do think as I'm starting out, I'll be sanding for the foreseeable future. It's good to have goals though.

 

[KenB259]

If you're just talking about plain wood or resin blanks, no segmenting, then sanding is fine, won't hurt a thing. Only tip there, is to not do any sanding with your bushings still on. You'll contaminate your blank with metal dust.

 

[Hippie3180]

I've seen folks rotary sand, but honestly why would you? I think it's important to feel the material as you are sanding. I do both dry sanding and then more of a polishing/wet sanding. During the polishing/sanding I use Zona's and this allows me to feel the material and any anomalies within the material.

 

[leehljp]

There are those who opt for a skew which leaves an exceptionally smooth surface on wood. I agree with Ken B., too

What is often overlooked is that a scraper can do as good as or better on hard woods than a skew; but a skew wins hands down on softer woods. I got my start at turning smooth blanks without the need for sanding with a very sharp scraper. It was for this purpose that I learned how to sharpen razor sharp too. It sure makes smooth blanks without the need for sandpaper.

From a long departed but well experienced member - Russ Fairfield: "What is always left out of any comparison of tool finishes is the wood. All things being equal, shear scraping can leave a better surface finish than a skew chisel on the very hard dense and close grained species, but it can't come anywhere close on everything else.

If you really want to see the extreme differences, try using a both scraper and skew on Cocobolo, Blackwood, or Desert Ironwood. You will find that the scraper might be the better tool for these very hard species. At the opposite extreme, the scraper will be a disaster on a soft wood like Douglas Fir or Pine, while a sharp skew can leave a smooth clean cut and polished surface that doesn't need sanding."

Which requires the least sanding?

On a spindle type turning such as a pen blank, which would leave the blank the smoothest thus allowing the pre-finish sanding to start at a higher grit, a shear scraper or skew chisel? I read an article on the internet recently about shear scraping which indicated that a shear scraper left...

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