sanding the outside of a bowl

Signed-In Members Don't See This Ad
babyblues

babyblues

Member
Joined
Mar 8, 2007
Messages
658
Location
Portland, ME, USA.
I use an angle drill to sand my bowls. I usually sand with the lathe off. I turned a couple natural edge bowls and while it's easy enough to sand the inside of the bowl because it's concave, I find it difficult to power sand the convex shape of the outside of the bowl with the lathe off. As it's a natural edge bowl, there's only so much sanding that I can do with the lathe running. I'm using 2" sanding discs on a Tom Skilton sanding pad. Is there a better way?
 
Signed-In Members Don't See This Ad
I sometimes use a sanding pad in a hand drill for the outside of a bowl. I like the fact that, with the lathe running and the pad spinning I can get an even, almost non-directional sanding finish. There's a trick to this. If the bowl is spinning too fast it will overwhelm the swirling pattern and you will wind up only slightly better off than just using a handheld pad on a rotating bowl. On the Jet 1642EVS that is my main lathe I run it around 100 rpm. This makes the spinning drill easier to control, as well.

If I'm just putting on a finishing surface I'l start at 320. If I'm trying to correct a problem then I go low enough to do the job and run the grits up. Once the 320 grit is done I put on a coat of waterlox filler and tough up by hand. Then I use 400 grit and switch to waterlox finish until I feel I have a good even coat. Lately I've been finishing up with 0000 steel wool then buff it out and wax.

If I don't want a glossy finish I may use Velvit oil instead of Waterlox.

Marc
 
marcruby said:
I sometimes use a sanding pad in a hand drill for the outside of a bowl. I like the fact that, with the lathe running and the pad spinning I can get an even, almost non-directional sanding finish. There's a trick to this. If the bowl is spinning too fast it will overwhelm the swirling pattern and you will wind up only slightly better off than just using a handheld pad on a rotating bowl. On the Jet 1642EVS that is my main lathe I run it around 100 rpm. This makes the spinning drill easier to control, as well.

If I'm just putting on a finishing surface I'l start at 320. If I'm trying to correct a problem then I go low enough to do the job and run the grits up. Once the 320 grit is done I put on a coat of waterlox filler and tough up by hand. Then I use 400 grit and switch to waterlox finish until I feel I have a good even coat. Lately I've been finishing up with 0000 steel wool then buff it out and wax.

If I don't want a glossy finish I may use Velvit oil instead of Waterlox.

Marc
Click to expand...

I do it almost exactly as Marc does it!
 
I use a Porter-Cable model 330 sander that I have for my flat work. The pad of the sander is felt, so it will conform to the surface of the bowl pretty well.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom