Another "newb" building tip": hand sanders

Have you ever checked out the cushioned fingernail boards at Walgreens or the like? I have a bunch that I keep handy. They are large for being fingernail files and come in some very coarse grits to very fine. Excllent for smaller shaping or fitting.

The brand that I see the most and buy the most are "KISS" brand and they last a good long time and are worth the cash for me. Very easy to pull off a nice contour with one because the cushion.

http://www.walgreens.com/q/nail-files

RknRusty wrote:It would be nice if they had some sanding blocks with various sized airfoil shapes. .......

Great Planes does have a "Multi-sander" with three basic shapes, but I have not thought it would be of much use for me. If I need to shape a LE or other solid parts, I find a good razor plane to be extremely useful. Final shaping can be done by hand or with a sanding bar.

I have the Great Planes sanding bars in all lengths offered and find them indispensible. Since I use mostly thin CA, I like to cut fat and sand to fit. The short bar works great for this and the part's edges are true. The long bars are good for final shaping of LE's and truing up the airfoil of a laid up wing. I used to use balsa blocks with sandpaper pinned to the block, but the sanding bars are far and away much better and I wouldn't be without mine.

Being cheap, I don't use the self-adhesive strips, but cut strips from the standard 8.5 x 11 sanding sheets. You can use either a glue stick or rubber cement to attach the strips.

andrew

I find long sanding bars very useful in shaping marine hulls like my Dumas 23 1/2" EP Chris-Craft speed boat. Buy NO means an "easy build" it is an expression of the artistry in model building. The application of the mahogany planking and finishing resin coating are not only time-cosuming but difficlt.

I have a multitude of sanding impliments that I've developed (or copied) over the years.

A simple medical tounge depresser makes a great sanding "file" with sandpaper attached with rubber cement. It gets into places that other impliments won't.

I consider fine modeling an art best devloped with extensive experience and patience.

SD

Speaking of sanding

http://www.brotherhoodofthering.info/mbbs22/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=120&posts=8&start=1

I am going to build a varient that sits on my bench and connects to the dust collection system in my wood shop. Wood dust is the reason I ended up with about $20K in shop tools for about $5K. The guy who had them was ordered by his doctor to give up woodworking or die as his respetory system had been compromised from wood dust. I installed a 5HP dust cyclone designed by Bill Pentz ( google him - interesting reading) with 6" ducting.... It REALLY sucks ( and isn't as noisy as I had anticipated).

cz: Hmmmmm...... When I sand I just go out on our covered front porch and sit in a comfortable chair while I watch the world go by and chat with passing neigbors. So doing has gotten me some fine modeling stuff for free.

An idylic existance, no?

SD

Mariposa county, where my new house is located, is 17,000 sq miles with a population of less then 20K. I am on 6.75 acres. The nearest house is a football field away. Not enough traffic walking by!

Cz10 wrote:Mariposa county

cz; Say "hello" to "Sheriff Joe"!

SD

I think that is Maricopa county in Airizona. This is near Yosemite National Park in California.

Used that GP sander on the last couple of models. works great for squaring edges or for block sanding pieces flat. I also have a handful of different abrasive emery boards for detail and hard to reach work..

For the rounded airfoil pieces, I use the soft abrasive sanding sponges found at at Home Depot and Harbor freight tools. They have a dollar sale going on now at HF tools, need to pick up another handful of mini clamps, quick and bar style.