I Hate Sanding ! - Wife and Jet Sander to the Rescue

[Busy Beaver Lumber]

Because of an auto accident where I was tail ended by a bus, I only have about 30% use of my left arm and left hand and the left arm and the hand easily fatigues and is very subject to painful debilitating cramps if i try to grip something too long or to tightly like holding a sander for a long period of time.

I love to work with wood and most recently bought a CNC machine to do custom routed wood signs and then went down to Forestry Forum member Richard of CedarUSA and obtained 2000 bf of his fantastic eastern red cedar to use for our new routed wood sign venture.

The eastern red cedar is ready for the router after just a single pass on each side through my surface planner and requires no sanding prior to the routing of the sign and graphics into the cedar. But to accent the carvings, the sign face is sprayed with stencil ink, then the face of the sign must be sanded such that the  ink only remains in the v carved routed areas and not on the un-routed face, which you want to remain the natural beauty of the red cedar.

Well today I think I have found the solution to my sanding problem. Thanks to the deep discounts offered on Black Friday, I just ordered a nice Jet 10-20 Conveyor Belt Drum Sander. These puppies normally list for $907 then you get to pay about another $75 for shipping, but today they were on sale on line for $636 with free shipping, so I ordered myself one.

Because of the open end construction it will sand stock up to 20 inches wide and up to 3 inches thick. You can vary the feed rate to whatever speed you like. I can only image this will sand the relatively soft cedar like a hot knife through butter. Will be putting this in garage so i can attach it to 4 inch dust collection system for obvious reasons. Since 95% of the signs and pieces I use in my woodworking endeavors are less than 10 inches wide and less than three feet long, i think this sander will really do the job for me. Ordered 4 different grit papers for it as well, which because they too were on sale, will wind up costing me $8 per replacement which is very reasonable.

Will let you know how i like it once it arrives and I get it set up, which may have to wait until Christmas since lovely wife wife asked if she could get it for me for Christmas. She is one great lady.  ;D



 

Here is pic of unit



 

[Tree Feller]

Congratulations on the drum sander. Didn't Jet buy out Performax? They had a great reputation.

[Sprucegum]

Nice buy  8)

Beware - soft woods tend to gum up the sandpaper fairly quick. Gummed up paper will put a burn mark on your wood. Sometimes you can refresh the paper with a wire brush.

[beenthere]

Curious if the overspray of the paint will sand off easily, and not gum the paper as mentioned or not remove the black paint cleanly, and what gets deeper into the wood surface.
But I assume you have already run tests of the procedure and apparently they come out ok.

Reason I ask, is I tried it on some walnut that had routed lettering. Spray paint did not sand off but got into the pores of the walnut and just left a smattering of accented pores around the letters. Didn't look so good.

I for sure hope it works well for you, as it will make some neat signs and a fairly easy procedure with the new equipment.

[tyb525]

If the paint gums up as mentioned, maybe the better solution would be a light pass through the planer instead? Either way a drum sander would be great to have!

[Busy Beaver Lumber]

Tree Feller

Yes it is my understanding that Jet bought Performax. They give a good 5 year warranty on the unit as well

[Busy Beaver Lumber]

Beenthere and Ty

OK my friends, I will share one of the best tips with you for routed wood signs:

"Never Use Spray Paint to add color"

As Beenthere has already mentioned, spray paint will soak into the pores and leave a very fuzzy edge around your routed image. It is also much harder to sand off the face of the board and does a good job of loading up your sandpaper. 

What you want to use, as I mentioned briefly in my opening statement is Stencil Ink. It dries incredibly fast and does not bleed like the spray paint does. I personally use Marsh Brand Spray Stencil Ink. It comes in black, red, white, orange, green, blue, yellow and possibly a few other colors. Price wise it will run you a bit more than spray paint, somewhere in the $6 a can range, but one can makes a ton of signs. It makes a big difference when you go to sand it off. Start with 80 grit and finish with 120 grit, then you are ready for your clear coat spray.

Here is another trade secret, for adding color to your carved lettering and images. Lets say you used the spray ink, but somehow when you were sanding you scraped an spot in the area you sprayed black down to the bare wood and need to touch it up. Instead of getting the spray ink and having to re-spray and re-sand, grab for a sharpie or other indelible permanent marker. It is the same ink and will blend in perfectly. Likewise, lets say you routed a rose into your sign and you want to add green color to the stem and red to the rose, you could use the sharpie markers as well and they will do just as nice a job as the spray ink. ;D

[tyb525]

That's good to know Fred. I have used a black sharpie to add black accents on turnings and such and it works well.

[GeorgeK]

Enjoy I have one of there sanders and they are great.

[Busy Beaver Lumber]

George

Glad to hear that. I plan to use it a bunch on eastern red cedar and white cedar, which are fairly soft to begin with so i think it will do very well for me and not strain the machine in the least. By the way, I got it from Southern tool and until Monday they are having a huge sale on the sandpaper for it as well with free shipping to boot, something like it was originally $48 a roll and is not $31 a roll and each roll is enough to do 4 drum wraps

[GeorgeK]

Sounds like a good deal on Sandpaper. Check Ebay. I bought a bunch on there a couple of years ago at a great price. All new and nice.

[scsmith42]

That's a great score (and thanks for the advice re the Stencil ink)! 

For supplies, Klingspor makes (and sells) some really great sandpaper.  Also, I have a rubber pad that I use to clean the paper on my wide belt sander, and I highly recommend it.

http://www.grizzly.com/products/Pro-Stik-15-x-20-Cleaning-Pad/H2845

It is fast and effective.  I would not want to operate either a drum or WBS w/o one of these cleaning pads available.

[breederman]

Thanks for that link Scott. I used a rubber stick for a long time but haven't been able to find one in a couple ofyears

[Busy Beaver Lumber]

Thanks for that advice Scott. Never saw on like that. I have one of those 2 x 2 ones and use it all the time on my disc sander and 6 inch wide horizontal belt sander and it is awesome. Will have to order one of those that you directed us to. Thank you

[Busy Beaver Lumber]

Sander arrived yesterday and I got to work and built a wheeled stand for it. Then reviewed the conveyor feed alignment adjustments to ensure everything was correct and plumbed it in to the dust collection system with a quick disconnect just in case i ever want to move it out of that area or take it up to my building to use there.

She works like a charm. Sent some cherry boards through it and they came out great. This is one high quality tool and it is very quiet. Does a great job of collecting the dust it generates, and  I can see it getting a lot of use and saving me a lot of arm and hand cramping.



  

  

  

 

[1woodguy]

Usually use an old tennis shoe size 13 to clean sanding belts and disks
Don't know if the soles on other size shoes will work ;)

30 or so years ago when making a lot of signs is my memory serves correctly
I used to roll on cheap sanding sealer then let dry also used watered down Elmer's glue several times
Add letters and design lightly remove fuzz  (some woods i used a minature propane torch think it was called ronson little refillablebottles and could direct fire within an 1/8 inch or less )then paint spray  or use tinted dark stain or poly in recesses
  If small enough and not to detailed most went through planer
Then finish as desired  occasionally( maybe 3 out of every 2 hundred) still had  problems with grain lines showing on face when using spray paint  in pine  and redwood
none that I recall  when using tinted poly in recesses and it covered a lot of the little fuzzys
Had some projects that were finished then I added for example
  hand carved roses or birds then used artist brushes and diluted acrylics
Then hit with a compatable  clear finish or not depending on customer

Found on some items you could Get two bucks or $250
  The latter works best  and ya can afford new toys I mean tools that way

[levans]

 Busy Beaver,
Try this company, Supergrit.com  for a really good price on bulk roll sand paper, I ordered some from them and it did a great job on My 16/32 drum sander.   

[Busy Beaver Lumber]

Thanks much Levans. They have some decent prices and other sandpaper that i use as well at good prices.