Sanding Mills

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BeSquare

BeSquare

Member
Joined
Dec 3, 2012
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211
Location
Arlington Heights, IL
I gave up on the drill mills for squaring the end of blanks pretty early on just because I had too many problems cracking blanks and other issues. I recently made a sanding mill for my lathe out of an old mandrel, I also have a sanding disk mounted to a faceplate I use for sanding. The issue I'm having is that the wood/acrylic blanks literally eat through the sandpaper after only one or two ends being sanded. It does a great job but at the rate I'm going through paper I'd have to raise the cost of my pens :D

Anyone have an idea what I could do to improve this? Is it paper brand, lathe speed, maybe I'm just pushing too hard? Or is the answer to just bite the bullet get a disk sander and make a jig that slides so I can use all of the paper :D

Thanks for the help!

- Rich
 
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I use a bowl face plate. I have lots of 5" velcro attached sanding disks of every conceivable grit and an entire box of 100 grit. I cut a 5+" circle of plywood on my band saw and attached the face plate to the circle. Then I turned it to the correct 5" on the lathe. Then I went to Home Depot and bought some heavy duty velcro and covered the entire face of my new disk with the hook part. This gives me a 5" disk sander. I use the outer edges to get the bulk of my sanding done all the way to the tube. Then I use my jacobs chuck in the tailstock and my Harbor Freight center punch set and find the right one to fit the tube, mount it in the chuck, mark 4 marks with a pencil on the end of the blank, slip it onto the center punch and clean it up on the center of the sanding disk. This was not my idea I just borrowed it from someone else here. I also use this 5" sanding disk to do lots of other things. Very handy and since my dust collector is already right on the lathe I don't have to move things around. It also works great to remove CA from my fingers as I am segmenting.:biggrin::biggrin:
 
Rich

I probably tried every method of sanding pen blanks which included the disc sander which can be tricky if you do not have an exact 90 degree to disc. I have tried the sanding mill which I still have and before that the idea of turning a mill unside down. Did that too. Some of these I will but rare occassion still do. The method I found to be the best and most accurate is the faceplate on the lathe and use the transfer punches in the tubes. Works the best for me. I use sticky back paper and I cut in small squares. As a section gets worn down I move it to another unused area of the paper and keep doing this until I need to change the paper. Using good quality paper I get sufficient use.

Here is a photo of the plate with a pice of plexiglass doublesided taped to it. Do not mind the jig that is attached to it for that was some things we were share with Seamus when I showed him I can cut a quarter in half using my scroll saw. I then showed him another way to thin a quarter by using the lathe.

One thing though that I noticed and in fact I will be making another plate sometime this week, that with the use of plexiglass and sometimes the blanks I needed to sand required a bit more aggressive sanding I wore grooves out in the plexigless from the tubes. This is no good. The reason is it now puts a chamfer on the end of the blank with the outside edges smaller than the tube edge. This leaves a gap between the kit edges and the blank. So what I am going to do is now make the plate from a piece of steel. This should hold up better than the plexi.

This is a cause and effect that needs to be addressed whatever method you use to sand the edges of a blank. If you use a mill and the sandpaper is worn in the center where the tube hits the paper on the edges is still sanding away thus creating that chamfer. This can happen on a disc sander as well as the setup that I am planning on making. The key is not too much pressure and keep moving the sandpaper or changing it. A whole lot cheaper than a poorly fitting blank. Just some of my thoughts.



I see Mike answered while I was typing. I do not type very fast. But I will caution if you use that method which is basically the same as mine but he is using velcro. What happens here now you have added a layer of cushioning behind the sandpaper and what I explained in the upper part of this post can now double in occurrance because you now have even more play behind the sandpaper. The sandpaper will wear out the fatest around the metal tubes. That is fact. Whatever the other material is you are sanding and its hardness will determine how fast the outside edge of the paper will lose its grit. Hope this is making sense.

I have seen so many complaints about how kits do not fit exactly against the blank. You hold the finished pen to a light and you see a seperation between kit and blank. Most people chalk it up to poor quaity of kit. But I have to ask how did the finish the ends. This can happen also with a pen mill too if the blades are not straight across. Something to think about and experiment with.

 
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The work sharp uses tempered glass I have been thinking about how I could incorporate this into my design. The slight chamfer that I get in the middle of the paper is insignificant near the tube where it counts and is much more accurate than a standard pen mill.

John I don't understand about cutting the quarter in half but that would be a real tough job that is for sure.
 
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mikespenturningz said:
The work sharp uses tempered glass I have been thinking about how I could incorporate this into my design. The slight chamfer that I get in the middle of the paper is insignificant near the tube where it counts and is much more accurate than a standard pen mill.

John I don't understand about cutting the quarter in half but that would be a real tough job that is for sure.[/quote]


That was a little bet me and Seamus had from a previous discussion about how to thin a quarter to do the work that he does. It really is not that tough but it does take alot of time because you have to use jewlers blades and they do not cut so fast. So I pointed out this method with the lathe. He has his own methods for the great work he has done. He lost the bet and he had to make me a NJ quarter and mounted it on one of my copper braided blanks. :smile: You can do a search for cutting quarters and see how that topic all unfolded.
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Thanks for the info on those guys, I think I just need to make an adjustment and I can pull this off. Had another thought too, if I went the velcro route, I could use 3" or even 4" disks and reposition them if a spot wears out :D

I'll let you guys know how it goes, thanks for the time!

- Rich
 
Have you checked out Rich Herrell's (rherrell) vendor catalogue in the IAP Marketplace? He offers a sanding mill that is great for cleaning up the ends blanks and is especially useful on delicate blanks such as laser cut inlays. Scroll down about 3/4 of the page and you will find his Sanding Mills. Inexpensive and easy to use.
 
John you may have won that bet with seamus but I bet I know an entity that can make a quarter thinner than you can!

The government has made the quarter so thin it is almost usless now:biggrin::biggrin:
 
I've used it and it works. Rick also makes a square tool rest and stop collar. They work great when used with a Woodchuck. The tool rest allows the carbide insert to have the correct presentation to the blank. The collar marks the height on the post. Rick's products make my turning life a lot more enjoyable. Great tools and great customer service.
-kenmic
 
kenmic said:
I've used it and it works. Rick also makes a square tool rest and stop collar. They work great when used with a Woodchuck. The tool rest allows the carbide insert to have the correct presentation to the blank. The collar marks the height on the post. Rick's products make my turning life a lot more enjoyable. Great tools and great customer service.
-kenmic
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I use Rick's tool rests already and they are wonderful. I will probably give his mill a try after I pickup a collet chuck.

Thanks!
 
walshjp17 said:
Have you checked out Rich Herrell's (rherrell) vendor catalogue in the IAP Marketplace? He offers a sanding mill that is great for cleaning up the ends blanks and is especially useful on delicate blanks such as laser cut inlays. Scroll down about 3/4 of the page and you will find his Sanding Mills. Inexpensive and easy to use.
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Not even optional for me. I won't make a pen without it.

I don't use it in the lathe. Mostly I just turn it by hand and it is perfect.
 
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