What grit for squaring jigs with sand paper on the lathe?

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jschoolcraft

jschoolcraft

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Basically what the title says.

I have had https://www.woodpeck.com/ultra-shear-pen-mill-inserts.html on my wish list for a while. I had a bunch of the cheap mills that need touching up with a hone like every blank.

I bought Rick's sanding setup for the tail stock and it works great.

What isn't so great, even at 80 grit, is how long it takes to get through a large number of blanks. I'm not a production turner but sometimes I'll prepare 20 blanks at a time and then turn them down during the week. When I turned the Designer Twists I did 15 pens ( x 2 tubes per pen, x 2 faces per tube == 60 faces). I started with 120 and went down to 80 and that whole operation probably took 90-120 minutes over 2 days. I had the shop vac collecting dust, I regularly cleaned the disc, was going about 500-600 RPM.

Is it grit? Technique? Something else? I like sanding as much as the next person and my volume is by no means huge.

I was really hoping that wishlist item would be a miracle cure but it's easy to find 50+ results on this forum that all say ditch the pen mill and go to a sanding setup.
 
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There's always a balancing act with how long you cut the blank before drilling and gluing in the tube. I shoot for minimum extra length on the blank these days specifically because I hate when it takes forever to flush up the blank with the end of the tube on the disc sander :D
 
woodwzrd said:
How much are you taking off when you square them? I usually trim the excess off mine with a miter saw fairly close to the tube and then hit them on Ricks squaring jig. I use 80 grit and it usually only takes 10-15 seconds tops to get to the tube.
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Likely a 1/4" on one side, like a 1/16" on the other side. On a regular basis.
BHuij said:
There's always a balancing act with how long you cut the blank before drilling and gluing in the tube. I shoot for minimum extra length on the blank these days specifically because I hate when it takes forever to flush up the blank with the end of the tube on the disc sander :D
Click to expand...
Yeah, I need to build that jig for the bandsaw, I'm eyeballing it with a sharpie for the most part now.
 
Here is what I made for sanding but use a pen mill for blanks. If there is a lot of material past the tube, I run it through the bandsaw.
20240716_202942.jpg
 
jschoolcraft said:
Likely a 1/4" on one side, like a 1/16" on the other side. On a regular basis.

Yeah, I need to build that jig for the bandsaw, I'm eyeballing it with a sharpie for the most part now.
Click to expand...
The jig for the bandsaw to cut close to length on the blank is really the way to go. I cut mine (if needed) fairly long compared to the tube so I can drill deeper than the tube and then I cut to length. I try to have between a sixteenth and no more than an eighth on either end. If you've got up to 1/4" on one side then you're spending a lot of time trimming that off. That's a lot of sandpaper or trimming mill life to go through 1/4" each tube.

For the record - I sand on my disc sander, my drill press has a wobble so I don't bother with using the mill. I think I have 120 on my disc?
 
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