Sanding Accessories
Sanding is so much more than buying the best sander you can afford and the most expensive paper to attach to it. Remember this is a job that will probably take up 50% of the time you spend woodworking. Or at least it feels that way sometimes.
Paper is the first battle and I have to say that once I tried 3M Xtract, well, I didn’t know paper could cut this fast and suck away dust so well. But you decide. Grab a multi pack and give it a go.
All of the pads and cards and , well, everything below, all have a time and a place for use and luckily dont break the bank on cost. It’s about ergonomics and ease/pleasure of use.
There are a few different brands offering mesh style sand paper. I confess to having tried them all. I found Xtract and didn’t feel I needed to look further. It is great. Extraction and cutting .
These are inexpensive and ergonomic. They come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Quick tip. have one for each grit, mark them up and save swapping out paper.
Before I had an orbital sander, I had these. They are not the same but in a pinch you can use your drill to smooth. It’s great for people on limited budgets getting started.
To whoever invented these, Thank you, you wont know how useful they are until you misplace one.
Card scrapers are like a mini hand plane. It’s different from sanding, I can’t explain that properly but if you try, you will know what I mean. All sorts of shapes and sizes too.
Grabbed a scraper, you need one of these. Sharpening is not as hard as it looks and once you get a nice burr on your scraper it will make shavings not dust. Winning.
Pop this between your bench and whatever you are sanding. The piece wont slip and you wont ruin the finish by pressing it into anything hard.
Right after sanding before applying finish, these will remove the dust. And hold onto it. Also good to use between grits. And for cleaning dust of keyboards. Just saying.
All UK links are for products that I have used. US links are the closest I can find. They are recommendations made from my experience, yours may differ.
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