From: wack@ariel.ncsl.nist.gov (John Wack)
Newsgroups: rec.woodworking
Subject: Re: need belt sander recomendation
Date: 2 Sep 92 12:13:44 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: National Institute of Standards & Technology

In article <1992Sep1.184325.5151@clpd.kodak.com> obrien@serum.kodak.com writes:
>In article <920831175524@wraith.netops.contel.com>, powell@wraith.netops.contel.com (Mike Powell "GTE FSD Net Mgr") writes:
>|> I am faced with having to sand several boards, that are bonded together,
>|> flat on one side.
>|> Not wanting to enjoy this task too much by hand sanding, it looks like
>|> a belt sander is my best option. Only one problem, I don't have one. 
>|> 
>|> Next issue, intended duty: medium to heavy. say a belt 3 or 4 inches
>|> wide.
>|> What to buy? at last check Makita and Porter Cable were playing leap
>|> frog with thier respective products.
>|> I am not to keen on buying Sears Power tools anymore, sooooo, the answer
>|> is ??????
>|> Suggestions are welcome.
>|> Mike
>|> --
>|> Mike Powell PPASEL
>|> "It's hard to find router bits for your cisco"
>|> Disclaimer: I speak for myself. No direct relation to the DUAT folks.
>|> internet: powell@wraith.netops.contel.com  Usenet: uunet!contel-fss!powell
>

I recently was saddled with this same problem - I'd built a fairly
large table top, the cherry I get from my local supplier seems to warp
if the boards are more than 7" wide, so I ended up ripping everything to
around 5 - 6" and glueing up a large panel.  A couple of comments:

1) if the boards are fairly straight to begin with and you have enough
   clamps, it seems like you ought to be able to edge glue the boards,
   one at a time, to achieve a flat surface w/o "large" variations in
   height among the boards -- moral: take extra time to get the flattest
   boards, even if you have to go through the whole supply of wood.

2) Number 1 above is easier said than done - I found that a biscuit
   joiner helped keep the boards even -- I guess dowels would do the 
   same -- anyway, I had a more even surface this time than in the past
   before I got the biscuit joiner.

3) My local wood shop has a 36" wide panel sander that I could have 
   rented time on -- I probably should have, but I didn't -- I bought
   a Porter Cable belt sander with the dust bag, which appears to be a
   good tool and a good investment, but unless you're quite good at it,
   it's probably hard to achieve a perfectly flat surface.  I went over
   the top with a random-orbit sander afterwards and, while the top is
   good looking, I still see some variations in height.

4) There was a suggestion about using a hand plane.  I bought a replacement
   blade (Hock, I think) for my jack plane at around $22 -- the blade is
   thick, holds an edge better than most, and I paid WoodCraft an extra
   2 bucks for them to hone it, which I think was a good deal.  It
   transformed my plane from a totally frustrating tool into something
   that does wonders w/o gouging the wood, tearing, etc.

Sorry about all the text - the point I'm going to make is that the hand
plane, with the proper blade and edge, is less "dangerous" than the 
belt sander (you probably already know this!) because you have more
control over the amount of wood you take off.  The PC I have now is
great, but you gotta be real quick with that thing, even with a 120 grit
belt, or else it will leave deep ridges in the wood.  I think that, in
the future, I'll go for a hand plane and try to get the panel as flat as
possible to begin with.

Here's a question:  I have noticed, among my friends, that as we get 
older, we listen to less rock and more classical music.  Does this mean
that as woodworkers get older, they use more handtools than power tools??
(provided they start w/power tools).

Good luck,
John Wack


Newsgroups: rec.woodworking