Official Luthiers Forum!

1. After you finish thickness work with Wagner and you don't have a thickness sander, how do you evenly sand b/s.

I've seen plans for building thickness sanders and wonder which of the plans you find builds a fine sander and can be built by person with little woodworking experience.
Thanks,

http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com.au/

Bob, try this link for a home made drum sander, a lot of fine people there will help you out on how to make one easily at low cost!

Serge

I go after the tool marks and last bit of thickness with a 3 step approach: a hand plane, scraper, and my RO sander. It would certainly be faster with a drum sander, but my results have been good and I'm in no particular hurry.

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53% of all statistics are made up on the spot
http://driftwoodguitars.blogspot.com/

I like using this disc sander from Gilbert Tuners.--gmatonis@earthlink.net

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Anderson Guitars
Clearwater,Fl. 33755

Get the GAL book, "Lutherie Tools", from GAL or, I think StewMac has it. It shows plans for several sanders and lots of other goodies.

Ron

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OLD MAN formerly (and formally) known as:

Ron Wisdom

Somewhere in the middle of Arkansas......

With the very first guitar I built, I used a Wagner to remove most of the thickness of the back and sides (EIR). I planed them to final thickness. I've used a drum sander since guitar #2.

Best,

Michael

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Live to Play, Play to Live

Ditto on the Gilbert sanding disk. I try to do as much with the Wagner as I can - the sanding disk is slow work.

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

Bob,
I use the Orbital Sander after the wagner with great results! I think I used 100 grit with it. Then you can use a scraper for the stubborn areas where you have deeper swirl marks. It doesn't have to be perfectly thicknessed. In the old days they didn't have thickness sanders, and those guitars are still around. Just check with a caliper often. Don't go down to final thickness with the wagner, because you will still have about 1/2mm or 1mm to sand/scrape off. Good luck!
Tracy

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Tracy
http://www.luthiersuppliers.com

Bob,

I use the Wagner to thickness all my sides. I run mine through the Wagner a number of times on both sides rather than just take it down to thickness with one pass. As you progress in the layer removal I run everything through twice at the same cut depth. At final I run it through 3 times. My deck is stable and level but I still see and get some cutting on the second pass. Once I am here I join my B&S or tops. After this I move the wood to my table thickness guage and run it through and mark areas of difference. After this I move to the RO Sander and depending upon the wood and how far I need to go start with the appropriate grit sometimes down to 80. I work back and forth checking and marking while continuing to bring my sets down to where I want to be before I start progressing up the ladder of grit. I go to 120, 150,220, and then 320 with my RO. From this point I set my template and make my cuts and then begin hand sanding with a rubber sanding block. I drop back down to 220 and progress up to 400. Then I brace.

Mike
White Oak, Texas

As always, great info. The hand-plane. Every time I've picked up a plane in the past, everything in the house begins to vibrate and the trees....a very sad sight indeed.

I'm still trying to tame this beast.



or actually one just like it. Stanley 12 with Hock blade.

But a thickness sander is in my dreams!

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now known around here as Pat Foster
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

Pat
I have the same scraper plane.
Mine does not say stanley.
Mine is a 12 1/2 and has brazil rosewood
handle and sole. Great plane, it is what
I used until I got a drum sander.

Tom

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http://www.moriciguitar.com

ROS here

tom,

Yup, I'm afraid that when I get the drum sander done, my #12 will start collecting dust. Such a fine tool and leaves such a nice surface too!

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now known around here as Pat Foster
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

Bob,
We are selling a drill press sander now (new product). Works great! SPSD is the product code.
Chris -LMI

After using the Wagner for thinning plates, I use a drill press sanding disc, as others have said. They are very simple to make and I have a set with different grits on them. I can probably make one in 15 minutes from scrap. The only thing I have ever had to buy is the vecro for the base and of course the sandpaper discs themselves.

I usually just take it through once or twice each side with the sander just kissing the wood to remove any marks from the wagner. However if the wagner is sharp and the table well set up there should be only very faint marks to remove. Final finish is with the ROS and scraper (always finish with the scraper).

By the way I always thin my tops with a hand plane, one of my favourite jobs.



Before fitting the velcro level the bottom of the disc by rotating on sandpaper.



Colin

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.