Official Luthiers Forum!

What is the tool of choice for final sanding of the sides when the box is built? I've been doing it by hand with a block and cylinder and it's a pretty tedious job (especially when things don't start as flat as they should be).

I'd like to use a power tool of some type. I was thinking of one of the pneumatic drum attachments for a hand drill (the type with a handle on the end). Also there are some small oscillating spindle sanders that could work.

What does everyone prefer?

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David White, Toronto

"All my favourite singers can't sing."

I use a black and decker mouse sander for almost all of my sanding that can be done with a machine. I am happy with the results.

Be careful of using one of the drum attachments for hand drills or for drill presses. All it takes is one instant spent too long in one area and you have a groove cut in your side that will be extremely difficult to get rid of, if you can get rid of it at all.

Any palm type sander works well.

I always do my final sanding by hand.

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Reguards,

Ken H

Palm sander, but it's not something I've spent much time thinking about
and I'd like to see if there's a better solution, too. How are you all doing
the waist?

Cabinet scrapers are my tools of choice to get the final finish. I have a variety of shapes and sizes. Stay with the grain and follow the contour lines like when doing the sides, move from the bouts to the lower areas. Example start at the peak of the upper bout when doing the sides and scrape both to the waist and to the neck. The same is true for the lower bouts from peak to waist and then to tail. You should never scrape across the wood grain, especially on your soft woods. I use cabinet scrapers on the whole guitar to prepare for finishing. A well sharpen scarper is faster and clear than sandpaper anytime imho.

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Michael Lloyd

“I was born to ignorance, yes, and lesser poverties ...
I was born to privilege that I did not see ... I didn’t know it, but my way was paved” – John Gorka

Orbital sanders will follow any of the existing contours.

I agree Hesh, it's painful to do the block sanding but definitely ends up in a better result.

No pain - no gain.

Cheers

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Bob Connor
Geelong, Australia

"see the Taylor Factory Fridays segment on binding "

I get bit of a laugh out of that. The guy spent about 10 seconds with sandpaper and 10 seconds with the drum sander and he was done. That's not how things go with mine!

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David White, Toronto

"All my favourite singers can't sing."

I have never even thought of a power sander for sanding sides...

I just use a scraper and then if needed will touch up spots with sandpaper by hand.

How thick are your sides? I build only classicals and my sides are from 1.4 to 2.0mm (~ .055 - .078 inches thick). It doesnt take much sanding to level and clean and the risk of taking too much material is too great to risk a power tool.

What about an osc. spindle sander?

Having spent quite a while with my oscillating spindle sander, I definitely wouldn't risk a nearly completed guitar on one. I use a ROS & hard rubber blocks, & (mostly) a scraper on the waist area. On highly figured wood, the ROS seems to cause ripples, so scrapers & sanding blocks only.
I haven't tried the inflatable drums yet... They look too small in diameter for comfort to me.
I like the pencil lines idea... Thanks Terry! We'll give it a try next time.
Dan

Someone here suggested using various diameters of PVC pipe with SA sandpaper. I do that with my orbital and drum sander.
I watch John Mayes video and tried using my 6" belt sander. He made it look so easy. One guitar worked out great, the next was almost a disaster. I've stopped doing that now.   

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"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered." G. K. Chesterton.

[QUOTE=Hesh1956] I have a two stage process that John Abercrombie gets the credit or the blame for....

.......   The block was John's idea
This was a great tip from John to use a block even if it is a pain in the butt wedge to do.....[/QUOTE]

Like Chuck Berry said "It wasn't me!"
I learned to do it this way in Sergei deJonge's class- he made me do it !

Cheers

John

My method is a bit of a mixture. I usually start with a RO palm sander. The intermediate sanding is done with a block and/or a piece of 2" dia PVC, schedule 60 (the heavy walled stuff) and then finish up with scrapers. It all seems to happen fast enough without having things happen too fast! I'd never have the courage to go at this with a belt sander, though the hand held drum sander looks promising. I'd dearly love to have the vacuum clamp!

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Jim Howell
Charlotte, NC

I bought the larger of the "handheld" drums from Grizzly....I love it! Once I got the firmness of the drum just right it worked like a charm...just have to be careful to not tip to one side or the other, or the binding gets out of whack!

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http://www.presnallguitars.com