Anybody ever used electric sanders for flats?

SHOKR

SHOKR

Well-Known Member
The title says it all :)

I need to sand the flats on a lot of knives starting with 80g and my elbows really hurt now
I did bit of reasearch i thonk the most suitable are the oscillating and the random

So anybody has any feedback on them?

Thanks
 
I'll admit it, I've used my electric DA sander and it actually works pretty good. There will be some hand sanding at the end but to get you to the final finish sanding it's great. I will also admit I just picked up one of the triangular oscillating sanders and will try it this weekend. I think it will be easier to control than the DA orbital. I'll probably have to hand cut paper due to the lack of pre-cut stuff for metal.
 
Shokr,
Look around Ed Caffery's forum or how toos? I remember a thread where he modified an electric palm sander for doing flats with a piece of Micarta and gets great results. If you find it? Please let me know?
 
I use mine all the the time for sanding blades. I have two set up, one with the standard foam pad, and one with a hard micarta slab. Works great and speeds up the sanding. I think I saw it in one of Cris Crafords videos origanaly.

Erik
 
Man I am so glad that y'all brought this up. I actually modified one of my hand sanders with the micarta base to do flats a while back and forgot about using it. I'm trying to finish several knives for Christmas gifts and that will save me some much needed time. I think it was an Ed Caffrey thread where I saw it. Bruce Evans has a post about how to do it over on blade forums as well.
 
Thanks a lot guys

The ones i thought would work are the oscillating and thecrandom, i had a very quick look at them today at the market and i think the random might be to soft, so was going to check the oscillating. Triangular would be soft too?

Laurence, i remember that thread, but i think it was bit too domplex for me. I'll give it another read and see

I have lots of blades to finish and no hope for surface grinding (they were surface ground badly, so have little waves and i have to start for an hour or so with 80g) so its definitely worth buying sander for it
 
One other thing I found that keeps from shredding paper when using an 'un-modified' sander is to clamp the blade to a piece of wood so the contact side is flat on the wood and the edge is about 1/8 from the edge of the wood. This keeps the paper from getting snagged on the blade and allows me to hold the DA sander with both hands.
 
Laurence, i read Ed's post now and this time it made sense, i guess since i didnt need it much before didnt pay much attention, thanks for reminding me of it

Thanks Roger. Sorry, i dont get how the 1/8 space would keep paper from getting torn?
Anyway i will give the sander a try and see
 
Skohr,
I have a Makita brand square osculating sander in bound as of last night. I would recommend one of the square units for better use of sandpaper.
 
I use to use one all the time on wood handles. Mine broke down though so I've been using the belts. But belts cut so quick, I bet it would be easier to get the grain in micarta to match because it doesn't take off so much, so quick. I might try that on my next micarta handle. Thanks for the idea.

So I wonder how it would look to finish steel like that with a "satiny" look? Kinda similar to stonewashed? Or would it look like junk?
 
Thanks, Laurence
I thought they all had a standard size? But i will do bit more researxh before i buy. Probably will go with cheaper brand anyway, market is filled with chinese stuff

Roger
Thanks a lot buddy, since i mainly wanted it for the flats i didnt catch what you meant, lack of imagination on my part. I mostly do hollow hrinding now, but will sure try your advice on next flat blade (which just might be a chopper in the works now)

N N

I never used it so dont know, however i dont believe the finish would be good, this is mainly to save a lot of energy and time so finishing by hand would much easier, you might want to check the lonk posted few posts bove for more info
 
Shokr,
Here is the USA, some are round and some square. The square base is 1/4 of a sheet of sandpaper. Most here are made in china as well.
 
Ahh ok
The round ones i found were the random one and those had their own round pieces.
I think i'll go shopping for one in the next couple of days

Thanks Laurence
 
Thanks

From what i read, the round ones can be more aggressive, which can remove too much material/round the edges. So square it is :)
 
i bought a 1/3 sander and so far made two trials
one was holding 120g with the sander clamps, that didnt work too well, only the front and back were effective but the middle part was bit too slack
my second trial was using spray adhesive, it was bit better but not good enough and it wasnt even (i was trying to remove really deep scratches from bad surface grinder)

so next i will try something someone told me about, hold the sander upside down in a vise, and hold the work piece in my hand. i am hoping that would give me better control, if that doesnt work i will try removing the foam and using a piece of G10 or micarta and trying again
 
Ahmed,
Do yourself a favor and get rid of the foam for your application on steel. You want a rigid surface, (g10/micarta) to get rid of the ripples. Later, if you like using the sander, you can set up another with a thin cork surface on the g10 or micarta for when you want to do some blending, and need a little give as you sand. Spray adhesive is the way to go.
It leaves a sanded surface with J or fish hooks that can be hand sanded away very easily.
I did one some time ago, but I used either Plexiglas or polycarbonate not sure which, because I had it on hand.
Fred
 
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