Shaping Handles?

Jesse Latham said:
I watched your kith build. You have skills. You play with race cars. That takes money. Maybe I'm out of bounds, but.... spend money on the new love. 2X72 and use scalloped belts.
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Ahhh - but I have the ‘cheap’ bone - it’s a disease. Once I decide I’m willing to part with $$ on something - the possibilities of ‘which’ new something I wanna spend that $$ on become endless and a vicious circle
 
Coop said:
Lately mostly for dust control I've been using a oscillating bench top sander. With a shop vac hooked up it works great with dust control. It came with wheels from 2" down to 1/2" diameter. Sanding drums are expensive but not necessary. A tip I learned on here or another knife forum was to cut and wrap standard sanding paper paying attention to direction and use a band of blue painter tape just at the top. A piece of sanding paper cut in half works for mine. When it's wore simply untape and rewrap exposing fresh sand paper. By using standard sand paper you can go to really fine grit.

Then I made a small down draft table so I can again hook up my shop vac to it. I then use palm sanders if needed. I have a old 1/6th sheet Ryobi palm sander that I love and have used for eons back from my bow building days also. It's no longer made but If it was I'd buy a dozen of them. Awesome little tool.
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You talking about that Ryobi ‘profile sander’? With all the weird little attachments for sanding like Crown molding and all the curves and crevasses? I have one of those somewhere. I need to dig it out - hadn’t thought of trying that.
 
Jesse Latham said:
I watched your kith build. You have skills. You play with race cars. That takes money. Maybe I'm out of bounds, but.... spend money on the new love. 2X72 and use scalloped belts.
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didn’t mean to be rude - meant to say thank you for the kind words about skills Jesse

And what do scalloped belts do? And when u say scalloped, I am picturing a bunch of ‘half-circles’ snipped out all along the edge of the belt. Why? What does that get me? Is it heat reduction??
 
Greg Rice said:
You talking about that Ryobi ‘profile sander’? With all the weird little attachments for sanding like Crown molding and all the curves and crevasses? I have one of those somewhere. I need to dig it out - hadn’t thought of trying that.
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No I'm talking about a honest to goodness palm sander that uses 1/6th sand paper instead of the common 1/4 sheet. Super small and able to do detail sanding. It's awesome but they don't make it anymore. I use it over my home made down draft sanding table hooked up to my shop vac. Use it on every knife along with a standard oscillating tool with a V shaped sanding attachment like Ed turned us onto too. I hate hand sanding. lol

I do most of my handle shaping on a cheap HF oscillating sander. I don't use the standard replaceable drum sleeves but wrap my own. Hooked up to a shop vac it's awesome. The round table gives you a rest and you have total control of where you are sanding at. I have a expensive 2" x 72" knife grinder and a awesome dust collection system for it but still prefer the oscillating drum sander for shaping my handles.
 
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No, a oscillation sander is different. Check one on harbor freight. They are terrific at what they do. You could also get sanding drums for your drillpress and save $$$.
 
Bruce McLeish said:
No, a oscillation sander is different. Check one on harbor freight. They are terrific at what they do. You could also get sanding drums for your drillpress and save $$$.
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I know what an Ossolating sander is and yes, I have drums for my DP. Ryobi had a Profile Sander that uses these weird little attachments.

The problem is the 2x42 is too fast and I am too cheap to buy a 2x72 - for now.

I will build one some day

Been eyeing my $79 Harbor Freight Portable Band saw. Lots of torque, variable speed - I bet it could run ‘part’ of my 2x42 and allow me to slow it down. Anyone done that? I am betting I am not the first to think that.
 
mike miller said:
The scalloped belts do not allow the edge of the belt to cut into the steel or handle material. They flex and slide around it.
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I was just reading that from Tim’s link. Says they don’t gouge. Nice. May try and make a couple of those to see how well they work.
 
WoodCraft carries Iwasaki Wood Rasps. They work extremely quickly on Micarta and all handle material and leave a nicer finish than most files. I would get a bit flat one and one with a rounded side.

I was using a 2x36 franken grinder that uses small wheels and slack belt to do handles along with a 4x36. I used the 4x36 for bulk removal and getting the handle and tang material flush and do basic contouring on the drive/tension wheels and then went to the 2x36. I just got my Ameribrade FastBack hooked up yesterday using a small pulley on the motor and a 2,3,4,5" step pulley on a drive shaft. Should work awesome for handles! Combo platen with rubber 2" and 6" wheel, and a 3/4" small wheel assembly. Should take care of my handle needs!
 
I do it mostly all on my grinder... Slack belt to 400 grit then maybe touch up some corners by hand at 400 grit, and if a higher finish is needed I do that by hand. For example... This is 1200 grit but the hand Sanding part didn't take long

Chamfers are done completely on the grinder.

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Greg Rice said:
didn’t mean to be rude - meant to say thank you for the kind words about skills Jesse

And what do scalloped belts do? And when u say scalloped, I am picturing a bunch of ‘half-circles’ snipped out all along the edge of the belt. Why? What does that get me? Is it heat reduction??
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Previous answers have it right. The edges of a J weight belt (thin/flexible) have scallops of about 3/8". I use 120g, 220g and 400g then hand sand from there.
 
After reading after my post I'm thinking people got confused I didn't mention if was a oscillating SPINDLE sander. It's my go to for shaping handles with complete dust control with a simple shop vac. Bench top model has a awesome table that allows your hands to be steady for sanding handles.
 
You could use a foot operated switch from Harbor Freight or a router speed controller either one less than $20. People laugh at HF but their warranty is no hassle if you live near one for any returns. My local store is 5 miles away but I've never had to return anything yet.
 
Nicholson #49 and #50 rasps, KMG with wheels large and small, convex platens, rotary platen, etc. I also have one of those little 45 degree Japanese corner planes for wa handles.
 
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