Sanding - The implements of shaping

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dr wogz

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So, i'f you're like me, you have a collection of sand paper, and as many sanding bars. While I have a drawer of paper, I have lots of little bits. An old crumpled pierce is just about perfect for small fillets, small jobs, and as such. When folded right, fits nicely on your finger for delicate work!

I have the Great Planes bar, that I use pretty much all the time. I got the 32" one,and cut it into 2 pieces; one about 11" long and the longer part. i I never really use the longer one, except that both of them together, are good at stabilizing a tube.

I have a small collection of the sanding foam pads. Also good for round / organic surfaces.. They don't get used that much, but are good for eh final smoothing of surfaces. But, they can carve dents & divots if you're' not careful..

I have a various diameter tubes, good for sanding the convex sides of things, like fairings, undercut fins, etc. There's even a few dowels in there, to get really small dia sanding done!

Lastly, my 90° sanding block. great for ensuring a 90° edge to any piece I need, such as a fin root! I use this on just about every sanding job. It's a 2" x 2" block of balsa, ad I've changed the sand paper about a half dozen times!

You have any sanding tips or neato sanding tools?

Can you guess what that big block is in between the sanding dowels?!

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One of the really important things I've found for sanding Wings, Helicopter Rotors and Fins is a 12" x 24" piece of 3/4" Plate glass. This give you a solid nearly perfectly flat surface on which to work with Square 90degree edges. Couple this base piece with various thickness smaller glass plates 1/8", 1/4" & 1/2" thick you can stack them to create perfectly straight edge drawing alignment lines on body tubes as well as sanding square root edges and true airfoiled wing, fins & rotors. Since Glass is poured & rolled, it's surface is nearly as flat as Ground & polished Granite or Steel precision blocks at a fraction of the price of either. I went to a local glass shop for my 3/4" base piece, which they cut for me for about 10 bucks from scrap. While there I picked up 6" x 6" sample pieces of 1/8", 1/4" & 1/2" Plate & Safety glass for FREE.
Holding our Balsa or Basswood is done with 1" wide double faced masking tape. Lifting the completed piece from the glass with a carefully applied painters pallet knife.

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Two tips: an accordion file folder to keep all the odds and ends of loose sandpaper, and sanding sticks made by using contact cement to glue strips of sandpaper to hobby sticks (like tongue depressors) and paint stirring sticks. You can't use water-based glue to stick down the paper because the grain will suck up the water and swell or warp - even if you try to do both sides at once. I usually do sides of different grits; coarse/medium, medium/fine, fine/x-fine.
 
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