Question:   I notice that there are different materials used as abrasive (silicone carbide, garnet, etc) should I be using different materials for different tasks?

Yes! Different abrasives actually leave different scratch patterns. For example, aluminum oxide tends to leave sharper peaks and valleys when the scratches are viewed under a microscope. This creates a finish with more sheen than, say, silicone carbide which leaves sharp peaks but more rounded valleys. Light refracts differently from the two surfaces, so the sheen is different.

Question:  There are also several choices for the backer that the abrasive is bonded to. How much does this matter to the sanding I am doing?

I can matter a lot. Sometimes it is obvious: If you try to wet sand with a paper backed sheet, you’ll have a big mess in no time! But other situations may be more subtle. If you want to use some sort of detail sander, then a thin, flexible backer will conform better than a thicker one and give you better results. High stress applications like belt sanders require much more durable backing. You want to try and match the grit and the backer to the work you need to do. Unfortunately, you are not likely to find the combinations you want at the local hardware store.

Question:  Other than the mess, does good dust collection improve the quality of my sanding?

Absolutely! As you sand, particles are being removed from the surface being sanded. In addition, a few grains of abrasive may also fall off the backer. Both of these can leave random scratch patterns on your surface, when what you really want are tiny scratches that are very uniform in depth and width. Good dust collection removes these rogue particles and helps keep the scratch patterns uniform.

Question:  Sometimes my project looks and feels perfectly smooth, but as soon as I apply stain or paint, scratches show up. How can I see these before finishing?

There are two useful techniques for checking the finish; First, while you are sanding, a strong light mounted at a very low angle to shine across the surface will show you most of what you need to know Any random scratches will show up quite readily this way. As a final check, you can wipe mineral spirits on the sanded surface prior to finishing. This will show you how the surface will look under a clear finish, and any random scratches will darken just as they would if you applied finish.

I certainly invite you to add your thoughts or send along questions that you may have. Please feel free to add your comments here on the blog, on our Facebook page, or via Twitter. Let us know what you think!  -2Sand.com

A big part of customer service is answering questions. While we have FAQ’s posted, and you can chat live with a service representative right on our website, I decided to sit down with RJ Stroman, the owner of 2Sand.com and talk about some of the questions I see popping up in the online woodworking forums.

Question:  I recently bought some boxes of sanding belts at an auction that were a few years old. It seemed that all of the belts broke at the tape line much sooner than I expected. Do sanding belts have a shelf life?

 Yes, they do have a shelf life! We warranty our belts for one year. You can expect up to three years of shelf life if they have been stored carefully, but beyond that do not expect much. Changes in heat and humidity will cause the adhesive to dry out and fail over time.

Question:   Is there any way to store them so that they last longer? 

To get the most shelf life out of your belts, keep them sealed in the original packaging and try to store them where they will not experience large changes in heat or humidity. Never store them on a cement floor for example. A dry cabinet drawer or shelf is the best bet. 

Question:    What other sanding supplies have a shelf life? 

The tape joint is the weak link in a sanding belt. Sheet and disks rarely have issues with storage, and virtually none with shelf life. Obviously, sticky-backed sanding disks need to be kept with the adhesive covered, and hook and loop disks should be kept away from chips and fibers that might get stuck in the loops. I do sometimes talk with folks who wonder about the adhesive on sticky back disks failing due to age, but that is most likely the result of a poor adhesive batch from the manufacturer rather than an age issue. 

Question:   Over time, even unused sandpaper tends to curl. What causes this and how can I prevent it?

 Again, the issue here is moisture. Just like wood table top, if one side gains or looses moisture faster than the other, it can warp, or in the case of sandpaper, curl. Paper backed sheets will tend to curl with the grit inward since the paper gathers moisture more readily than the bonded grit face. Sticky-backed disks will tend to curl in the opposite direction, since the back has both a layer of adhesive and a liner keeping the adhesive clean. The grit face will tend to absorb more moisture there.

To keep disks from curling, store them with some weight on top to help keep them flat.

Question:   Any other thoughts on old sanding supplies or storage before we go? 

Well, I do not have any empirical evidence, but my instincts tell me that older sanding supplies may not always be comparable to newer counterparts. For example, if you were to buy say a ten year old batch of sandpaper at an auction, even for a very good price, would it be just as good as new stock?

 While it should be perfectly usable if stored reasonably well, there have been many advances in both adhesives and manufacturing technologies over the last decade, and I wonder if the older material would measure up in a head to head test. Just something to think about.

I certainly invite you to add your thoughts or send along ideas that have worked well for you. Please feel free to add your comments here on the blog, on our Facebook page, or via Twitter. Let us know what you think!  -2Sand.com

Well! After 10 months of thinking, designing and building, our Downdraft Sanding Center is complete!

With my roll around Delta dust collector hooked up, I am very pleased with the draw through the table top. Sanding the window frame shown, even on top of the Bench Cookies, I could actually see the dust being whisked away.

The final step was to cut a 4″ hole in the side of the top and add a 4″ port to connect the dust collector. I simply cut the hole with my jigsaw and attached the port with some screws and a little caulk to seal the port.

If you have been following along with this build, please feel free to send us your version of the sanding center, we would love to share them here on the blog or in our newsletter.

If you have not been following along but want to build your own sanding center, you can go back and read the posts from June 2011 until now.

I certainly invite you to add your thoughts or send along ideas that have worked well for you. Please feel free to add your comments here on the blog, on our Facebook page, or via Twitter. Let us know what you think!  -2Sand.com

A torsion box is essentually built like an airplane wing: Ribs provide the internal structure and the addition of relatively thin skins to the faces creates a very strong but lightweight box. The fact that the core of the torsion box is mostly air space makes it ideal as a downdraft sanding table with a few modifications to the internal ribs.

Begin with the base. I cut it from 3/4″ ply, 24 inches wide and 36 inches long. I then spent a bit of time laying out the rib locations on the face. This allowed me to space them correctly, and see how many ribs were needed. I laid the ribs out for approximately 6″ spacing on center. With the outside faces, the spacing was not exactly 6″ which is why I did the layout first.

I ripped several strips of the same ply 4″ wide, then crosscut them to length. The long sides were 36″, but the long internal ribs were about 1 1/2″ shorter. I left the stop set at 36″ and used two scraps of the same ply so the center ribs would be exactly right since we know that the ply is not really 3/4″ thick. The shorter cross ribs are all the same, but while the ends remained 4″ wide, the rest were ripped down to 3″ wide to create openings for air circulation in use.

I used the layout on the base to mark the locations of half lap cuts in the ribs. I marked one edge of each rib to keep orientation the same. Otherwise, any minor difference can warp the finished box. The dado was set up in my saw and all the half laps cut.

When you dry fit the ribs you will see that air can pass under the short cross ribs, but the long ribs divide the box into three sections. Holes could be drilled to allow for the airflow, but that could leave dust trapped in the box where it would be hard to remove. So I stacked the three long ribs together and cut semi circles in the bottom edge between the half laps. You can see in the dry fit photo that the airflow will now reach all sections, and dust can flow out.

With the ribs dry fit as shown AND the sides clamped in place to insure the proper fit, I marked where the long ribs sat on the base and drilled pilot holes through for screws. I glued and screwed the ribs in place, then glued and nailed the sides and ends in place as well. If your halp laps are cut well, everything should be very flat across the top. If not, sand it all flat before adding the top.

Finally, the pegboard top was cut to size and glued to the top of the assembled box. I used my vacuum bag to clamp it in place, but stacking weights on the top would work too. If you vacuum clamp your box, USE LIGHT PRESSURE. Too much vacuum can force the top down between the ribs or even crush it entirely.

Next time we will mount the dust port, attach the doors and hang the various sanding supplies on the cabinet.

 I certainly invite you to add your thoughts or send along ideas that have worked well for you. Please feel free to add your comments here on the blog, on our Facebook page, or via Twitter. Let us know what you think!  -2Sand.com

For this project, I chose some better quality casters. I am not so concerned about the weight rating, even four cheap casters at 150 lbs each will handle more than I can lift onto the table. But a sanding center will vibrate a lot and certainly will be pushed from side to side as we sand the edges of parts and such. So I wanted to use casters that locked not only the wheel, but also the swivel. I got a set of four with 1/2″ dia threaded studs for about $40.00

The stud was not long enough to reach all the way through the base frame, so I counter bored the holes and secured them. This was done before finally attaching the base frame. Now the cabinet is complete and can be easily moved around as I continue work. I have avoided building the top because all of this work on the cabinet is a lot easier without the big top.

The final step on the cabinet itself is to make and attach the doors. The doors are frame and pegboard panel, and are built exactly like the sides and back of the cabinet were, but with thinner stock.

I milled the stock at 3/4″ thick and used the same stub tenon technique to glue them together. A couple pair of simple hinges are all that is needed to hang the doors. In the next installment, we will create the “egg crate” structure that makes up the center of the torsion box top.

I certainly invite you to add your thoughts or send along ideas that have worked well for you. Please feel free to add your comments here on the blog, on our Facebook page, or via Twitter. Let us know what you think!  -2Sand.com

Cutting Half LapsBase frame attachedBase Frame Attached

Here at 2Sand.com our Downdraft Sanding Center build finally moves forward again! Things have been very busy and the build was put on hold for a bit, but since I think Santa will be bringing us some cool new casters for Christmas, I wanted to make sure that the carcase was ready by adding the base frame for the wheels.

Continuing with our theme of inexpensive construction, the frame was made from “two-by” stock, jointed and ripped to 1 1/2″ square stock. Since we know that the downdraft table top will overhang the smaller cabinet body, I wanted to insure that the wheels be set beyond the cabinet front and back to add stability.

So two of the frame members are 24″ long to extend a few inches front and back. The other two are 32″ so that the sides and back of the base are positioned on top of the base frame members for maximum support. These dimensions allow for the fame to be half-lapped together. Half Laps are simple but very sturdy joints that will take the stress of rolling the cart around and working on the top. The ends of the longer parts get half-lapped and the shorter parts are lapped 3″ in from each edge or 18″ on center.

Base Frame Assembled

Base Frame Attached

 I certainly invite you to add your thoughts or send along ideas that have worked well for you. Please feel free to add your comments here on the blog, on our Facebook page, or via Twitter. Let us know what you think!  -2Sand.com

In the last blog post we got the cabinet sides attached to the back. If you are building along, you’ll have noticed that this sub-assembly is pretty flimsy, so it is time to add a top and bottom deck to secure the parts and finish up the cabinet.

The material used here is not really important, the top will be covered by the torsion box that will be the downdraft sanding area, and the bottom is nothing more than a fixed shelf since the castors will be fixed to a 2×4 frame. I used a piece of scrap OSB for the top (the hole in the center serves no purpose, it was in the scrap) and the bottom was a piece of 3/4 birch ply I had. It just looks nicer than the OSB.

 These parts could be nailed or screwed through from the outside of the panels, but I chose to pocket screw them. Yes, it is just a work station, but I like things to look as nice as possible. For me, it is just more pleasant to use tools that look as good as they operate. Carefully measure your box opening and cut the panels to size, then drill the pockets and screw the parts together.

You’ll notice that I am using a clamp here. The point of a screw tends to separate parts a little before it grabs and pulls them back together. Since pocket screws go in at an angle, they tend to pull along the angle, mis-aligning the joint. clampint the joint prevents the initial separation, and the join remains where you placed it.

The same process is used to secure the bottom. If we were planning to attach casters directly to the bottom deck, then I probably would not trust the screws to hold since the deck is inside the box. This is a work station, and we can assume that it will see a lot of force pushing downward as we work. But since the top will overhang the cabinet, I want to casters to extend beyond the cabinet for stability, so we will be creating a frame under the cabinet to secure the casters. The entire box will rest on top of this frame so everything will be well supported. In the next post, we will assemble the frame and secure it to the box.

 I certainly invite you to add your thoughts or send along ideas that have worked well for you. Please feel free to add your comments here on the blog, on our Facebook page, or via Twitter. Let us know what you think!  -2Sand.com

You will need: 6 Stiles at 2″ x 1-1/4″ x 27″ ; 4 Rails at 2″ x 1-1/4″ x 17″ ; 2 Rails at 2″ x 1-1/4″ x 29″ ; 2 pegboard panels at 17″ x 24″ and one pegboard panel at 29″ x 24″

 The rails and stiles get a 1/4″ wide by 1/2″ deep groove centered along one of the 1-1/4″ edges to accept the panels and for the tongue and groove joints. Set your rip fence for 1/2″ from the blade and make two passes flipping the stick in between passes to get a 1/4″, perfectly centered groove. Now the ends of the rails need to get the tongues cut in them. The tongues need to be 1/4″ wide by 1/2″ long. I just set up the dado blade on my table saw, set the stop on my miter gauge to 1/2″ less than the rail length, and trimmed them flipping to center the tongue. Start with the blade set a bit low and adjust until the tongue fits snug in the groove for a good fit right off the saw. This is a stub tenon joint and is used on shaker and mission style cabinet doors. Once the parts have been cut and dry fit to insure that everything is right, the frames can be glued up.

 Assembling the panels is kept simple by butt jointing them together with the smaller side panels inside the back panel. I used pocket screws to keep it looking nice, but you can just screw through the back panel stiles into the sides. this assembly is a bit flimsy right now, but we will be adding a top and bottom plywood deck to lock it all together.

The doors will be built in a similar fashion in a future blog post, but as you can see even now, there is plenty of pegboard space available for hanging your sanding storage units that we designed and built previously. The lower deck will be attached to a 2×4 frame with wheels and the upper deck will hold the torsion box downdraft sanding surface.

 I certainly invite you to add your thoughts or send along ideas that have worked well for you. Please feel free to add your comments here on the blog, on our Facebook page, or via Twitter. Let us know what you think!  -2Sand.com

Seriously, like all of you, even though I buy all my bulk supplies from 2Sand.com, sometimes I need something today, or I notice things I need at yard sales or in the clearance rack at the home center. In the case of clearance items, if the price is good enough I will buy as much as I can. And I firmly believe that until needed, it is best to leave them in the original packaging, especially blister packs.

One of the advantages of the storage unit I am building is that the pegboard panels forming the sides and doors can be used equally well on both the inside and outside. So extra retail packs can be stored on the inside of the cabinet hanging on the walls.

Just use standard hooks. Virtually all of the retail packaging will be punched for hook hanging anyway. And storing them on the inside of the cabinet keeps them clean, organized and out of the way. As you need, you can open a pack up and transfer the contents to the proper rack on the outside ready for instant use.

In the next installment, we begin actual construction on the storage cabinet. I am designing the unit to use standard “two by” stock for the frame members, and pegboard sheet from the home center. You can pick up a few 2 x 4s for yourself if you want to follow along.

 I certainly invite you to add your thoughts or send along ideas that have worked well for you. Please feel free to add your comments here on the blog, on our Facebook page, or via Twitter. Let us know what you think!  -2Sand.com

Having designed and built the hangers for my sanding disks, the next objective was to organize and store my sanding belts. These shown are sized for Porter Cable’s 371 belt sander. Larger belts will work on the same system adjusted in size for whatever belts you use. Originally, I was planning to have a simple horizontal piece with slots to slip the belts into, but found that they did not always stay put, especially when the sanding station was being used or moved.

I tried to keep it very simple. A 1/2″ ply rib attached to a 1/4″ masonite hanger plate holds the belts while a 1/2″ cap strip overhangs at the top to keep the belts from slipping off. Since the cap strip keeps the belts in place via gravity, you can size the ply rib short enough to make removing the belt(s) easy. Too long and it is hard to remove the belts, but too short and they can curl when not in use. Build a sample for your belts to get the right proportions before making a bunch of them.

Note that I kept the hanger plates fairly narrow. I wanted them wide enough to hang flat on the pegboard, but not so wide that too much space was wasted. I also rounded the edges of the cap strip to make getting the belts off easier. These were simple to make once the dimensions were worked out, and I made up enough to store each grit that I keep on hand.

I am designing these as I go, figuring out what will work with the sanding station I laid out in the first post of this series. I certainly invite you to add your thoughts or send along ideas that have worked well for you. Please feel free to add your comments here on the blog, on our Facebook page, or via Twitter. Let us know what you think!  -2Sand.com