Thread: Sanding Childrens Jigsaw Puzzles

Hi Russ,
I wood suppose there are to many ins & outs as I was thinking of a small Router Bit, & maybe what you can't get at, then the Hand Sanding comes in.

Removing the arris reduces the 'sharpness' of the edges (obviously!) but also reduces the likelihood of splinters in little fingers & makes the pieces slightly easier to place.

You don't need to do anything as drastic as breaking out a router! Just use a small piece of, say, 120/180 grit sandpaper and give the edges a quick pass or two by hand. They should still look square(ish), the idea is just to take the crispness away. So the whole thing should be sanded in a matter of mere minutes.

Thanks issatree and Skew!
I really did not consider Dremel routering. I perhaps I should have used an bigger blade to give me a larger kerf so that the pieces fit together with a little play. This then leaves me with arris sanding so as little hands can put the puzzle together easier.

Russell when I make my segmented pictures I use a cheaper version of the dremmel & use either the small rotary files or the small sanding drums & find after a bit of practice I can get a good result,they allow me to reach into the tighter curves & I can get a more uniform result than hand sanding/ Cheers Peter

Thanks Peter for your reply. After doing some hand sanding today, I had already began to lean toward the Dremel and your comments have given me more confidence. I will get some more 6mm sanding drum thingys and give it a go.

In my never ending quest to be as lazy as possible, I would attempt to use a flap sander thing which uses soft bristles behind the sand paper so it slightly wraps around the edges and arrises them. You could also use slashed sand paper and lay it over a soft broom head and just swipe the pieces over it. This should arise the edges enough without marking the surface too much, but u can always sand the surface after easily eough.

I do all sorts of rounding over and sanding etc. A set of jewellers files can be had quite cheaply, and a collection of disposable nail files made of ccardboard etc, plas the flapper wheel, and fine grit sandpaper. The set of jewellers files are my favourite.