Thread: What are you using for power sanding on your lathe?

I've used air tools for a few different things including small rotary sanders but in general I don't like them.
The CFM ratings on air tools (especially cheaper ones) are usually much larger in practice than the manufacturers claim which often means the compressor then need to run more often.
The hand pieces get really cold so I find I have to wear globes
And running a 2kW compressor to power a few hundred watt tool seem highly inefficient to me.

For lathe work I often use my right angled DDA351 Makita battery powered drill.
I have 6 batteries for my other Makita stuff so I never run out of juice.

These drills were in this position from yesterday after finishing a bowl and cleaning up. This is the bowl I had just turned and sanded with the said tools.

I have seen quite a few power sanders meant for panel beaters/painters being used for power sanding on a lathe. Others I've seen in action include a couple that are battery powered angle grinders with a foam backed sanding disk, these seem to be popular and they certainly work. Thinking about my own air tools, I'm not sure getting into and around a turning bowl with an air hose attached, could at times be difficult.

I myself use two battery powered drills, one an old 12V and the other a near new 18V, both from Aldi. I have found variable speed to be useless if the variable speed is obtained by the amount of pull on the switch. I prefer to use either the low or high speed setting on my drills and adjust the speed of the turning to suit.

I'm constantly learning and my current thoughts are similar to saw cutting, let the saw cut at the speed the teeth can remove material correctly. Too fast with power sanding and the sanding material seems to skim along the surface somewhat, and I can say when that happens I have to go back and start again.

I adjust the rotation speed to ensure there is a plume of dust emanating from the spinning disk of the drill held sanding disk. This seems to work best and the finished results to me, are quite nice.

Mick.

Sanding_Tools_IMG_20230528_124417.jpg

Sanded_Bowl_IMG_20230528_130255.jpg

Originally Posted by BobL

I've used air tools for a few different things including small rotary sanders but in general I don't like them.
The CFM ratings on air tools (especially cheaper ones) are usually much larger in practice than the manufacturers claim which often means the compressor then need to run more often.
The hand pieces get really cold so I find I have to wear globes
And running a 2kW compressor to power a few hundred watt tool seem highly inefficient to me.

For lathe work I often use my right angled DDA351 Makita battery powered drill.
I have 6 batteries for my other Makita stuff so I never run out of juice.

Hi Bob . Its great to see you out posting .

Yes the cold is one thing I don't like in air tools. And running the compressor. The less the better. The air tools though are more manageable and nimble maybe except for the air line out back. And I really like air sanders for the wet sanding ability. Not that that is going to happen on the lathe. What I must have is a random orbital action though I think . They finish so well.
I just googled electric random orbital and saw this . Its 80 mm though which is a little large for what I need maybe .
https://www.totaltools.com.au/89013-...RoCx_wQAvD_BwE

Untitled sander 1.png

Rob

Originally Posted by Optimark

I have seen quite a few power sanders meant for panel beaters/painters being used for power sanding on a lathe. Others I've seen in action include a couple that are battery powered angle grinders with a foam backed sanding disk, these seem to be popular and they certainly work. Thinking about my own air tools, I'm not sure getting into and around a turning bowl with an air hose attached, could at times be difficult.

I myself use two battery powered drills, one an old 12V and the other a near new 18V, both from Aldi. I have found variable speed to be useless if the variable speed is obtained by the amount of pull on the switch. I prefer to use either the low or high speed setting on my drills and adjust the speed of the turning to suit.

Thanks Mick.
I want to sand this sort of spindle work thing below. What suits bowl sanding probably suits spindle sanding as well I suppose. Random orbital I think would help. Its mainly for the flatter spots as well not the fine details. That'll have to be by hand.

IMG_2268a.jpg

I don't know whether you'd notice any real benefits to using a ROS instead of a plain rotary sander (I use 1 1/2"(?) PB sanding disks in a drill) mainly because the surface feed rates aren't really comparable unless your lathe is capable of work at around 150rpm or less.

(I haven't actually done any paper towel calc's but I'm pretty sure the figures are around there for a 1" dia. spindle. That figure drops very quickly as dia. goes up.)

Any faster and you're "mis-using" the ROS in a similar way to people who wonder why it cuts worse when they push harder.



Mind you, it's always nice to have good ROS to hand.

Originally Posted by auscab

Thanks Mick.
I want to sand this sort of spindle work thing below. What suits bowl sanding probably suits spindle sanding as well I suppose. Random orbital I think would help. Its mainly for the flatter spots as well not the fine details. That'll have to be by hand.

IMG_2268a.jpg

I would not use any mechanical sanders on spindle work and think if you are then you are doing it wrong.

Originally Posted by BobL

I've used air tools for a few different things including small rotary sanders but in general I don't like them.
The CFM ratings on air tools (especially cheaper ones) are usually much larger in practice than the manufacturers claim which often means the compressor then need to run more often.
The hand pieces get really cold so I find I have to wear globes
And running a 2kW compressor to power a few hundred watt tool seem highly inefficient to me.

For lathe work I often use my right angled DDA351 Makita battery powered drill.
I have 6 batteries for my other Makita stuff so I never run out of juice.

My experience is exactly the same - except my battery tools are Ryobi. I recently purchased a Ryobi 90 degree battery drill which does the job of power sanding well enough for my requirements - and I have plenty of Ryobi batteries and chargers around the shed.

Most of the time though, I do not "power" sand anything on the lathe. I have a couple of friction sanders I bought when I first started playing with a lathe. One of these is permanently set up for 2 inch discs and the other for 3 inch discs, and these are what I use more than 90% of the time.

I use a cheap ozito 240v pistol drill occasionally as I dont power sand much. I prefer inertia sanders. As stated, air tools draw too much air and so become a false noisy economy, battery drills for me arnt much better, prefer the 240 volt instead lower purchase cost and no flat battery issues.

The DIY amongst us, inertia are very easy to make out of polyurethane skate wheels, screwed rod and hardwood

I made my own version of one of these...

GUINEVERE - GUINEVERE SETS - King Arthur'''s Tools

Kirjes Basic Sanding System - Classic Hand Tools Limited

The motor I used is reversible, so I only needed one flexible shaft for sanding in both directions.

A flexible shaft is less tiring to hold than a drill and it allows you to get into spots that a drill won't and the motor doesn't have gears, so it runs with a quiet hum!

Either have motor on movable stand or hang above lathe.

Rob, how close is your 'tool grinding' lathe? If close enough, maybe you could run a flex shaft off that.

Originally Posted by NeilS

I made my own version of one of these...

GUINEVERE - GUINEVERE SETS - King Arthur'''s Tools

Kirjes Basic Sanding System - Classic Hand Tools Limited

The motor I used is reversible, so I only needed one flexible shaft for sanding in both directions.

A flexible shaft is less tiring to hold than a drill and it allows you to get into spots that a drill won't and the motor doesn't have gears, so it runs with a quiet hum!

Either have motor on movable stand or hang above lathe.

Rob, how close is your 'tool grinding' lathe? If close enough, maybe you could run a flex shaft off that.

That looks interesting Neil. My tool grinding Lathe is still to far away for that but it will be placed close to the end of my big lathe one day . Ive got to build some timber racks first to get a pile of timber out of the way and over head. Then Ill have the space.

Rob

Originally Posted by NeilS

I made my own version of one of these...

GUINEVERE - GUINEVERE SETS - King Arthur'''s Tools

Kirjes Basic Sanding System - Classic Hand Tools Limited

The motor I used is reversible, so I only needed one flexible shaft for sanding in both directions.

A flexible shaft is less tiring to hold than a drill and it allows you to get into spots that a drill won't and the motor doesn't have gears, so it runs with a quiet hum!

Either have motor on movable stand or hang above lathe.

Rob, how close is your 'tool grinding' lathe? If close enough, maybe you could run a flex shaft off that.

I like that idea Neil. Where did you source your flex shaft for it?

Originally Posted by Picko

I like that idea Neil. Where did you source your flex shaft for it?

I have tried a few. As I also run in reverse, I found that those that warned to only run clockwise failed early (the inner shaft twists apart) when I did run them anti-clockwise. Some that don't carry that warning also have the same problem. It not only stops rotating when that happens but the whole shaft then twists around itself in a knot and also around your your arm...

The one I found the best has a grease nipple at the bearing ends and keeping it greased has given me good service with those. It does have a warning about not running in reverse, but I still do that about half the time and the last one of those has kept going for quite a few years now...

LASER Flexi Drill Shaft - 36in./915mm Long 2467 [AU] 5018341024673 | eBay

If you were only to run it clockwise any one of the locally supplied ones would probably do...

915mm FLEXIBLE DRILL SHAFT Connector Extender Extension Power Driving AU SELLER 4712755623194 | eBay

My motor runs at a lower speed than most drills and I rarely use sanding pads on it that are more than 60mm diam, so that is why I probably get away with running it in reverse along with the regular greasing.

Here is my setup...

Power sanding setup 2 - sm.jpg

Rob, I have one of these bowl sanders. They do not require power ...



This one is available from McJing (I have a different brand) ...

Just a moment...

Regards from Perth

Derek

Thanks Derek. They look good too. That's the inertia type yeah? Maybe more for bowl sanding? I'm going to get into a few bowls some day but the first inquiry's I have are just to see if any bowl sanding set ups may suit spindle sanding.
Here's a better explanation of why I'm asking these questions .
I do of course sand spindles by hand. Finding out what bowl turners like with power sanding may suit some of the large spindles I do. It's not for small 50 or 75mm spindles or less that I'm thinking of like table or stool legs. When I do large spindles like the column on these tables below I shape on the lathe with gouges and scrapers and skew where I feel safe. The skew which I practice all the time is to risky on some parts of such a one off large job . One mistake like a big catch with the skew and I'm neck deep in trouble maybe having to start again with a new column glue up if something goes wrong. Its not worth the risk with that damned skew. The gouge or scraping will leave more marks needing sanding and maybe there is a place for power sanding on the large flat sweeps. That's why I asked. I have used my ROS 150mm Festo on such things on the lathe. Not with it spinning under power but just rotating by hand mostly. Maybe a powered smaller sander may be better though?
The two columns on this Cherry Trestle table was turned and sanded by hand . I have a larger one coming up to do that is a single column Oak and 200mm diameter. The one in the drawing . Which is why I'm inquiring about power sanding. That's a round table with one column.
IMG_3343aa.jpg IMG_3373a.jpg IMG_2455a.jpg

Rob