Problems sanding/finishing christmas ornaments

[JAB1]

:~ I am new to the forum and need help from those of you that have had this same problem...I am making Christmas ornaments ( Kits from Hut Products). I am having a very difficult time with sanding/finishing the end of the ornaments where the hardware is pressed in. I am not getting a good finish on them and am having problems with lathe lines. I am using sandpaper...grits 220 through 400....finishing with Huts wax sticks or Huts liquid friction finish....any ideas?....thanks....Allan

[joe greiner]

Probably need to start with a coarser grit, but it'd be easier to help with a pic or two for reference.

Joe

[JAB1]

I'll see if I can post a pic today...thanks..

[soundman]

some form of rotary sander would be the go.
its very difficult to get a good finish near the centre of rotation, regardless of speed or grit, because there is no..... stroke.
the abrasive tends to be piddleing arround in teiny tiny circles and cant get a decent go.
there are a nimber od rotation porewed small disk sanders out there (i need one too), or a small powertool powered disk.
that way you get a planitary action that swipes near the centre of rotation.

the same problem occurs with friction polishes..... you can get the whole thing to come up fine but the bit near the centre on the end:~ :no: :~ .

Havn't figured out how to solve the problem with polish yet.

perhapd a pad on a roraty sander.

cheers

[scooter]

Small power sander using sandpaper glued onto flat of inner tube valve stem.

Use drill for power source.

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

Also, when applying a friction finish you really need to crank up the lathe RPM as you near the centre axis, 'cos otherwise the timbers moving so slowly that it's difficult to build up sufficient friction to set the polish.

[rodent]

As skew said crank her up when polishing 2000+ but slow 500+ when sanding keep moving the sand paper and try going up to 800 grit remember the higher the grit the less your taking off . so gently does it .