Thread: Sanding the inside of bowls

I think that the title of this thread has been used before, however the content is different. My wife thought the comment about bleeding on the finish was appropriate, quilters beleive the same when a needle goes through the finger!!!

Power sanding helps, however it is not the answer to everything. Being able to reverse the direction of the rotation of rotation helps a very great deal. Mike Mahoney believes that you should reverse the direction after every grit, that is probably a bit of overkill but if you are having trouble with a spot it can work. Another bit to watch is both harmonic distortion (the speed you spin it at distorts the bowl and can "hide" a pocket in a bowl from sanding) and thermal distortion which can make sanding some bits difficult.

Originally Posted by PAH1

.............. Another bit to watch is both harmonic distortion (the speed you spin it at distorts the bowl and can "hide" a pocket in a bowl from sanding) and thermal distortion which can make sanding some bits difficult.

Dunno about the harmonics bit but there is definitely something that causes some spots to be missed no matter how long you keep sanding with the piece spinning. I often just bite the bullet and sand the tough spot by hand - good old back and forth elbow grease gets rid of a bad patch a lot quicker than you would think

I don't think my lathe will turn in the other direction.

Originally Posted by ElizaLeahy

I don't think my lathe will turn in the other direction.

Just stand on the other side then

Cheers

very funny david.

For little boxes where you can't easily get your hand in (I've lost count of how many times I've tried sanding with a little scrap of paper barely held between the tips of two fingers. ) then you can cut up old rubber thongs (the flip-flop kind ) and wrap the sandpaper about that.

Originally Posted by ElizaLeahy

...you know, just walk around to the other side

Originally Posted by Skew ChiDAMN!!

you can cut up old rubber thongs (the flip-flop kind )

I don't have that kind....

Originally Posted by Ed Reiss

...you know, just walk around to the other side

I always sand from the back of the lathe. It feels more comfortable to hold the paper on the top of the turned piece with the timber spinning away rather than from underneath as in the conventional method. Probably got a lot to do with being a "south paw". I can't sand inside a bowl or any hollow form with my right hand so I go around the other side of the lathe and sand with my left. "Conventional" is just another word for "Normal". So, what is normal anyway?

Cheers
Shorty

Originally Posted by TTIT

I often just bite the bullet and sand the tough spot by hand - good old back and forth elbow grease gets rid of a bad patch a lot quicker than you would think

That's what I do. You only need to get the fluff off the top of the end grain, then its all tickety boo.

Originally Posted by TTIT

Dunno about the harmonics bit but there is definitely something that causes some spots to be missed no matter how long you keep sanding with the piece spinning. I often just bite the bullet and sand the tough spot by hand - good old back and forth elbow grease gets rid of a bad patch a lot quicker than you would think

I once made some bowls from turpentine, they were thin when finally finished and were interesting to sand. You could actually see the speed distortion in the rims, speeding up and slowing down the lathe altered the wave form on the rim. Just slowing down the lathe generally fixes this one. I agree about the hand sanding, there are times you just have to do it. It is also a lot less detectable than most would think.

One good with hand-sanding is, if you sand along the grain, you don't usually need to go down to as fine a grit as you do when power-sanding - which is usually across the grain.

When hand-sanding I can often stop at 320!

I usually only sand the little rough bits smooth then go back to having the lathe on. I haven't done end grain bowls yet though. Tommorrow's project at 's. (Seein' everyone else is starting early. )