Thread: Best speed for power sanding

Depends on the piece dia, but I have mine at 900 up to 100mm items, even slower for larger ones

With faceplate pieces on the VS lathe, a couple of notches below the speed of the last cuts.

Is that helpful Peter?

Nah, not so fast that the abrasive just skips over the surface and generates destuctive heat. Not so slow that I'm there'll all day and/or getting distinct scratch marks.

I have the lathe at around 300 to 500r.p.m and the drill at the point just before the motor starts to whine like a constipated banshee - one of those real quality drills - $25 at Bunnings That was a big help then eh?!

Nah, not so fast that the abrasive just skips over the surface and generates destructive heat. Not so slow that I'm there'll all day and/or getting distinct scratch marks

I kinda go along with this and Vern's thoughts, but it does vary somewhat as what your sanding and so on. There really isn't any great formula or set of rules other than common sense.

I agree with the others. I can't give you a number. I turn the speed of the bowl down quite a bit, maybe 500 to 800 rpm. Then I run the drill faster but not fast enough to get the sandpaper hot. I feel like heat and speed are the enemy of good sanding. I try to let the paper do the cutting. Wish I could give you numbers but I can't see the readout on my lathe and my drill doesn't have any readouts so it's all just a guess.

Lathe at 150 rpm, drill about 1/2 to 2/3 which is maybe 600-800 rpm. Higher speeds with light pressure seem to lessen the sanding scratches, especially with the coarser grades. Sometimes stop the lathe to work on the bad spots, but then go over it at speed with lathe turning.

Originally Posted by Sturdee

I'm about to adapt and install my old 5 speed drill press with a flexible hose for power sanding at the lathe.

Gents, forgive my ignorance in the substance of this thread, but exactly how does a drill press work in conjunction with a lathe for sanding? Obviously I'm missing some fundamentals in my whole turning basics.

Wayne

Originally Posted by Hardenfast

Gents, forgive my ignorance in the substance of this thread, but exactly how does a drill press work in conjunction with a lathe for sanding? Obviously I'm missing some fundamentals in my whole turning basics.

Wayne

I think he means a flexible drive. One end connected to the drill press and the other has a sanding disc attached. Quite a good option, I did this many years ago before I got my angle drill.

I think the most important thing is the speed the wood is rotating rather than the speed of the drill. I like to sand slowly except when using a inertia sander, so I would tend to go with the middle speed on the drill press and keep the lathe speed slowish (500 - 1000 rpm depending on the size of the wood.)

Hi
Using a drill press seems a complicated way of sanding . As ttit indicated you can buy drills dirt cheap nowdays . Allso the sanding works best when you run the drill in reverse . Not sure if you could do this if you are powering it from a drillpress .
I usually run the lathe at minimum speed, about 250rpm and the drill about 2/3power .

Ted

Thanks guys for the input.

The reason why I want to use a drill press rather than a hand held drill for power sanding is that I already have the old 5 speed drill press. It has been languishing under the house stored away for a rainy day after I bought a better drill press a year ago.

I also have a flexible drive that fits in the the drill press. Had it for about 15 years and only used occasionally for drilling in tight spots. It has a proper chuck that allows all the normal sanding pads and drill bits to be used and it has a comfortable handle as well.

I also have a space behind the lathe where the unit can go. All I need to do is shorten the central pillar to make it fit. However changing the belts will be a bit awkward so I think I'll start of with 600rpm ( the lowest) and see how it will go.

Peter.

Originally Posted by turnerted

Hi
Using a drill press seems a complicated way of sanding . As ttit indicated you can buy drills dirt cheap nowdays . Allso the sanding works best when you run the drill in reverse . Not sure if you could do this if you are powering it from a drillpress .

One advantage of using a drill press (or similar power drive) is that it runs much quieter than a hand drill. A significant factor if you are sanding day after day.

Flexible shafts have next to no weight and cause less fatigue after long sanding sessions. Something I appreciate.

All the power drills I have used jet blast fine dust away from dust collection hoods, including towards your head increasing the risk of it penetrating dust masks. Flexible shafts that put the power source at a distance from the sanding zone eliminate this effect.

Isn't it possible to figure eight the drive belt on a drill press to reverse the direction? Wouldn't be a solution for Sturdee who won't have ready access to his the way he is going to set it up and not anywhere as convenient as just pressing a button.

Is anyone using a power drive other than hand drills or drill presses?

.....

I had a look at air tools, in order to get the benefit of a 45* angle head drill. Only wrinkle is that this tool needs a lot of compressor capacity and so is big bikkies.

For me, and my warped bowls, I have the lathe at about 15 to 20 rpm. No way I can keep a sander on warped bowls at anything near 50 rpm. Fortunately, I have a 3 phase motor and converter that I had programmed to run that slow. My old PM 3520A lathe would do that, but the company upped the minimum speed to 50 rpm.

As for the sander, I use an angle drill, not the right angle drill, but the close quarters type that is more like 60 degrees or so. A bit better for getting all the way down inside the bowl. I have slow and high speed models, and mostly use the slow speed ones. I like the drill speed to be in the 600 to 900 rpm range. The slower disc speeds just do a better job. Too high of a speed and the disc does seem to bounce around more, and skip spots. You can reduce the heat problem with less pressure, but at the slower speeds, the weight of the drill is enough.

There was an article on Woodturning Design, one of our turning mags here, about some one who did high speed sanding with a Makita drill that runs at about 10,000 rpm, but he slowed it down to about 6,000. The idea is to just brush the surface. Well, I dug out one of my high speed drills (3200 rpm) and tried out high speeds. It does work, but.... On bowls with a sharp transition area inside the bowl (closer to a right angle, or a small radius) it wants to grab and skip. On flatter curves, it does fairly well. Because I was used to more pressure on the drill, I did have a few heat problems, mostly on the discs, and not on the wood. It does throw the dust out more than slower speeds. It does do the job a bit faster, maybe. I will stick to slower speeds, but a bit faster than I used to use, which was in the 600 and less rpm.

I have one pneumatic drill that I used for a while, and it kept the compressor running non stop. The angle drills are a lot cheaper to run.

robo hippy

Yeah, I'd prefer a 45* or so angled head but there isn't one on the market here in Aus in 240v. A Milwaukee is made in it but not distributed here.