With a couple of pertinent threads running, one on air sanders and one on keeping things flat or fair, I had SWMBO shoot some video yesterday afternoon on that platter. http://s35.photobucket.com/albums/d1...nt=150Sand.flv Also answers a couple topics on usenet, so it was worth sacrificing my nose and turning off the collector for the shots. Some day I'll figure out how to mute the audio on its own.
As you can see, the sander is used as another lathe tool, supported on the rest, where it can be used with almost no pressure and where it can be angled so as to sand in the center when convex shapes are smoothed, saving the edges for inside. The lathe must be rotating or it'll dig in, it's so aggressive. It does, however, cut down on those sanding artifacts a lot of people experience from trying to support the paper on the work, allows sanding basically across the gouge ridging or the sanding scratches of the former grit initially, then more or less against the rotation or with it, if you think that is effective. Sometimes it's the only way to work a contour. This is pass three and four on 150 grit, the first two were too noisy, and you can see that things are flattening nicely.
On the platter I then ran 240, set with water, ran 320, set with water, and final sanded at 400 with the grain. Birch is not as tight as cherry or maple, or it would get a machine at 400 with velcro backed.
It's a great way to control the tool and take measured amounts off to keep things fair or flat, because you have the little finger to use against the rest. You can also use the flex shaft for sanding with the finer grits off the lathe, but I would recommend only the soft back stuff. Comes in handy for "natural" edge work which is a tad rough after drying, even if you loaded up some paper when it was wet. Got one I turned before the dispatcher paged me out this morning that I'll post later today if I get the chance.
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