Sanding Idea (making your own better sanding mop)

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Originally Posted by Alan Malmstrom

I'm wondering how the thing would be made too. Perhaps you would cut it out like this attachment and put paper or cardboard in between each layer. That sure would be a lot of cutting of strands for each layer though. I bet it would work good though. I'm going to try it. You know you can buy stranded rope like abrasive stuff on amazon but that would be hard to make a mop out of.

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Alan Malmstrom "Junior Member"

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Here is the link to make your own sanding mops, seems pretty simple.

http://www.woodworkingtalk.com/f27/m...ing-mop-24022/

I have bought a sanding mop from www.stockroomsupply.com and use it a lot. This mop is klingspor stearate coated and glued to a double woven egyptian cloth and is very flexible and strong. It has a gold colored aluminum oxide abrasive that sands far superiour to sandpaper in my opinion. I tried to make my own sanding mop out of regular sandpaper and it didn't work good at all. The paper has to be held together very strongly to be effective as a sanding mop and I now only use aluminum oxide because it lasts 3 times longer and sands 3 times better than regular sanding paper.

Now the original post from deckard talks about fold your paper and cut it how you want it which I don't understand. It also talks about cutting into individual strands but I don't understand how this is achieved either. Thats why I posted earlier a png file showing how I think the guy means it should be done but I'm not sure if it is accurate. Does anybody else have any idea about the fold your paper comment in the original post.

I bought some 220 grit WallSand by Norton that says 5X life of paper and says its a sharp cilicon carbide abrasive. This stuff is 4 3/16 w x 11 1/4 long. You could cut it the same demetions as the original sanding mop paper only istead of making the cuts 1/4" inch do every strand, which by the way would be a monumental task if you build several layers. Here is the dimentions of the sanding mop show in a diagram:
Attachment 45424
http://forum.carvewright.com/images/misc/pencil.pngI will make mine like this and simply use all the spacers from my original sanding mop. Perhaps in a week or so I will have it done because there are several other things I need to do at the moment.

Alan

Sorry guys didn't really expect any questions on this so hadn't looked at it dont spend alot of time on forums.

Anyway basically

start simple this whole thing takes about 5 min max

take a package you buy believe it's about 4 or 5 sheets in a package they are rectangle in shape.

Fold the entire package (out of the cardboard obviously) in half

Take this to your drill press and drill a 1/4 hole threw the middle of the whole thing.

Take a 1/4 bolt that is threaded all the way to the end the length isn't really important but an inch or longer is best you'll see why when your done.

put the bold and a 1/4 inch washer threw the whole thing and put a regular ol nut and washer on the other side

tighten this a bit tight but dont over do it.


NOW this part is gonna be different for everyone. I have an old bandsaw with a crappy blade in it I use for scrap but a pair of good sheers or a utility knife will work ok.

Cut the end off the folded end so that it makes the whole thing into separate squares cut the whole thing so you got as good as you can get it into a square. Like I said the bandsaw makes this a 30 second job especilally the last part.

Your gonna cut this thing into basically a bit ol plus sign +

Kind of hard to explain but the image someone put up on this thread is a pretty good description.

This is where some trial and error is gonna come in along with some experience on what type of effect you want how fine you want it to sand and how fast you want it done.

now that you have your big ol plus sign start cutting again an ol bandsaw blade makes this near instant but how you cut it dont effect the final product

start cutting straight lines in your plus sign toward the center make sure to follow the lines in the paper this is extremely important other wise it wont last 5 min.

If I want a very very fine soft sanding mop I cut along every single thread this will make something that when finished will be as soft as a babby butt if you cut along every third thread you got something when done that will be a bit stiffer but will last longer and cut faster. So like I said it's up to you trial and error but you really cant go wrong if it's not the desiered effect when done dont throw it away it might work on the next project.


Now that you have all that cut out loosen your nut that runs threw it DONT take it off big mistake if you do this. Take all the pieces and shuffel them as evenly as you can but it's not critical nor is it hard.

Retighten the nut as tight as you can get it you wont hurt the paper.


as far as speed? I put it on a varriable speed cordless drill the speed is gonna effect the sanding speed along with how the paper effects the wood the same as any sanding pad.

Is this dangerious? Well I'm not gonna say it's perfectly safe nobody gonna get hurt and sue me hehe....just kidding but no I've been using this for duno 15 years and never gotten hurt and cant say I'm mr safty by any means. I have all kinds of tools including the carvewright that can be dangerious.

Should u use a face mask when using this? I would it's a spinning piece of fiber cloth with sand attached to it. It's gonna fling some stuff off it no doubt but I dont consider it that bad and it works what can I say it's cheep it works and it last a pretty long time.


When you sand with this incase your wondering you sand edge down with the drill on it's side not top flat side down


You can if you like also make mini ones of the same thing and use them on a dremel ect I've tried that as well it worked ok on small things.

I'll try to take a look at this sooner if anymore questions come up.

Ya know, a picture is worth a thousand words and it would really help some who can't see this in their mind. But I like your idea.

CJ

k read that thread

same basic thing but geesh they are really spending alot of time and effort making it.

I know what they are doing would work but seems like over kill from what I've been doing for years

The problem from what I see in what they are doing there is with the detail I'm am achieving on the carvewright it would wipe out that detail.

The drywall cloth is alot more flexy and if you cut the strands out or 3 strands per the effect is a mop that will virtually get in every nook and craney without effort.

If you make whats in that post and it works for ya supper. what I'm making only differs in the fact that I cut it a bit different and its different paper I dont use all the templates ect as I've never really had the need to.

I posted another reply at the bottom of the thread that (maybe) helps clarify this abit.

Yes to cut every strand would be a monumental task that I probably would do if I didn't use the technique I put in the reply

I cut the paper in a square it makes the mop a bit smaller than I think your using but it suits my needs on a cordless drill.

Basically when I say fold the paper I fold it in half and then cut the fold which makes every piece a square identical from the rest.

I also do not use any spacers no paper or carbord between the sand paper as "I" dont quite understand the purpose in that.

The reason I cut every strand out is I wanted and have always wanted an ultra fine sanding mop that will get everywhere without taking any of the detail out that I worked so hard to put in.



I appoligize to everyone as it seems I'm a very poor explainer on how to put this together I'm more of a show and tell person.

It really is very simple takes me like I said under 5 min to do the whole thing but I hope others can glean enough out of what I've explained to get something out of this.

I haven't tried this yet but I'm going to and post #15 seems to be a pretty good explination to me. I'm off to Scout camp next week but when I return I'll give this a try.

Another way to use drywall pads is to cut them into 1.75" strips you get about 6 out of each pad. Then drill hole in middle and cut end as described here.
I also just found a couple sanding products at Harbor Frieght I'm going to try. I respond with results. Product numbers are 91371 and 96948.http://www.harborfreight.com/4-inch-...ush-91371.html and Attachment 51375Attachment 51376http://www.harborfreight.com/4-inch-...all-96948.html

Small 4" brissels are too stiff cuts into project quickly but pad works good.

t
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This is what I use to remove those fuzzy critters. I bought it from WalMart it had batteries but I converted it to run off an old power supply I had . You can also get extra brushes for it.