mds2 Posted September 15, 2011 Report Share Posted September 15, 2011 I am making a box made of three interlocking cylinders. What is the best way to go about sanding these so that I do not leave any flat spots on the sides? The outside diameter each cylinder is 4", made of hard maple. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimV Posted September 15, 2011 Report Share Posted September 15, 2011 Do you have a lathe or drill press where you can spin the cylinders? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mds2 Posted September 15, 2011 Author Report Share Posted September 15, 2011 No lathe, but I do have a drill press. one problem is that two of the cylinders are cut out on one side (think kinda like pacman, but not nearly as dramatic, I can post a picture later). My concern would be with it spinning it would be off balance and the cutout would be a nice way to lose a finger. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
runningwood Posted September 15, 2011 Report Share Posted September 15, 2011 what if you hot glue a block to the end of the cylinder, then drive chucked bit into the block and spin on your drill/driver over sand paper. This way you can vary speed as you see fit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brice_Arnold Posted September 15, 2011 Report Share Posted September 15, 2011 You might think about clamping the flat ends of the cylinder in a vise and using long strips of emery cloth wrapped around the body and sand in kind of push pull motion with both arms. This setup would allow you to sand half of the cylinder at a time. You would obviously want to rotate the cylinder in the vise to get even sanding but it would eliminate chance of flat spots. I hope that makes sense 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beechwood Chip Posted September 15, 2011 Report Share Posted September 15, 2011 Can you sand them before you cut the chunk out? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mds2 Posted September 15, 2011 Author Report Share Posted September 15, 2011 You might think about clamping the flat ends of the cylinder in a vise and using long strips of emery cloth wrapped around the body and sand in kind of push pull motion with both arms. This setup would allow you to sand half of the cylinder at a time. You would obviously want to rotate the cylinder in the vise to get even sanding but it would eliminate chance of flat spots. I hope that makes sense Yes that makes perfect sense. Thank you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mds2 Posted September 15, 2011 Author Report Share Posted September 15, 2011 Can you sand them before you cut the chunk out? I wish I would have considered that yesterday. LOL. Well hind-site is 20/20. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mds2 Posted September 15, 2011 Author Report Share Posted September 15, 2011 here is a picture of one of them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bywc Posted September 16, 2011 Report Share Posted September 16, 2011 Spindle sander would work fine for this task. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mds2 Posted September 19, 2011 Author Report Share Posted September 19, 2011 Thanks everyone for the tips. I ended up using my drill press as spindle sander. it worked really well. Here are pre and post sanding pics: 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davestanton Posted September 19, 2011 Report Share Posted September 19, 2011 looks good. A little forum know how is why I lurk around here as well. These guys are lateral thinkers, my type of head space! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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