On Tue, 22 Jul 2008 07:36:53 -0700 (PDT), N Hurst
wrote:

I finished the shaping portion of some fluted columns last night and
ran into a problem when it same time to sand out the char marks my
router bit left in the wood.

I was routing the flutes in 8' 1x4 red oak, and while my long runs
were pretty good (only 4-5 char marks over 14 7 foot flutes), I still
charred up about half of the beginning and end of the flutes. The
magazine I got the fluting jig out of said to shape a section of hack
saw blade to the flute and scrape the charred wood out.

Well, I tried that and it worked decently where the burn marks were in
the middle of a run, but at the cupped beginning and ends, it was
horrible. I scraped and scraped and got nowhere. I eventually wound up
putting a 1/4" sanding disc from my dremel kit into my drill and
carefully sanding them until the charred wood was sanded away.

Now I know the best way to take care of this is to not let it happen
in the first place, but is there a better way to sand those areas? I
thought about taking the router to it and just barely tapping the
bottom, but I didn't want to risk messing up the whole thing in an
attempt to take care of a little charred wood.

Thanks,
Nathan

When I make fluted columns or pilasters I make the material at least
six inches longer than the finished length so that I can trim off the
entry and exit scars.

If I have to take out chatter or a burn mark I plane a block to the
thickness that matches the diameter of the flute and use it as a
sanding block.

I find that the sticky back paper that comes in rolls works best for
this.

I own a Fein but find the hand method to be superior.



Regards, Tom.

Thos. J. Watson - Cabinetmaker
http://home.comcast.net/~tjwatson1/
tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet