On Aug 28, 11:23 pm, Larry Blanchard wrote:
On Thu, 28 Aug 2008 17:11:10 -0700, LEGEND65 wrote:
I am doing more small production runs of small dovetailed boxes,
between 6-9" length of sides and 3-5" high. Currently I do all the
sanding after assembly with a ROS (the small Festool) and then a bit
of hand sanding and with a stack of 20 boxes to go through 3 grits
it's not the least bit fun. If I could totally eliminate the ROS and
go straight to hand sanding that would be fantastic.

If by edge sander you mean a stationary belt sander, I have trouble
controlling one. Just a tiny amount more pressure with one hand than
the other and I get tapered sides.

That's good info. I'm not looking to remove a lot of material, just
to clean things up. I think people usually have around 100 grit on
them, I don't know how they behave with 150-180 on them. I can always
set up a jig to hold the box square to the belt if need be.

I find I spend less time sanding if I use more than 3 grits. I usually
run boards through my thickness sander at 60 grit after planing and then
do 80, 100, 120, 150, 180 and sometimes even 220 with an ROS. Only takes
a couple of passes with each grit. I seem to spend more time changing
sandpaper and workpieces than I do sanding :-). Of course, with 20 boxes
you wouldn't run into that as much/

Also, if possible I sand before I cut and assemble. Lots easier. In fact
I often finish before assembly as well.

I start with 4/4 rough cedar which I resaw in half, then it goes
through the drum sander with 60 grit. It takes quite a few passes but
I can be fairly aggressive with each pass with the soft cedar and I
don't get any tearout around the knots. Then I do 2 light passes each
side with 120 grit. Then I do all the machining and assembly. Then
it's 80, 100, 150 with the ROS. Then I search for swirlies and hit
any of those with 100 and 120 by hand, then everything with 150 and
180 by hand. I also put a slight chamfer on the top edge of the base
of the box with 80 grit on a sanding block.

So my two avenues to explore to make this go better is a different
sanding technique and a different dovetail jig that might give me more
repeatable results. I currently have the small Leigh Super.
Sometimes I get it set up better than others, but it's never quite
perfect. I've been looking at the Akeda. But there's no way I could
even think about doing the final sanding before assembly with the
results I get from the Leigh.

I have seen the kind of surface you can get from a wide belt sander -
a lot better than what I get from my shop built drum sander - so I am
wondering if the edge sander with a fine belt can do the same thing.
I can't see why it wouldn't, it's the same thing happening just
sideways, but I don't like to be wrong when there's 250 lbs of cast
iron and steel down the basement stairs and a big hit on the credit
card involved.