On 2/17/2013 12:15 PM, Larry Blanchard wrote:
On Sun, 17 Feb 2013 09:16:11 -0600, dpb wrote:

I had a set of front legs roughed out which was reason for jumping at
the moment--they're 28" L and 6/4 by roughly 4" oak so are bulky enough
the little 8" sq (or so, didn't actually measure, but that's probably
close) was pretty small to give a reference point but being eager I put
one of the 120 grit belts had ordered separately on to be
not-so-aggressive and gave it a quick shot...not bad!

That's a pretty large job for something whose footprint is about the size
of a piece of paper :-). I'm pleasantly surprised it did as well as it
did.

FWIW, I was looking for fine grit belts. The only place I found them was
Woodcraft. They go down to 220 for $1.49 per belt. There were 10 packs
but I didn't check the price. When I find out what the best grits are
for grinding model RR rail I'll go back and buy the bulk packs.

I would also use the unit for sharpening lathe tools, but I have the
Delta belt/disk combo in the workshop for that. In fact, I bought the HF
unit just so I wouldn't have to lug the Delta back and forth :-).

The platen length above the table is roughly 3" I'd estimate w/o going
and actually looking again so there's adequate sanding surface for a 2"
thickness. One could, I'm sure, bog the puppy down pretty easily, but
for finishing to a line a light touch is the ticket, anyway. It did
just fine as far as stock removal goes.

It would _not_ have been very easy w/o the auxiliary table I described
to keep the leg flat on the table and make a smooth transition rotation,
however, so I think for anything of any size one would always have to
that for any precision.

What surprised me was that it was not difficult to get close-enough to
square of the table to the surface in both planes that there's no
discernible angle across the faces and they're flat enough no gaps show
w/ the small square. I had expected a lot of fiddling around filing,
shimming, whatever, to be able to come even close but at least this one
was really quite close from the start.

I don't know of super-fine 1x30 belts; I order a selection from
http://www.2sand.com/377/1x30-White-Non-Loading-Sanding-Belts.html as
starters--the coarse and find combo selections and something just over
$1/belt average I think it was.

I may delve into the sharpening later on; my object at the moment is to
build this credenza/whatever to call it to set the new TV on that's
replacing the old console model the folks had when we moved back...it's
going to mimic (very crudely) an old washstand down in the change room
from which I took the leg patterns. When I get a little further along
I'll try to post some pichurs somewhere--I'm actually pretty please w/
the legs; I hadn't done any "fine" work in some years being tied up w/
the barn and farming and all...

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