"Larry Jaques" wrote in message
...

On Mon, 30 Oct 2017 14:01:19 -0700, "Bob La Londe"
wrote:

I've got an old piece of granite counter top I glue wet or dry sand paper
to
with 3M spray on contact adhesive. Its great for rubbing a mold face on to
remove burrs and to take out tooling marks on misc parts if I feel its
worth
the time. Sometimes to just make the mill rolled side of a part look
better. Its not smooth, but its got a pretty good average flatness when
checked with sunlight and a steel rule. I use it because I don't want to
gunk up my surface plate with glue and abrasive grit. Even if my surface
plate already has two chips and its only B rated.

Yeah, not smooth. I wouldn't try to hone a plane blade on it.

*** I have a regular granite surface also. Just don't want to do this on
it routinely.


I also sometimes use it with very coarse paper to level and take down an
odd
project. A recent one was a cutting down a plastic bucket. I sliced it on
the bandsaw, and then squared up the cut end on my "sanding granite." It
really works better than it sounds.

I'll take your word for it.

*** Thank you. I was surprised the first time I tried it.


Slight Background Tangent:
I use little rubber sanding blocks with 300 grit or higher to quickly knock
down the burrs on a mold face before I use the tool height setter to set
the
next tool. (Sorry, no ATCs in my shop yet.) It works great. Better if
the
part is still dripping with coolant. However the wet or dry sand paper
just
doesn't hold up. Then one day I saw MSC had 3" wide emery cloth in bulk
rolls. I bought a roll of 300grit and neither of my little blocks has had
a
piece of wet or dry on it since. When the emery is fresh I have to be
really gentle, but it breaks in quickly enough to a much finer grit. At
that stage it works for a few months before it wear through. The emery
cloth roll is expensive, but in the long run it saves me money and a lot of
time. The little ends under the flaps get tossed in the tool cart or tool
drawer for one of the lathes. They don't see any wear so they are still
nice little bits of full grit emery.

Back to the point:
What I want is to find some sheet size emery that is modestly affordable to
use on my granite sanding block. I have the same issue with the wet or dry
not really holding up very well when used wet. Sure its fine for a day,
but
the emery I use on the rubber blocks is good for months. I found some for
sale somewhere once. Maybe MSC and I was absolutely floored by the price.
It would be nice to have some 100 grit for roughing on one end of the
counter top piece, and some 600 or finer on the other end for polishing.

http://www.supergrit.com/products/pr...ets-emeryflint googled.

*** Thanks for the link I'll check them out.


I don't like to finish fine with the rubber block as they can ever so
slightly introduce an out of flat on flat surfaces. Just enough to knock
the burrs flat, and move on. If it takes out the tool marks I sanded to
hard.

Sanding by hand is an art. Have you considered a DIY or purchased
wide drum sander?

*** It is, but I have a fair feel for the work I am doing. I'm no expert,
but I get passable results and repeat customers. I would be deathly afraid
of creating gouges or valleys with a drum sander. I sometimes use the flat
platten of a belt sander for hard parts.

You could build it to fit your largest mold and
then it could ostensibly handle anything that size or smaller.
https://www.pinterest.com/brad2179/d...ander/?lp=true
You could use emery instead of garnet paper.

*** Yep. That was the core of my query. Finding emery cloth paper size
sheets at fair prices. IT HOLDS UP. Some of the sources I've seen just say
coarse, medium, fine. Even though the price may be ok I have to pass on
those. I want to know the grit. Or atleast the grit I am starting with.

Additional question: Why do you have to wet-sand?

*** The paper doesn't clog up. I am sanding mostly aluminum. It clogs dry
paper pretty fast. Its also why I hand dress molds between tool changes. I
do not want to significantly change any dimensions. I just want to knock
off the burrs before I place the tool height setter on the mold plate. If I
ran an ATC or even ATC spindles that used tool holders I could use a tool
height table and only have to dress the mold once at the end of the job, but
alas this is a self paying hobby that turned into a business. Every tool
pays for the next one. Decent ATC spindles cost. I'll have them sooner or
later, but for now I am still making parts.

--
The Road to Success...is always under construction.
--anon