any tips on sanding in curves?

[brian mastro]

first time builder here ... anyone have secret weapons in your arsenal for getting in the curves when sanding? I've made fairly quick progress using an handheld orbital sander on the straight edges but when the curves start dipping into valleys I can't get in there, never mind in the SG like horns I'm made for my design. I've started filing and sanding slowly inside the horns with sandpaper wrapped around a drumstick and with a few hours work i guess I'll get it but I thought I'd ask if anyone has any practical advice on this matter. electric or hand powered tips appreciated.

 

thanks!

brian

[Pierre-Antoine Roiron]

If it's a first time, use different cylindrical objects with coarse to fine sandpaper. Every other more professional way include specialty powertools or a pilar dril with sanding drums.

[Tim Mace]

I saw some foam backed sandpaper at Woodcraft ....50cents a sheet 3x5 which is supposed to be good for those areas tho I've not tried them.

[brian mastro]

oh sounds  interesting at the price, there is a woodcraft 2 min off an exit between where I work and home.

 

I do have a drum sanding kit but it's kind of narrow (the drum) and in testing I couldn't get stuff that even with it doing 2 passes flipping the piece over to get the rest of the piece in contact with the drum. maybe takes practice, maybe a better idea to use something that makes full contact in the first place ...

[Mark McLean]

Like Pierre-Antoine said - find various cylinder shapes of different radii and wrap sandpaper around, but still go with the grain by rotating the cylinder.  A great thing is what we Australians call a 'pool noodle', don't know if you have the same name for it.  It is a long foam noodle shaped thing used as a flotation toy in a swimming pool.  It is just soft enough, flexible and can be cut to length.  You can also cut a bit of it in half lengthways to make a half-round cylinder and tape the flat side to your random orbital sander (with sandpaper covering the curved side) to create a mechanical curve sander.

[brian mastro]

we have pool noodles in 'merica too, I have a section of 1 1/2" foam tubing like this I can try out.

[David Radlin]

In addition to what others have said a scraper is handy.  Try the trapezoidal shaped carpet (utility) knife blades.

[Ned Knepp]

I think the bottom line is that hand sanding is no fun but sometimes you have to bite the bullet and do it if you want a good finished product.

 

[Gary Fried]

I build bolt on instruments with deep cut aways and the only way I sand them is by hand. I build tele style guitars with a good amount of carving by the neck heel and almost always finish with oil or clear poly and any sanding scratches would be an eye sore. It is time consuming but you don't want your guitars to have cross grain sanding scratches in the cut aways like some popular 70's guitars the start with the letter F.

[brian mastro]

I think next time I have to be more mindful of how deep I cut my relief cuts and to cut on the inside of them so I don't have a bunch of deep grooves on the cut-aways. Lesson learned.

[Ned Knepp]

If the cut is too rough, take a wood rasp to the area first to smooth things out as much as possible. The are available in different grades from very coarse to fairly fine and most have an arched side for curved surfaces.  Once you have a flat profile, go after it with the sand paper.

 

Ned

 

 

[brian mastro]

I was rasping away at it with 2 different ones, I get a little nervous about misshaping my cut aways with them because of how much material they remove, trying to sand at too fine a paper for slower more controlled progress...

 

I'll get back to this next week, holidays you know.

[nick-p]

anyone tried an OSCILLATING BOBBIN SANDER ??..  they look useful but not tried one myself..