Sanding in the cracks?

[myxpykalix]

I made this spiral but as you can see the resulting cut is not very clean. There seems to be a lot of fuzz in the crack of the V part of the cut, or valley. Putting it on a lathe and sanding doesn't get in the low spots of the cut. Does anyone have any experience in sanding something like this (on or off the bot) to get rid of that? I thought of some type razor or blade to shave the V part of the cut but thats too much manual work.

8545

[waynelocke]

Jack,

That seems like a lot of fuzz. Was you bit dull?

I just sanded some rope columns similar to your picture and used a soft disk pad on my festool sander. The pad is tapered at the edges and seemed to work well.

Wayne

[myxpykalix]

The bit doesn't have that much use on it, so i don't think thats it, besides when using my flatbottom bit to make it round it looked like it grew hair! This was freshly cut green maple and maybe it had to do with the direction of cut. Looks like endgrain when turning a bowl except this was all the way around.
Wayne give me a little more detail about how you sanded your work. Got any pics? Did you sand it while on the bot, and rotating? Not familiar with a festool sander. I tried sanding this on the lathe after trying to do a fine cut on the endshafts to make them even and delete the fuzz.
Obviously if the spiral is spinning you can't get in the valley to sand it.

[mzettl]

Jack,

I would try a "sanding star" from the Klingspor Woodworking Shop (http://www.woodworkingshop.com/cgi-bin/121DFCA5/mac/additmdtl.mac/showItemDetail?item=DY93167&qtyA=0&phsO=N&desc=SAN DING%20STAR%201%2F4%22%20SHANK%20120%20GRIT&drpshp =N&alOrd=Y&iQty=.000&oQty=.000&initQty=1&assortPar ent=N&itemForSale=Y&styleName=&fixD=&face=.00&gftc =&stck=Y&prefS=&calledFrom=DS&ordInfo1=&ordInfo2=& ordInfo3=&ordMan1=N&ordMan2=N&ordMan3=N&persCode=& persReqd=&persLink=%20&shipRemaining=0&daysBetween =0&daysBetweenFix=0&monthsBetween=0)

I've used these with good success on difficult to sand profiles. They are able to get into tight creases and recesses without noticeably altering the profile fo your work.

Matt

[jsfrost]

For getting in the small spaces I use a detail sander (Rockler PN 93493, $3.99), usually with the 120 belt (another $3.99 for a pack of 5.)

[waynelocke]

Jack,

The Festool is just a real good random orbit sander. Probably any random orbit sander with a soft pad, tapered at the edges would let you get ito the valleys. You could probably also use a Fein Detail Sander to do this.

The sanding stars sound good. I have also used a Klingspor "MacMop" which is about a 12" diameter sanding brush for a sanding spindle although this tends to obscure sharp details.

If you spin it slowly, you might be able to run sandpaper along the valley.

The fuzz may be because of the green maple. Have you done similar things with green wood before? I would be concerned with cracking, checking and distortion as the wood dries. The rule of thumb for air drying wood is one year for each inch of thickness. I would be real wary of incorporating green wood into a project, especially for a client. More especially for a wife.

Wayne

[rick_woodward]

go to Menards and get yourself an orange fiberglass bristle "wire" wheel for your drill. Klingspor star wheels are great. But expensive , used for finish sanding only. And never use green wood. Your seeing "explosion" of fibers with the green wood. Cant do much with wet, soft wood. If that where a dry piece of wood you wouldnt have near the problem.