Sandpaper pad holder for Dremel tool.

Bryian

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Hi friends,
today our global moderator (Aussie048 ) called over for a visit to see my latest progress on my Enterprise plank on frame model.
He was very interested in my sanding pads which I was using on my frames to remove the laser char and smooth out the imperfections. Its basically a small 20mm diameter flexible rubber attachment with a velcro or hook and loop type of grip for attaching small sandpaper discs of various grits. I also use this in conjunction with my Dremel variable speed drill with the 90 degree attachment.

A few photos below of my Dremel drill with the 90 degree attachment, second photo is the rubber sandpaper pad holder without sandpaper, and the third photo is with sandpaper attached.IMG_0070.JPGIMG_0072.JPGIMG_0071.JPG
 
And I should point out that you must run the Dremel on slow RPM otherwise the attachment gets hot and the sandpaper can dig into the timber. I find if its spinning at around 1,500- 2,000 rpm its ideal for careful fine finishing. Photo below is of my plank on frame Enterprise model sanded with this method. The timber is Cherry which is reasonably soft. IMG_0053.jpg
 
Brian

I was very impressed with the quality of work that you achieved with the pad and sanding disks and will update our Australian supplier listing of Hobby suppliers on the first post so it is not lost.
 
Hi Brian,
Do you know if those sanding pad attachments are available outside of Australia? is it a Dremel attachment?
 
Hi Brian,
Thanks, you are the bomb. I'm going to get one on those pads for my Dremel. I also plan to buy some of those files as well. I watched that video and copied the link to them. You do come up with some great thing for modeling. Thanks again, Geoff said you were a good troop. I hope I can be of some help to you some day.
 
There is also a Proxxon sanding attachment which works with self-adhesive sandpaper bits. The problem is that the self adhesive paper tends to separate from the body after a while, obviously because of the heat generated.
Dremel is a very powerful tool but despite the realative lack of power of the 12V Proxxon I prefer this latter. One of there reasons for this is that the revolution of the Dremel increases to an approx. 2500-3000 rpm even if it is set to its minimum just after 1-2 minutes after being turned on, likely because of the heating.
I haven't got any 220V Proxxon rotary tool so I can't compare the power of it to the Dremel but I assume they are in the same league.
Janos
 
Most of my electric tools are from proxxon. If I need power but with small rpm I am using the 230V version of the micromot in combination of the micromot 230v transformer ng5, so i can reduce the rpm very much.
 
hi John,
I used 80 grit for the first sanding to remove the laser char, but thats very carefully on low speed as it can easily damage the timber if you are not careful. By the way, my Dremel attechmel gets hot after 2-3 minutes use, so its important to let the tool cool down down every so often.
I then used 150 grit for the final clean up and then some hand sanding with 220 wet and dry.

cheers buddy. Brian.
 
Thanks for that Brian, in your opinion would it be better to take the char off before assembling the frames, realizing of course that I would have to be very careful not to take too much off, or just assemble and then remove, if you had to do it again would you do it the same way,

best regards John.
 
Hi John,
the best way in my opinion is to remove the char from those hard to reach fiddly bits with needle files and hand sanding before assembly. The rest of the exposed edges are easily sanded with the sanding pad attachment on the Dremel.
 
A lot of Wood dust will be produced.....it is good to have a big stock of these small helpers
 
Hey guys, apparently you can buy a punch cutter and make your own sandpaper discs from large sheets of paper.
This I did in the past.....and glueing the sandpaper with double sided adhesive tape to the pad.
The problem is, that the tape is very sensitive to the friction heat during sanding
 
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