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thickness sanding - how, what grits?
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Author:  Mike OMelia [ Sat Jan 13, 2018 9:58 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: thickness sanding - how, what grits?

I had no idea. I thought rolls were meant for drum sanders. So using them as such is the issue. Not their intended application. Got it. It may very well turn out that my “solution” won’t work on ur 16”. Give it a try.

Author:  bionta [ Sun Jan 14, 2018 1:55 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: thickness sanding - how, what grits?

Mike OMelia wrote:
I think I’ve figured it out. 2 3/4”. What u think?


Nice! Your drum is the same as mine. I tried 4.5" but not 2.75". Thanks for that!

Author:  Mike OMelia [ Sun Jan 14, 2018 2:45 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: thickness sanding - how, what grits?

bionta wrote:
Mike OMelia wrote:
I think I’ve figured it out. 2 3/4”. What u think?


Nice! Your drum is the same as mine. I tried 4.5" but not 2.75". Thanks for that!


Well, your mileage may vary. You do end up with a bit less in the clips. That may or may not matter. Let us know how it works in practice.

Author:  bionta [ Sun Jan 14, 2018 6:27 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: thickness sanding - how, what grits?

I’ll let you know but it may be a while. I just bought 2 18 meter rolls of paper from Klingspor so I’ll get some experience with that before investing in the Abranet.


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Author:  Mike OMelia [ Sun Jan 14, 2018 6:38 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: thickness sanding - how, what grits?

This whole exercise has been a bit silly in my opinion. My fault. I did not understand that Abranet rolls were not intended for drum sanders. My engineer head took over. I prefer Klingspor zirconia rolls. Especially the lower grits (36) for thicknessing. You just can’t wear that stuff out as a hobbyist. Yeah, it scores the wood. Just use common sense estimating as to when you should switch over to 80.

Edit: That said, I think Brad was trying to teach me something. U are never to old to learn, I appreciate it Brad. At least now, I understand.

Author:  bcombs510 [ Thu Jan 18, 2018 8:58 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: thickness sanding - how, what grits?

Mike OMelia wrote:
This whole exercise has been a bit silly in my opinion. My fault. I did not understand that Abranet rolls were not intended for drum sanders. My engineer head took over. I prefer Klingspor zirconia rolls. Especially the lower grits (36) for thicknessing. You just can’t wear that stuff out as a hobbyist. Yeah, it scores the wood. Just use common sense estimating as to when you should switch over to 80.

Edit: That said, I think Brad was trying to teach me something. U are never to old to learn, I appreciate it Brad. At least now, I understand.


To close the loop...

I tried the roll paper test at 2 3/4” using what I will call Mike’s paper stretching technique. The stretching technique worked on a 22” drum but unfortunately on my 16” drum it had a similar problem as before only slightly worse. Meaning, the overlap was even wider. You can see through the paper on the inboard side to see how far it overshot the attachment clip below. See in the pics:

Image

Image

Also, I ordered the “75mm” Abranet from a store in the UK. It’s actually closer to 73mm and does not work on my 16” drum. :(

So for now I’m going to stick with cutting the very accessible via Amazon 2 3/4” version down to 2 1/2”.

Mike, thanks for playing ball with me. I actually don’t think it’s silly at all. We demonstrated a very difficult problem with no immediate solution to cover all drum widths. There is a solution for 16” drums which is cut the paper to 2 1/2”. There is a solution to the 22” drum which is to use the patented Mike O paper stretching technique.

I think this is exactly what these kinds of forums are for. There’s the low hanging fruit of “which glue gives better tone?” :) :) :) and there is the difficult task of trying to get non standard roll sandpaper to work on a standardized machine.

As a side note, I reached out to Mirka to try to understand if there will ever be a 3” wide roll of Abranet. Here’s to hoping!

Brad


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Author:  Mike OMelia [ Thu Jan 18, 2018 10:00 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: thickness sanding - how, what grits?

Brad, thanks so much for checking my stuff. When I say silly, I’m referring to my tendency to lose focus when someone says “squirrel!”. Just like my beautiful Springer Spaniel named Fenway. I think I came to the conclusion that 16” would not work. Well, u proved it. The most important thing I learned is that these things are designed around a specific width paper. Other widths can work if they follow the (length-1)/width as long as it results in an integer. Finally, I learned Mirka had no intention of using this stuff on drums. Hope they change their minds. It’s been fun!

Author:  Mike OMelia [ Thu Jan 18, 2018 10:04 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: thickness sanding - how, what grits?

The diameter of the drum determines the wrap angle. No way getting around that. Pun intended?

Author:  Colin North [ Fri Jan 19, 2018 2:27 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: thickness sanding - how, what grits?

Quote:
As a side note, I reached out to Mirka to try to understand if there will ever be a 3” wide roll of Abranet. Here’s to hoping!


Is 76mm (2.992") close enough? http://www.axminster.co.uk/abranet-max-abrasive-roll-76mm-x-25m-ax960574

Author:  bionta [ Fri Jan 19, 2018 2:47 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: thickness sanding - how, what grits?

Colin North wrote:
Quote:
As a side note, I reached out to Mirka to try to understand if there will ever be a 3” wide roll of Abranet. Here’s to hoping!


Is 76mm (2.992") close enough? http://www.axminster.co.uk/abranet-max-abrasive-roll-76mm-x-25m-ax960574


Thanks for the link. Most interesting thing I saw there was a number of customer reviews exclaiming how totally unsuitable it is for use on a drum sander. I didn't read them all, but one said the dust penetrates the mesh, builds up underneath and creates high spots on the drum. Another said it stretches excessively.

Kinda crazy but after all this discussion about how to fit the stuff on a drum I'm wondering if I even want to try.

Author:  bcombs510 [ Fri Jan 19, 2018 2:54 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: thickness sanding - how, what grits?

Colin North wrote:
Quote:
As a side note, I reached out to Mirka to try to understand if there will ever be a 3” wide roll of Abranet. Here’s to hoping!


Is 76mm (2.992") close enough? http://www.axminster.co.uk/abranet-max-abrasive-roll-76mm-x-25m-ax960574


Interesting! I ordered this one which was listed as 75mm thinking it would be close enough, but it is really 73mm and didn't work: https://www.classichandtools.com/cgi-bi ... 1_21ABRoll

Now if the stuff from axminster is truly 76 I would think it would work perfectly. Judging by the reviews I think that for instrument building it still works well, but all the reviews where there was an attempt to take a lot of material off are negative reviews. I'm thinking the light passes on already pretty thin wood is keeping me from experiencing some of the downfalls in the review (stretching / clogging). Having more than a shop-vac for dust collection I think would be needed too. I'll give it a shot. Thanks, Colin!

Author:  bionta [ Fri Jan 19, 2018 3:01 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: thickness sanding - how, what grits?

Well, after reading all the reviews (guess I shoulda done that the first time, huh?) I see they're pretty evenly split between "unsatisfactory on a drum sander" and "great on a drum sander". It maybe due to different use models or maybe some people are more diligent about repositioning the abrasive after it stretches. I still don't feel a ringing endorsement tho.

Author:  bcombs510 [ Fri Jan 19, 2018 3:33 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: thickness sanding - how, what grits?

Yeah, use of the sander might have a lot to do with it. I’ve seen guys give the handle two full rotations and cram a board through. Then get upset when it bogs down. :D

I go 1/4 turn at most and usually 1/8th of a turn. I also put the boards through two passes without touching the knob. Then again, I’m not a production shop and that pace wouldn’t fly in production.

Where I had trouble before was fouling up 120 belts on coco and EIR. Haven’t had that issue with the Abranet on 5 sets. Hopefully I don’t see any of those issues being discussed. I now have an extra roll of 75mm that I’ll cut down to 2 1/2, so it may be years before I can try this other stuff. :D




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Author:  bionta [ Fri Jan 19, 2018 5:01 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: thickness sanding - how, what grits?

Brad, I trust your review a whole lot more than the ones on the vendor's site so I'll give it a shot too when I need more abrasive. Thanks.

Author:  Mike OMelia [ Fri Jan 19, 2018 11:57 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: thickness sanding - how, what grits?

It just appears to boil down to this. If you as a 16” sander, you have cut he suff down to 2.5”. If you have a 22”, you can with creative adjustments make the 2 3/4” stuff work. Btw. Did I not see thee was a 3.25” version?

Author:  bftobin [ Sun Jan 21, 2018 3:01 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: thickness sanding - how, what grits?

And 2-11/16" for my SuperMax 19-38 ? Lol.

Author:  Mike OMelia [ Sun Jan 21, 2018 3:14 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: thickness sanding - how, what grits?

bftobin wrote:
And 2-11/16" for my SuperMax 19-38 ? Lol.


No, that won't work. You would have to cut to 2.25". 2.5" might work

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