Official Luthiers Forum!

If you happen to send mail order for some sanding belts for your belt sander and find when they arrive that they are slightly too small (well it happened to me ) and you can't be bothered to go through the hassle of sending them back and changing them, then:

- make some off-cuts of birch-ply into sanding board lengths, cut a matching strip from the sanding belt and stick with double-sided tape and you have some fab sanding boards

- cut other bits of the sanding belt into 6-7" by 1-2" strips and use them to "shoe-shine" necks when you are shaping them. The cloth backing strip means they will never break, they are flexible and easy to use, make short work of the final stages of neck shaping (I had 80 and 120 grit belts) and are easy to clean up afterwards.

- cut other strips to the size used for "flossing" the neck heel cheeks when fitting the neck to the body and find those off-cuts y'all have of the mylar clear self adhesive pickguard sheets and attach a matching strip onto the rear cloth face of the sanding strip. This will then slide beautifully on the body with no damage to wood/finish when you floss.

Speaking of sanding tips, this is what the belt-sander did to my finger today - typical, the week before I go to my annual Summer guitar camp week. I'm drinking lots of fluids to aid the healing process

_________________
Dave White
De Faoite Stringed Instruments
". . . the one thing a machine just can't do is give you character and personalities and sometimes that comes with flaws, but it always comes with humanity" Monty Don talking about hand weaving, "Mastercrafts", Weaving, BBC March 2010

Nice, ah, "tip" Dave

_________________
Support the OLF! Bookmark our STEWMAC link Today!
Lance@LuthiersForum.com

Geeze Dave mon on this side of the pond I am very used to seeing people trying to show me that finger but with their hand turned around........

Great tips, the sanding ones......, and feel better soon my friend.

YIKES, Dave! That even hurts to look at.

There's gotta be a less painful way to take off your fingerprints.

Seriously, been there myself. Never again will I hold a piece of stock with my bare hands on the belt sander if there's ANY chance it will get thin enough to slip under the fence.

Take care of that finger, hope you can do the guitar camp.

Pat

_________________
formerly known around here as burbank
_________________

http://www.patfosterguitars.com

Dave,

Great tips!

Here's a tip for your fingertip...

As soon as you are able, get those silver coated plasters and a bottle of Ibuprofen. Wear the silver plasters continuously until healing....the silver promotes faster healing, believe you me, I have worn them on 2nd degree burns and very deep lacerations. Swear by 'em!

Although Ibuprofen (if you are able to take them) is great for pain relief, it seems to promote faster healing, too.

The belt sander is the machine that has injured me the most. Since it doesn't have a blade, we can tend to get a little lax.

I'm still healing from taking the skin off a couple of knuckles a year ago, and from a fractured thumb three months ago.

My best advice: always hold your work with your fingers pointing in the same direction the belt is traveling. This pretty much necessitates having the belt horizontal, which takes up more shop space. It's worth it.

_________________
Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

i would like to say I have never done that. But I also would like to say I have been to the moon

Been there done that except I took the whole nail off of my little finger AND when I was putting the little rubber feet on the 6x80" Grizzly belt sander it fell on me and took the skin off of the back side of my hand (about 3 sq inches) and off of my arm near the elbow (about 8 sq. inches). I own/operate a restaurant and boy did it hurt getting near the heat from the fryers and grill but I had to suck it up and work anyways.

Gary

Ugh! Sorry that happened, Dave. I had one of those about a year ago. It took the skin off and tried to take my finger under the fence. Not only was the skin gone, the finger turned blue from the bruising.

_________________
Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Ouch! I caught my knuckle under my work on the sander this weekend...about 2 hours before leaving to a gig! Luckily I move fast and there was minimal scrapes!

Nice tips on the sanding blocks. I especially like the sanding strip idea. With the cloth back paper, it won't break like my normal paper stock.

Joe

_________________
Joe

Ouch Dave! Looks like a lot of DADGad next week lots of stuff using two or three fingers. Django managed. Better still, just take your Weiss.

Colin

_________________
I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

I leave the fence off. It can keep a runaway piece of work from getting thrown, but I figure too much space between it and the belt for a finger to get sucked into. A very thin piece (the most likely to get pulled out of your hands) can pass under it, but a finger can't. This has not happened to me, but did just a couple of weeks ago to a luthier friend who has been building for 40 years. For sanding a piece of work square (or far less often, to another angle) I use the disc and its table.

_________________
Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

Been There Done That.Not Fun.
james W B

_________________
James W Bolan
Nashville Tennessee

Get vitamin E capsules from the grocery store and squeeze the stuff onto the wound. Heals it up nice and fast without infection, that's what they use for tattoos. If you're still a bit short on flesh come 'go time', you can always fill in with superglue. -REALLY- hurts going on a decent sized wound, but once the horrible, searing pain is gone it does work.

_________________
Bob Garrish
Former Canonized Purveyor of Fine CNC Luthier Services