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sanding thick slabs

Started by copperhead10, August 23, 2014, 10:47:18 AM

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copperhead10

after you cut your slabs , air dry, kiln them, maybe plane them (with your slaber planer), how do you sand it ? do any of you folks use a floor sander? do you use a belt or drum sander? thanks for all the info.

kevin19343

I have a shop built 36" drum sander. It works great but creates clouds of dust.

I also have a stroke sander that will sand anything you can lift onto the bed.

WIwoodworker

I've seen people use all the methods mentioned. It really depends on what your final project is. I've seen people use a floor sander and get decent results but if you're going to do this more than once or twice either buy a wide drum sander or find a cabinet shop that has a wide panel sander and pay them to do it for you. You'll get much better and more consistent results.
Peterson 9" WPF

red oaks lumber

if the surface is fairly smooth to start, i use my orbital sander, start with 60 grit and work up, if the surface is alittle rougher to start i'll go with 36 grit and work up.
i have a widebelt sander but, slabs tend to be heavy and awkward to handle plus the older i get, there is more than 16 oz. to the pound :D
the experts think i do things wrong
over 18 million b.f. processed and 7341 happy customers i disagree

tule peak timber

I have a wide belt sander that works well , but for REALLY big slabs I use a Surcare surface sander. I really like this machine for finishing off a slab after planing. Rob

  

 
persistence personified - never let up , never let down

red oaks lumber

that looks like a very very handy tool :)
the experts think i do things wrong
over 18 million b.f. processed and 7341 happy customers i disagree

copperhead10

That's a big boy tool. What size disks do you use?

rasman57

Quote from: copperhead10 on August 24, 2014, 03:28:51 PM
That's a big boy tool. What size disks do you use?



He creates unbelievable big boy masterpieces!  Very nice!

tule peak timber

6 inch disks, hook and loop.I start with 40 grit and progress to 320 before starting the fill process. Rob
persistence personified - never let up , never let down

cypresskayaksllc

LT40HDDR, JD950FEL, Weimaraner

Ianab

If you can get a good surface with your planing device (router bridge etc) then the slab doesn't need a lot of sanding. A machine like Rob shows is probably the ultimate, although a sanding disk on a swing mill is a quick way to tidy things up. ~20 hp orbital sander on rails   ;)

Otherwise a normal Random Orbital or even careful use of a belt sander will do the job. You should only need to be taking out some light "swirly" machining marks left by the router bit.

Ian
Weekend warrior, Peterson JP test pilot, Dolmar 7900 and Stihl MS310 saws and  the usual collection of power tools :)

tule peak timber

 

   Cypresskayak mentioned Fesstool sanders , and yes they are strong ,really good tools.The little 2 inch random orbit Grex is a great tool for the natural edges, but requires quite a bit of air to operate. Lastly the purple 3-M sanding disks are my first choice in abrasives. Their purple "cubitron" abrasives in both disks and wide belts for the bigger machines out perform other abrasives and tend to not load-very good stuff ! Rob
persistence personified - never let up , never let down

kevin19343

I have a bunch of sanders, but I've also done a lot of slab leveling with hand planes. I have a scrub plane to get the heavy stuff off quickly, and smoothing planes to get it flat. Sometimes I'll drum sand it down with #60 paper and plane it from there.

It takes about 30 minutes to smooth a 36" x 72" slab even if its really gnarly. The finish is superior to sanding IMO. You'll need sharp blades

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