linear Sander?

[Joelm]

I'm in the middle of a project and could use some advice.

I've got about a hundred pieces of plywood cut and routed and now I need to sand them all.

For the faces of all the boards I'm using my ETS 150 and it is doing a great job. I now have to sand all of the routed edges that are a bit rough. I did about 20 with just sandpaper but am now thinking there must be a better way of doing this.

I just read up on the LS-130 linear sander and thought with the R18KV sanding pad I could quickly sand down all of those rough edges and save myself a few days of sanding.

Do you think this is a good idea? Are there other linear sanders out there that are similar? I also thought of using a super soft pad on my ETS 150 but my local dealer did not have any in stock. I picked up some festool sanding sponges, they seem to work but clogged up quickly.

 

[Birdhunter]

I bought the linear sander for a similar project. It worked well, but it is not fast.

 

[rst]

I use my LS-130 a lot but in your case I'd be thinking sanding mop on stationary motor or drill.

 

[Cheese]

The parts look real uniform, if so, I'd consider ganging/stacking 10-12 of them on their edges and clamping them together and then using the ETS.

Place the clamp so you can sand 2 of the edges before having to reclamp.

 

[Joelm]

Thanks for the replies so far.

I guess I should have included a picture of the edge profile. It is 3/4" marine plywood that has a slight round over on each edge that I don't mind softening out a bit.

I like the idea of a sanding mop, that might work well and save me a few $$$.

I was also thinking of stacking a bunch together but I only have a soft and hard sanding pad. I was thinking the extra soft might be better so it fits the contour a bit better.

These are kids toys for my children so I can't have any splinters or hard edges. I also don't want to be sanding till next year

 

[Svar]

These are kids toys for my children so I can't have any splinters or hard edges. I also don't want to be sanding till next year

Give the kids some sandpaper and put them to work.  [big grin] They need to earn their toys.  [big grin]

What Cheese suggested would still take care of at least 2/3 of the edge surface.

 

[Joelm]

These are kids toys for my children so I can't have any splinters or hard edges. I also don't want to be sanding till next year

Give the kids some sandpaper and put them to work.  [big grin] They need to earn their toys.  [big grin]

Haha, I tried that this weekend. My two year old sat in my lap and proceeded to sand his sleeve instead of the wood. This might take a while...

 

[DeformedTree]

These are kids toys for my children so I can't have any splinters or hard edges. I also don't want to be sanding till next year

Their hands will smooth them out as they play with them.  The wood gets smoother, their hands get more durable and eventually an equilibrium is achieved.

 

[Joelm]

These are kids toys for my children so I can't have any splinters or hard edges. I also don't want to be sanding till next year

Their hands will smooth them out as they play with them.  The wood gets smoother, their hands get more durable and eventually an equilibrium is achieved.

Oh man, we'r can go through a whole box of bandaids without any splinters or cuts. I can imagine how many we'd need before they smooth them out. [smile]

I just had an ah ha moment. I can use my fastcap edge breaker to smooth the round over and do as Cheese suggested for the edges.

 

[Cheese]

Their hands will smooth them out as they play with them.  The wood gets smoother, their hands get more durable and eventually an equilibrium is achieved.

Unless of course the children decide to chew on them or offer them up to the pooch that will definitely chew on them...then, slivers in the hands and slivers in the mouth.

 

[Birdhunter]

I was dog sitting my neighbor’s two labs. In the week he was gone, the male lab ate the entire front off his dog house. The house was made of 3/4” marine plywood. No after effects other than having to nail a new front on the dog house.

 

[Alanbach]

Have you ever tried one of Festool’s interface pads? I use them on edges with round overs all the time. The result is something softer than their softest pad. They can be stacked too. I have two for my 125mm sanders and one 90mm to stack on top of a 125 to create odd shapes (if needed) so the sander can get in just where I want it.

 

[jeh]

The LS130 is a great sander for what it does. Speedy it is not, but there is not other sander for doing profiles that I know. The profiles are obscenely expensive as is the make your own profile, but like everything else Festool you'll be happy once you get over the only obstacle which is cost.

 

[Joelm]

So I made it out to my local Woodcraft yesterday and picked up some interface pads and an ultra soft backing pad. I'll give that a go today and see how it works out by stacking them.

I showed my wife what I bought and I love what she said "Hmm, maybe you should have just picked up that other sander. Right tool for the right job..." If the interface pads don't work out looks like I'll be heading back to Woodcraft for a new sander

 

[harry_]

The LS130 is a great sander for what it does. Speedy it is not, but there is not other sander for doing profiles that I know. The profiles are obscenely expensive as is the make your own profile, but like everything else Festool you'll be happy once you get over the only obstacle which is cost.

There are only 2 times that a Festool is expensive:
1). when standing at the cash register
2). when the tool is 'idle'

any other time the tool is priceless!

 

[Joelm]

I thought I should update this thread. I've been using the interface pads with an ultra soft backing pad and so far it is working great!

I line up my boards on my sanding table edges facing up and just run the sander along the edge until it is nice and smooth to the touch. Since it is also a random orbit sander I can also get into creases and round over some of those hard edges too. Small boards went really fast. Now I'm onto some of the longer ones and it is taking a lot longer but still faster than going by hand.

I did get a sanding mop to try out and the result was a huge cloud of sawdust with almost similar results as the sander. So I'll stick with what I've got for now. Thanks everyone for the suggestions.

 

[aloysius]

I'm in the middle of a project and could use some advice.

I've got about a hundred pieces of plywood cut and routed and now I need to sand them all.

For the faces of all the boards I'm using my ETS 150 and it is doing a great job. I now have to sand all of the routed edges that are a bit rough. I did about 20 with just sandpaper but am now thinking there must be a better way of doing this.

I just read up on the LS-130 linear sander and thought with the R18KV sanding pad I could quickly sand down all of those rough edges and save myself a few days of sanding.

Do you think this is a good idea? Are there other linear sanders out there that are similar? I also thought of using a super soft pad on my ETS 150 but my local dealer did not have any in stock. I picked up some festool sanding sponges, they seem to work but clogged up quickly.

An LS130 is anything but quick.  In fact, it's (at least in my hands anyway) appreciably slower than hand sanding. 

Maybe summat mounted horizontally, firmly fixed to the table-top.  I'm thinking either a belt sander or an angle grinder (my personal favourite high-speed abrader) fitted with a flexible backing pad & Norton/Carborundum/Saint Gobain discs of progressively increasing grit count.

Or even a drill mounted horizontally with a vertical disc?

Use glasses & gloves and exercise caution.