Trick for sanding curves with the RTS400

[poto]

I had to sand some concave corners on a table I was making, and I was having trouble getting a smooth curve where the leg met the table bottom. Using the RTS400, I kept forming a ridge in the leg where the sandpaper hit it. Then I came up with the notion to put the sandpaper only partially on the pad of the sander. I tried two configurations: the first one had the sandpaper hanging over the pad on two sides, the other had the sandpaper hanging over only at the front. I lined up as many holes in the sandpaper with the holes in the sanding pad as I could. It worked great! (Be careful not to put the sander flat on the surface, or you'll wear your h&l pad away.)

Here are some pictures of the two configurations:
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The stiffness of the sandpaper gives a nice smooth curve to the sanding. It's not particularly aggressive, so you don't have to worry about gouging.

 

[Warrior]

Cool, nice tip.

 

[Tim Sproul]

(Be careful not to put the sander flat on the surface, or you'll wear your h&l pad away.)

If you have an RS2E........you can use that paper and not worry about exposing the h&l pad.  Or you could stick another sheet of RS sized abrasive on the pad.

 

[poto]

That's a great idea, Tim. For my purposes it wasn't difficult to keep the pad off the surface - I just angled the sander up a bit.  But for safety's sake, putting another piece of sandpaper on would solve the problem, particularly if you're just hanging the paper off the front of the sanding pad.