No one likes sanding, but I am the president of the non sanding fan club. That is probably what drove me into hand tools more than anything else. But as most will tell you (even the purists) at some point the paper must meet the wood. I usually avoid anything coarser than 220 and let my planes to the talking up til then.
I few years ago, I ponied up the dough for a Festool sander and dust extractor hoping this would take the coughing out of the equation. This system does it’s job admirably and I can even work without a respirator most of the times and just turn on my ambient air cleaner. The problem is that the hose and cord really get in the way and wear you out as the weight of the cord always wants to pull the sander out of your hand. Festool makes a nifty boom arm for their extractors to loft the hose and power cord up out of the way and takes the weight off the sander, but my 7 foot shop ceilings just won’t accommodate it.
So when faced with sanding the Redwood parts for 2 Adirondack chairs and a table, I finally went in search of a solution. It was in my garden shed of all places. I used to hang my mountain bike up in the garage and I have one of those heavy duty rubber coated hooks still laying about. Find a stud in the ceiling near my bench, screw in the hook and problem solved.
Now with the weight of the hose and cord taken off the sander, it just floats over the work piece and does its job like it should. No more sore wrists trying to hold the sander on the benchtop. Surprisingly, this big sanding job just went by without incident.
Of course it was helped along by a Best of Wil Ferrell SNL DVD in the player.
This solution was so simple that I almost hesitated to post it, but I began thinking about all the tiny little creature comforts and time saving tips/devices that we woodworkers implement into our own shops and thought I would share in case anyone else out there is having this problem.
What tiny additions make your woodworking better? Leave a comment and share it with us.
9 responses so far ↓
1 Karl_S // Jul 13, 2010 at 12:34 pm
I have taken to using abranet with my Festool sander to improve dust collection even more. I am also set up with a straight shop vac instead of the Festool vac. While I am the last to support high-priced tools, this sander does get my support as a big improvement to a task I use to dread. Now, doing the numbers (stepping up the grits in small increments) and using a nice sander has made this task something I don’t mind at all.
2 Dyami Plotke // Jul 13, 2010 at 12:39 pm
Shannon,
A man & post after my own hart. I to have the 5″ Festool RO sander and a CT22. Faced with the same problem, I devised my “Vacuum Boom Arm”. Though I was never as averse to sanding as you, I’ll admit that using it has been such a dream that I’ve become a fan of sanding (yes, I know, hard to believe but true).
I’ve included a short description of the “Vacuum Boom Arm” in my second blog post on my brand new Penultimate Woodshop blog (http://penultimatewoodshop.blogspot.com/2010/07/furnishing-penultimate-shop.html) I’ve every intention of writing up a full post on it in the future.
I WAS so impressed with how easy my boom was to build and how well it works, but I must say your hook is easier and I suspect it works just as well.
Keep up the good work & happy sanding.
3 kosta // Jul 13, 2010 at 12:41 pm
I have been thinking about doing this in my shop. Some people have the festool boom arm but its $250. Who’s gonna spend that much on a pipe. Hows the T.V working out does it clogged with dust?
4 Shannon // Jul 13, 2010 at 12:46 pm
Karl, I have used Abranet as well, but every time I go to Woodcraft they don’t have the grits I need. Sandpaper is one of those things I always forget to order when I’m placing an online order too.
Dyami, I thought about a boom arm, but 99% of the sanding I do is right at my bench with the CT22 ducked under the adjacent counter so I decide a non mobile solution would suffice.
Kosta, TV works great, I am pretty diligent about blowing out the dust and I have a cover that I put over it when I’m doing really dusty stuff, but lately it has been all hand tools so no worries.
5 Dyami Plotke // Jul 13, 2010 at 12:53 pm
Shannon,
I too do my sanding over the bench. My boom arm is mounted to the wall behind the bench. It’s hinged so that I can fold it flat against the wall or have it arc over most of the bench. The vacuum hose is permanently mounted to the boom arm and suspended on springs so that it has a nice bit of flex to it. I keep my CT22 under the bench to one side and the hose coiled under the middle of the bench. When in use I take the hose and extension cord (which is also permanently attached to the boom) and plug them both into the CT22.
As I said, I though it was simple until I saw yours. Nicely done.
6 kosta // Jul 13, 2010 at 3:39 pm
You should see my shop. You can write your name in dust on every tool. lol
7 woodcanuck // Jul 15, 2010 at 10:19 am
I might have to steal that idea.
I have something similar but for storage. For dust collection I’ve got a 4″ flexible hose that I pull across the shop to various tools when I use tem. When it’s not in use, I don’t want to have 10′ of flexible 4″ hose piled up on the floor. I ended up taking a bungee cord and screwing one end to the wall at about head height. When I’m done with the hose, I loop the bungee under it at about mid-point and it hangs from the bungee pretty nicely.
Eventually I plan to build something better, but as an interim solution, this works great, keeps the hose out of the way but handy and ready to go with one quick unhooking of the bungee.
Sometimes simple solution seem to be the best.
Ian
8 Josh // Jul 23, 2010 at 7:17 am
I have a proximity swipe card system that turns the power and lights on and off.
9 Shannon // Jul 23, 2010 at 10:03 am
Now that is called pimping out the man cave. That’s awesome!