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Hello Friends and Enemies!

Vermont Freehand aka Steve Norse is sending some rod, briar, & bamboo with me to the KC show for sale and showing.

I will also have all the J. Alan Design tools.

See you there!

That's great news! Looking forward to seeing all of Steve's stuff. And I need a pack of 400 grit J.Alan sanding disks if you have them. I bought two of his wheels, and the pack of 220 paper in Chicago but the 400 was not available yet. I hate prepping sandpaper for use on my wheels. His pre-cut ones work a ton better, and save me a bunch of time, pain, and agony besides!

Great news.

Thanks, Steve & Premal!

sethile wrote:That's great news! Looking forward to seeing all of Steve's stuff. And I need a pack of 400 grit J.Alan sanding disks if you have them. I bought two of his wheels, and the pack of 220 paper in Chicago but the 400 was not available yet. I hate prepping sandpaper for use on my wheels. His pre-cut ones work a ton better, and save me a bunch of time, pain, and agony besides!

I will save a pack for you Scott. Thank you!

sethile wrote: I hate prepping sandpaper for use on my wheels.

Hey Scott, how do you prep sandpaper for use on your wheels?

Rad

RadDavis wrote:Hey Scott, how do you prep sandpaper for use on your wheels?

I'd been using Klingspor cloth backed sheets, which are great, and hold up much better than standard paper backed sheets. But it was a pain to cut them into circles, and then cut tabs around the perimeter so they wrapped around my wheels properly. I was using scissors to do it. Bruce showed me a better way using an Exacto knife, but it's still a hassle.

Jeff's sandpaper is pre-cut using a laser by the same folks doing the machining on his tools. He's found a cheaper source for cloth backed sheets. Not quite as good as Klingspor, but close, and he's managed to get the price point down enough to make it feasible.

I'm real happy with Jeff's wheels and sandpaper. I'd come close with home brewed stuff, but it took too much time and was nearly as expensive by the time I'd assembled every thing to do it.

What if you make a stencil/guide out of a piece of plexi glass, lay it on the sand paper and then trim it out with a razor knife? or would that still be too much work/time and not worth it?

BigCasino wrote:What if you make a stencil/guide out of a piece of plexi glass, lay it on the sand paper and then trim it out with a razor knife? or would that still be too much work/time and not worth it?

I don't know what Jeff's sandpaper costs, but that looks very cool, and I'd much rather buy than make.

Rad

RadDavis wrote:

BigCasino wrote:What if you make a stencil/guide out of a piece of plexi glass, lay it on the sand paper and then trim it out with a razor knife? or would that still be too much work/time and not worth it?

I don't know what Jeff's sandpaper costs, but that looks very cool, and I'd much rather buy than make.

Rad

$23.00 per six pack is the Retail price.

PremalChheda wrote:

RadDavis wrote:

BigCasino wrote:What if you make a stencil/guide out of a piece of plexi glass, lay it on the sand paper and then trim it out with a razor knife? or would that still be too much work/time and not worth it?

I don't know what Jeff's sandpaper costs, but that looks very cool, and I'd much rather buy than make.

Rad

$23.00 per six pack is the Retail price.

That's pretty expensive. I'd have to think about that.

Rad

Rad would prefer a 23 pack for $6 !

That's pretty expensive. I'd have to think about that.

Only if you use two packs to make one pipe
It is advertised I believe that you should be able to get 20 pipes per pack which of course could vary all over the place.
The rim will of course give out first. Some small cut sheets are included in each pack if that makes you feel better.

Here's food for thought: For those that flunked paper dolls in the first grade, get a steel rule die made. Lay a sheet of paper on one of those self-healing cutting mats that are used with rotary cutters, give the die a few whacks with a rubber hammer and viola!
That being said, I would have a serious no-shitter with the die maker before committing inre how long the cutting edges would hold up cutting sandpaper.
Most steel rule dies these days are made utilizing a CO2 laser to cut the grooves in a Baltic birch die block so the pattern would be a piece of cake for them.

oklahoma red wrote:

That's pretty expensive. I'd have to think about that.

Only if you use two packs to make one pipe
It is advertised I believe that you should be able to get 20 pipes per pack which of course could vary all over the place.
The rim will of course give out first. Some small cut sheets are included in each pack if that makes you feel better.

Here's food for thought: For those that flunked paper dolls in the first grade, get a steel rule die made. Lay a sheet of paper on one of those self-healing cutting mats that are used with rotary cutters, give the die a few whacks with a rubber hammer and viola!
That being said, I would have a serious no-shitter with the die maker before committing inre how long the cutting edges would hold up cutting sandpaper.
Most steel rule dies these days are made utilizing a CO2 laser to cut the grooves in a Baltic birch die block so the pattern would be a piece of cake for them.

You should get 20 pipes per sheet! I am no super pro like Rad or Jeff, but I get at least that with my standard stuff. Once I get the VFD running, I expect that to increase. Those are steep, but Jeff told me they would be like that, mostly because of the pre-cutness. Remember these are cloth backed discs, like emery cloth. Super resilient stuff. You know, unless you cut the edges and fold it around a curve...