Sanding On A Cushion Of Air
By Benjamen Johnson
If you’re the type of woodworker who uses curvy free-flowing forms in your work, you’ll appreciate the Guinevere System from King Arthur’s Tools — its inflatable rubber sanders conform to the shape of your workpiece. Between the drum sanders and dome-shaped sanders, you’ll be able to prepare just about any surface.
With shanks measuring 7/32″ you can chuck the 2-3/8″ x 1-9/16″ dome sander or the 2-1/2″ x 1-3/4″ drum sander into most drills or use King Arthur’s base motor with their flexible shaft. Air pressure holds the sandpaper sleeves in place — you inflate the sander by pumping air through a small inlet in the shaft.
The basic Guinevere sanding kit comes with the inflatable domes and drum sanders, four dome and four drum sanding sleeves ranging from coarse to extra-fine grit, a double-acting micro hand-held pump, and a sandpaper-cleaning stick.
You can get the basic kit for a little over $100. For those who just want to sand concave surfaces, check out the King Arthur Store or Rockler to find just the dome sander priced $40 to $45.
Guinevere Sanding System [King Arthur's Tools]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
Inflatable Sander [Rockler]
Via Amazon(B000LY2H7O) [What’s This?] [What's This?]
July 31st, 2008 at 2:39 pm
The other option is brush sanding, which can get a bit spendy, but works really well for uneven surfaces and profiles. I’ve worked with these guys before - http://www.master-sand.com - and they’ve gone out of their way to help me with a setup. Not sure if they have something that small though.