Sandpaper Management

[Hesh1956]

I am curious as to how folks organize your sandpaper so that you:

1) Can find the stinkin stuff...

2) You know what you have and what you need to stock up on

3) Your sandpaper stays flat and, yep you guessed it, clean...

Anyway after running out of a grit that I needed and being against a deadline the other day I decided to figure out a way to manage my sandpaper.

Here is what I came up with:





So if you have a cool way that you manage your sandpaper how about letting us know about it please?

Thanks!

[Joe Sustaire]

Thanks Hesh, I needed that!
A good chuckle lightens up the day. Only you would have their sandpaper so well organized!

Of course I'm envious!
Looks like you've got it figured out, and now I know where to go when I'm short a sheet of a specific grit.

Thanks,
Joe

[jeffhigh]

Jeez Mate,
If chuckin it all in a box with everything else is'nt good enough for you, are you sure you belong here.
And I still have'nt got my tub of lard you promised

But seriously, what a great idea, love it.

[Allen]

Let's see. Work in a panel shop that goes through about $4,000 of sandpaper a month, and never in my life have I seen anything like that.

Can I fault the organization....Nope

Can I think of a better way....well, I don't have a problem keeping track of what I have on hand, so I'm not looking for a solution.

[Dominic]

But where do you put all the half used bits and pieces. And do you separate the used spruce bits from the used ebony bits or do you run it all under the vac?

I only use long lasting garnet sheets now and use it till its dead. I have a drawer for new stuff which I buy in bulk packs and another for all my old bits and the round filling cabinet for the real old bits.
Dom

[kiwigeo]

Im just picturing Hesh turning up to his accountant's office to do his tax return and....."whoops er hang one...wrong filing box".

[vandenboom]

I have a box with thin ply partitions in it, a bit like Hesh's but not as fancy, sitting up on a shelf at eye level - it holds the new stuff. But like Dominic, the half bits tend to just hang around in a box. To try and keep the wastage down, I'll pencil the grit on the back if it's not printed if I think of it.

There are some other aspects to sandpaper management that might be of interest to people.
Until a few months ago, I didn't know about the following things you can do for sand paper on your drum/disc/belt sanders etc.
1. $15 rubber block (is it rubber or something else??) available from Carbatec etc that gets a lot of the dust & particles out of sandpaper - gives it a new lease of life
2. Stu told me about soaking sandpaper in water, then after drying it, a lot of the crud is removed. It definitely extended its useful life.

I have a question someone may be able to answer. I hate thinning down side binding with BWB purfling pre-glued. It totally clogs that section of your drum sander used even after a couple of passes. I guess the glue in the veneers is contributing to that. Does anyone have an explanation and a solution?

Thanks. Frank.

[Bob Connor]

Feed the binding through on an angle Frank.

[Hesh1956]

And I still have'nt got my tub of lard you promised

Jeff my friend Bob is in charge of lard distributions in the southern hemorrhoid... I deal with lard distributions in the northern hemorrhoid...

So, what no one has any cool tips for managing your sandpaper?

For the less-than-a-full-sheet pieces I have a folder next to my main bench that the scraps go into for handy, future use.

How about "MBA" which is like "MBO" (management by objectives) but in this case management by abrasives meaning file it in numerical order as I did.

Anyway I keep buying sandpaper that I already had a ton of but didn't know it and running out of the grits that I thought that I had but was out of.... Maybe this will help me inventory and keep a proper stock level...

[Arnt]

Nice tupperware, Hesh. Too bad they were out of pink.

I tore up an old office desk and built a work bench around the drawer cabinets. I keep my sand paper in a deep drawer that has plywood dividers, which helps to keep things reasonably organized. Not up to Hesh’s standards of course, but functional for my purposes.

[Taffy Evans]

For many years I have kept my papers and pads in old chocolate tins. I found that leaving them out for any length of time the emery would crack like a biscuit [maybe this was because the Central Australian desert climate at that time, I don't know]

I also pre cut them to size, a few sheets at a time and number each piece and store them in old plastic string packets and store them all in the plastic tub on the back of my bench. After cutting up the sheets I know I will need more in the future and get them before my cut bits run down.

Never thought I'd be writing about it let alone posting pictures too.

[Rick Turner]

If you're laminating your own bindings/purflings, do it with polyurethane glue, epoxy, or hot hide glue. They all sand well and don't load up the sand paper. Titebond is the worst for this. There are hidden reasons for choosing different glues.

[matthew]

My sandpapers come on a roll. I don't use many different grits, just 80, 12, 240 and 400

I have one drawer for sandpaper used on white wood, and another drawer for sandpaper for ebony. keeping them well separate is a fine idea

Hesh your organised system makes me spew

[Ron Wisdom]

This is what I use, and it is great. The small drawers hold all the flat sheet papers and a couple of the deep ones hold my rolls, and steel wool. A couple hold smaller tools, one holds sharpening supplies/tools, one of the deep ones holds small used bits of sandpaper, etc. Great system.

Ron

[Allen]

I think that is the first time I've seen anything of the inside of your shop Ron. It looks a bit like you were expecting Hesh to show up for a shop tour. And I think your storage system might top his, so look out Hesh. Ron just trumped you.

[vandenboom]

If you're laminating your own bindings/purflings, do it with polyurethane glue, epoxy, or hot hide glue. They all sand well and don't load up the sand paper. Titebond is the worst for this. There are hidden reasons for choosing different glues.

Well it's great to see there is a solution to this. Which of these stands up to heat the best? I would have thought that the purflings would separate in the side bender or on hot pipe with hide glue.
Frank

[Hesh1956]

Very impressive Ron - great organization and your shop looks very clean too...

Arnt my friend they did have a pink one but I thought that it would be tough to appear manly at the check-out so I opted for black. BTW I have your picture and if you have noticed there are a couple of fun threads running in "anything goes..."

If anyone is wondering, even if your not.... , I use grits through 2,000 for fret dressing so I have to stock a fair number of grits.

[kiwigeo]

My sandpapers come on a roll. I don't use many different grits, just 80, 12, 240 and 400

I use the rolls as well.

When I have some guests around who I dont particularly like I stick a roll of 80grit in the loo and they soon get the message and piss off.

[Kim]

My sandpapers come on a roll. I don't use many different grits, just 80, 12, 240 and 400

I use the rolls as well.

When I have some guests around who I dont particularly like I stick a roll of 80grit in the loo and they soon get the message and piss off.

[Dennis Leahy]

Hey Hesh,

I like this idea, and will probably do the same. It's a lot cheaper and easier than building a storage unit with dividers, and in the general box of sandpaper sheets, I have found that I had no idea how many of each grit I had, and which grits I was out of.

Dennis

[Bob Connor]

My sandpapers come on a roll. I don't use many different grits, just 80, 12, 240 and 400

I use the rolls as well.

When I have some guests around who I dont particularly like I stick a roll of 80grit in the loo and they soon get the message and piss off.

[hilo_kawika]

I have great admiration for folks who have such well organized systems dealing with sandpaper filing. Mine seem to just be located in a general area of the shop. I always mean to be better organized, but it's sort of like dating a nun - it's hard to get into the habit...

aloha,

Dave Hurd
http://www.ukuleles.com

[Dennis Leahy]

My wife's family is coming to our house for Christmas.

Bob, please get me a case of rolls of Badger's Arse, as I suspect it will prevent malingering and loitering.

Dennis

[John Steele]

OMG I started to say I used rolls similar to Matthew's and out comes the Badger's Arse. OK, but I tend to set mine up to roll off from the top down as opposed to "bottom's up"
Hesh, I think Ron's shop looks cleaner, which says a lot
Dave, I am still laughing at your nasty habit....

[Ron Wisdom]

I took that picture about 3 years ago, and my shop hasn't been clean, since. Photos can be so misleading. I actually clean about twice a year, after I finish a build.

Ron