Thread: Used my Dremmel today...

I realized that it will not do magic very quickly. A couple of ebay razors that I thought were only heavily tarnished turned out to be lightly pitted.
Maas and the felt pads were not a match for this.

Is hand sanding the reality; Or, is it possible I need to get some other Dremmel accessory bits?

Hand sanding my friend. Some people use flapwheels and all that on the dremel for cleaning up blades, but I don't think they go to as fine a grit as needed (or at least not a good progression). Plus they are way too expensive for my taste.

+1 on the hand sanding. I bought and have used some flap wheels and in my experience it ended up being more work. The flap wheels left marks on the blade that I ultimately ended up having to hand sand out anyways.

Now I just go straight to hand sanding and save the dremmel for polishing and other tasks.

-Pary

http://www.proxxon-direct.com/acatal..._No_28987.html

This has been a tremendous time saver for me.
I only wish they had them in higher grits too.
After the 150, I turn to hand sanding: 240 - 320 400
I finish with a worn-out 400, because it is smoother than a fresh 400, then I put a felt wheel on the dremel and start polishing with some polishing paste.
That works just fine for me.

Have fun,
Bart.

I hand sand all the way to 2k grit. Then polish.

I often use flap wheels instead actually grinding. I take them up to about 220 grit then I start hand sanding. For me it cuts a lot of time.

The only time I've used my Dremel for sanding
is to remove an area with rust. Mostly it's
hand sanding from 180 grit on up. Once you
get into the higher grits it goes pretty quickly.
Don't get impatient on the lower grits and
move on prematurely. Spend the time there,
it will pay off in the end. Have fun.

John

Dremel makes some polishing "buffs" that work well, but they should be reserved for deep pitting or scoring since they are aggressive. If there is etching you want to keep, these will not be a good option:

http://www.dremel.com/en-us/attachme...188569&G=66429

Found the 2-pack at Lowes.

The tan one (180 grit) is more abrasive and will throw sparks! I recently had to use them for a badly pitted blade. The gray one (280 grit) will finish the blade in a matte finish and would work good for stubbort surface rust or working a tang/pivot. I have not tried the purple (320 grit) yet, I didn't see one at the time...

I started with hand sanding, but opted to try these since the blade was my tester- glad I did.

After going from the tan to the gray, I sanded lightly with a progression from 400-800-1000 wetsand paper and finished with some polish (red rubbing compound) on a felt wheel. Nice finish but to get a "mirror" finish, you will need a finer polish. Not a priority for the blades I was working, but a data point. All told, it took me about 2 hours to go from junk to ready to start setting a bevel.

Based on my use (1st try) I'd estimate you should get 3 or so blades done out of each "buff" but I may have been using too much pressure and eating up the buff too quickly. It will also depend of course on how bad the blade you're working is. I actually did 2 blades yesterday and they have another one or two in them.

YMMV....


v/r

Allen

Thanks Allen.

I appreciate the steer in this direction.