PSA Sanding Disk Kit Supplies are in! If you ordered one then pls. read this post.
I received all the supplies for the PSA disk kits today. The punching is working well. I expect to have the kits ready to ship Thursday morning.
I am impressed with the PSA backing on this paper. The disks stick to the leather mandrel extremely well, yet can be removed and then re-used. The PSA does not loose its adhesion when you lift it off and restick it! Awesome. No wasted partially used disks.
I also have to appologize but I have to reneg on making two mandrels per kit for a the following reasons:
1. Keith De'Grau at HandAmerican did not have 1/4" leather in stock. He is planning to start carrying it later. Doubling up the 1/8" will make it too stiff.
2. When I ordered the mandrels there were less than 10 people. Now there are over 15 so I won't have enough mandrels if I try to make two for each person.
On the other hand these mandrels are stiffer than the leather from my belt which was my first mandrel. The whole reason behind wanting to try thicker leather was to make it stiffer and this leather already does this.
Those of you that ordered a kit can you please send me an e-mail or PM me with your e-mail address and shank size preference 3/32" or 1/8". If you have a Dremel then you can use either one because the dremel has an adjustible chuck. So pls. let me know if you are ok with either size. Some people might be more constrained and I would like everyone to get their kits without having to wait. I will make as many 1/8" as I can (I only have 12 mandrels of 1/8" shank, thought that this was overkill when I ordered them :)) the rest will be 3/32". There is no difference except if you have a quick change handpiece for your flexshaft then you can only use the size of that handpiece which is usually 3/32" but can also be 1/8". If I run out of 1/8" shank mandrels I will have to order more.
I will PM you if you miss this post but if you send it to me first then it will save me a lot of time. I will be using most of it for next while to make the kits :D.
Stick a fork in me. I'm DONE!
I just finished punching the 100 grit. I am done and so is the second punch.
The last two grits: 100 and 150, did not punch but burned through. The punch would get hot enough after a few seconds of maximum pressure and then burn through the stack of sandpaper.
It held up pretty good all the way through to 220 grit but wore down on the last two. The punch made from a hole saw (the long type 2", DeWalt 1 3/8") now looks like it is made from two half cylinders because the edge wore off past bottom of the two slits on the side.
The last two grits took 2 hours each, while previous ones took under an hour. I resorted to using both hands to push down the drill press. It was not only long but physically demanding.
I just have to sand the mandrels to true their surface. This won't take long at all so the packages are going out tomorrow morning.
I took a few pictures along the way just in case some of you got curious to see what the setup looked like. I will include a before and after pictures of the punch and a picture of what you will be getting too. I will post these tomorrow. Right now I have to take a long shower and wash away all that burned PSA, paper and wood smell from my body.
Thank you all who have signed on for this kit and I hope you will enjoy it. I look forward to enjoying mine, probably after all this punching effort fades from my memory :D.
Missed the 5pm Friday deadline.
I know you are eager to get your kits, but I missed the Friday 5pm Canada Post deadline so I will drop the packages off today but they will not be processed until Monday.
I consistently underestimated the effort for 20 kits. Even simple stuff that takes 3 min per kit results in 1 hour of effort. Now I know :D. Just getting Paypal to print shipping labels took over an hour.
Here are some pics to tie you over until the kit arrives.
http://www.winpte.com/str8/SandingDisks.jpghttp://www.winpte.com/str8/SandingKit.jpg
1. Is a close up of the pressure plate and the other tools of the trade. The screwdriver was used to pry the minted disks from the punch, at least it was a screw drive till it snapped from all the effort. The tweezers were used to catch the pried disks. The bar of soap in the background was used to lubricate the outside of the punch and prevent PSA from sticking to the punch. Of course that only worked until 150 grit. Then the PSA would be burned off.
2. The pressure pad with its foot pedal. The thing worked extremely well for something that was strapped together from bits and pieces. The belt sander on the bottom was used as a counter weight to keep the back of the pedal from lifting.
3. What was left behind of the sandpaper sheets after the punching.
4. Picture of all the disks except for 100 grit which were not punched yet when the picture was taken.
5. The boxes ready to go.
6. What you will be getting in a week or two, depending on the postman. I added a close-up, note that the labels for the grits proceed from backmost row to front most row, the label boxes align with the compartments when the lid is closed. So, if you try to take 800 grit disk and it feels a little rough, it is because you grabbed a 100 grit one instead. Don't drop the box and mix up the disks or you will have a hell of a time sorting them out.
This is a before and after picture of the second punch. The shorter one in the before picture is the first punch that I made. It wore through more due to my excessive playing around with the cutting edge than from punching. It was only used to punch 2500, 2000 and 1500 grit.
The second one wore mostly during punching of 150 and 100 grits. It is toast.
http://www.winpte.com/str8/DiskPunch.jpg
Note, that the disks were punched from the PSA side, this cupped the edge a bit, when you put the disk on the carrier just run its edge against something hard for a couple of turns to flatten out the edge. Make sure you do it against something that you don't mind scratching. The 100 and 150 grits rip through wood with devastating speed.
Some of you will be missing a disk from a grit. I found a four disks but could not tell which stack they were from. This was from different grits and different operations so for any one of you to wind up with more than one missing is highly unlikely.
I still have two kits with: no payment for one and no e-mail for the other. I actually underestimated the cost of S&H, budgeted $5, paid $10. So if you changed your mind about getting the kit don't feel bad about it. Just let me know. I'll be greatful because I can sell it on e-bay and make up for the shortfall.
4 Attachment(s)
A quick test of PSA sanding disks
About three months ago I took one of my old Wade & Butchers blades and put scales on it and cleaned up the blade with what I had on hand, your basic dremel stuff and some Haas. Today I took the PSA disks that Vlad had sent and tried the 100, 220, 400, 1200, 2000 grit disks just for a quick polish to see how they work. They actually did pretty well considering the blade had some pretty good pits on it. I think that I could have done better using the 100 to grind out the pits but that would have taken some time.
The first two pics are before and the last two are after. There is some improvement though.
Signed, sealed, delivered....
I got mine yesterday. Wonderful work, and very much appreciated! I just hope you didn't put yourself out too much for the value we all got out of your project!!
A service very well received by all if I must speak for everyone :D
