Thread: Cheapo hand-sanding jig for scales

So I am without power tools, and was trying to find a way to make hand-sanding my scales somewhat more efficient than simply holding them down or squeezing them in a vise and risk them slipping or worse - snapping.

I hope this isn't in the wrong forum or that nobody thinks I've lost my marbles... just hoping to share ideas for people like me - without a nice belt/disc sander or planer or anything that makes fun loud noises.

Materials are some scrap ply-wood, some smaller finishing nails (not sure but I believe I used 4d - I just grabbed a handful from the mystery bin in the tool box and matched the size).

Pic 1 - plop down scale blanks and drive nails snugly around the blank (but not so snug that you can't get them in or out). I placed one nail centered at each end, and two on both sides - about one inch from each end - for a total of 6 per blank.



Pic 2 - Placed scales into jig. Used cutters to score each nail even with the height of the scale. Cut off just below score. File exposed nails to remove burrs and avoid cutting yourself or unnecessarily going through sand paper faster than necessary when sanding.



Pic 3 - Place scales back into jig and go to town with the sand paper. I was going to use the Makita, but wanted to see how well this worked when actually doing everything by hand. Used a make-shift sanding block and everything went a-ok.



This could easily be clamped or otherwise attached to a bench or table. Just make sure that the nails don't go through bottom of the plank if you plan on attaching it to your coffee table.

Easy enough to pull the nails and set up a new template for a different size set of blanks.

Well - I hope this little bit of junk salvaging could prove useful to those in apartments/dorms/condos or simply those without power tools.

Good idea! Thanks