Build Your Own Clone Message Board

6" belt sander, nicknamed 'Dust Devil' - sanding enclosures is now quick and painless:



Tile cutter nicknamed 'Water Nymph' - for cutting PCBs to size:

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http://www.frequencycentral.co.uk/

Nice scores! I was just looking a wet saws for the same reason the other day. Does it work well for PCBs?

Have you had luck sanding enclosures with the belt sander? I've never found one that gave me a dead flat finish like I'd think you'd need for iron on transfers. Really sucked in metallurgy class when I had to polish 6" wide samples.

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-Mike

The tile cutter was really cheap: http://www.wilkinsonplus.com/tiling-too ... tZhg%3D%3D ....excellent actually. I got 6 PCBs cut in mintues. Much better than my previous method of scoring and snapping.

The belt sander - not so cheap: http://www.axminster.co.uk/axminster-ax ... rod580422/ .....just set it up today - still experimenting with it. First toner transfer I did wasn't so good, so I sanded it back. Next, I sanded the enclosure alternating by 90 degrees, ended up kinda crosshatched. Then I sanded it all one way. The toner transfer was much better. I really got the belt sander for the huge 1590BBDD I use, which take eons to sand by hand.

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http://www.frequencycentral.co.uk/

Happy NTD Rick!

I own a belt sander of about the same size and have tried using it for enclosures but it's just too coarse. It's 60 or 80 grit and the finish comes out way too scratched for toner transfer. I have found a local tool store that they will take your belt (from the sander that is) and send it to a company that makes them and you can order any grit you like! I haven't done it yet cause they rquire a minimum of 25 per order and, frankly, I don't ust it that much... If you get god results with yours I'd like to know how you did it. The times I used mine I ended up finishing it by hand with finer grits after using the sander.

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Gratz on NTD! Almost as good as NGD

been having a similar issue with my random orbital palm sander. I love that it's small and out of the way and very inexpensive (probably paid less than $25 for it at harbor freight, and have used it for hours with nary a hiccup in performance). What I don't love is that it's 5" diameter and while this is a good size for using on pedal boxes, the only available replacements I can get don't go any finer than 220 grit. the combo of 80 or 100 then 220 is great for prepping for paint or engine turning, but leaves way too much of a gap for polishing. I keep thinking about a belt sander but at least with the palm sander with the hook/loop sanding discs it's really easy to swap grits.

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µ

Nice.

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Function f(x)
TightCamera - Gear Reviews

Commonly available sand paper for sanders is intended for wood, so it's not going to have super fine grit like what you want for polishing metal. Buehler is one of the big names in metallography (polishing/etching/microscope work for metals) supplies. They make adhesive backed paper, probably up to 2000 grit, for use in met labs. You can probably find some online for a reasonable price (I've not looked though). Personally, I wouldn't go past 600 grit. You start fighting problems with contamination after that.

Edit: Oh, and wet sanding is your friend.

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-Mike

A little chip of something that isn't supposed to be in there which causes scratches that are deeper than the ones being made by the sand paper. Like in one our labs, we had a whole class sharing polishing wheels and everyone working with different materials. The kids who were polishing brass were polishing on the same wheels as the guys polishing 410 stainless. The tiny flecks of 410 were making it impossible to polish the brass because the kids working with the brass weren't adequately cleaning their station before they used it. I was polishing the 410 so I didn't care

Contamination can also be from a tiny grit from one of the courser grits still left on your box because of inadequate cleaning between changing grits. The more I think about it, it may not be an issue for this application. When I was taught the lesson in school, I had to have samples that were polished to 1 micron and free of all scratches under a scope. That sucked and is the reason why I pay people to do met work now.

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-Mike

Nope, no EE here (though they get the crap beat out of them). I couldn't do the math (fkuc differential equations). I'm a Welding Engineer. We got a pretty good dose of material science, which is where I got my polishing/etching experience.

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-Mike

TN yeah it's the stick on kind, the velcro stuff. Super convenient but nothing available that I've found past 220 grit. I'd love to be able to get 400 and 600 and do wet sanding with it, but I guess I'll have to keep doing things by hand.

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Check these out, mcmaster.com, page number 2650 (just pop it into the search bar, their website is difficult to link to).



5" Dia, without holes.

Grit Qty. Part Number

180 10 4321A71
220 10 4321A72
240 10 4321A17
320 10 4321A18
400 10 4321A19
600 10 4321A41
800 10 4321A42
1000 10 4321A43
1200 10 4321A44
1500 10 4321A45
2000 10 4321A46

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-Mike

defaced - that's what I'm talking about! I was all proud last night when I mentioned this dilemma to my wife and she went on amazon, found them in grits up to 400, and ordered me a 50 pack of 400 grit pads for $15. I've been paying like $4 for 5 of the 100-220 grit ones at harbor freight...

http://www.amazon.com/MIRKA-GOLD-HOLE-D ... 675&sr=8-2

TN - yeah actual velcro, not like the kind on the old school shoes but the military grade kind. Velcro is a brand name so they can't call it that, which is why they call it hook and loop. The bottom of the sander itself is the hard plastic nubs (the hooks) and the back of the pad is the loops. It's plastic on both sides instead of fabric so it won't wear out the way the stuff on shoes does. Not that it would matter, the grit on the pad wears out long before the velcro stuff would have
It's this sander, which is on sale all the time at HF:

http://www.harborfreight.com/5-inch-ran ... 93431.html

online it's on sale for $25, I definitely got it for less than $20 in the store.

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You're welcome. I wish I would have thought of it sooner, but I have night terrors of polsihing metal in met class, so I was thinking in that direction.

50 for 15 ain't bad at all! When you get them, post up how the work out for ya.

I love HF, but one thing I've noticed is that their sanding consumables are pretty crappy. They seem to lose their grit (literally wearing down to the paper in minutes) much faster than name brand products. I hate recommending things I've never used, so I hope if you do buy any of the ones from McMaster that they hold up well.

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-Mike

That's the trouble I've been having with the HF discs - they wear out so fast... This past trip I noticed they started carrying the same grits/sizes in Norton as well as whatever the store related brand is, priced pretty much the same, so I'll post back on Norton's 100 and 220 as well.

Only catch with the McMaster-Carr ones is that they have no hole, or 5 hole, in that size/compound. My sander is 8 hole. I wonder if I'm better off just using the no hole, which is the same as what I would be doing by hand. At that grit I'd have to be wet sanding anyway to keep the paper from getting all plugged up with the black stuff. Talking about it now, yeah - no hole is where it's at for the 600+ stuff.

TN - I love DeWalt stuff. Anything I'm going to get a lot of use out of has to be DeWalt. For stuff that I don't know how much use I am going to get, HF rules. And saves me a fortune Normally Mrs. TD isn't very excited about my project related stuff, but she was so proud of her amazon searching skills and happy that I deferred to her my issue of not being able to find suitable discs...

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I agree with your thinking. The holes are for dust ejection, which is a problem coarse grits and wood. For this application, I'd go no-hole and wet sand.

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-Mike