A useful home-made sanding block for cabinets.
 

The veneer on radio cabinets is 0.6mm thick (or should I say 'thin') and it's desperately easy to sand through tot the underlying plywood cabinet. I'm more inclined towards using a cabinet scraper (not a paint-scraper!) than to be gung ho with sandpaper. That said, a light sanding with 400G upwards is all to the good. But it's easy to create low and high spots if held in the hand rather than using a sanding block of some sort or another. The most common ones are cork, about 2" x 3" - fine for sanding your front door or windowsills, but not really large enough for flat veneers on a radio cabinet. Leastways, I don't think so.

I use a home made sanding block which I thought might be of interest to others.

I claim no originality for it - it's based on one I saw in 'Readers Tips' in a cabinet-making magazine.

I've attached some pictures and a sketch that I've drawn, which should make it clear how it's made and used.

It could be made with any scrap of wood 6" x 3" x 1.5". I had a scrap piece of mahogany to hand so used that.

Hope it's of interest and use.

Re: A useful home-made sanding block for cabinets.
 

For really thin stuff I stick a bit of "sandpaper" onto a bit of 1/8th" ply, you can manipulate the sanding bit depending where you put pressure on it.

Re: A useful home-made sanding block for cabinets.
 

I have found that using a large(ish) flat block could be quite dangerous if that cabinet is not flat?
I tend to use a firmish rubber pad made by 3M used for vehicle bodywork, it's about 2 1/2 by 1 1/2.

Alan

Re: A useful home-made sanding block for cabinets.
 

I like that idea, certainly better than sticking the sandpaper onto the wood with double sided tape! I will have a go at knocking a couple of those up, I've got loads of bits of wood hanging about after building my new workshop.

Regards,
Lloyd

Re: A useful home-made sanding block for cabinets.
 

You manage to make all your projects look so nice David ....even a humble sanding block :)

The locking wedges are a very neat idea

Re: A useful home-made sanding block for cabinets.
 

I echo nebogipfel's sentiments David. Yours is beautifully made and a lot 'cooler' than the one I made myself when I trained as a cabinet maker more than three decades ago. Like yours, mine is made of mahogany and I use it to this day :)
Nick

Re: A useful home-made sanding block for cabinets.
 

Thanks for your kind comments chaps, and good to see you back in action Nick!