What is the best power tool for smoothing my sticks?

[HantsHog]

I make things from recycled pallet wood. A lot of of the items involve length of wood about 1.5" wide and varying length from 3" to 20" (picture attached). These pieces of wood need the edges and ends rounding which I do with a Makita 1/4 sheet sander. This is fine for the larger pieces but when it comes to those smaller than 6" becomes a pain (literally) especially when I have 100 to do.

What piece of machinery can I use that will speed things up and is easier on the hands? I've been looking at disc (with belt) sanders with 6"+ diameter. Can anyone make any recommendations or alternatives?

Thanks

 

[Jacob]

Belt sander or linisher set up vertically with a table. The Bosch (and others I imagine) have brackets etc which make this possible.
Or horizontally:

 

[blackrodd]

A belt or disc sander would probably be the best bet.
But you ought to give some serious thought to the dust a sander can create. and get some sort of extractor organised.
HTH Regards Rodders

 

[MMUK]

You have a lathe? You have a mounting plate?

A 6" disc of 3/4" ply with a sheet of velco stuck to it. A box of 6" velcro backed sanding sheets and away you go :mrgreen:

 

[heatherw]

I'm sure you're not supposed to, but I now do that sort of thing on my beloved new bobbin sander. It stands up pretty well to the punishment, the extraction works perfectly and it's quite a lot quieter than any belt sander I've ever heard, though I'm sure you can get them whisper quiet with induction motors. Mine all need ear defenders to be used comfortably.

You'd get slightly irregular edges, but I don't think that matters too much with the sort of thing you're making, if the photo is representative.

 

[undergroundhunter]

Does it have to be a machine? Could you not use a plane?

Matt

 

[Silas Gull]

What about a thicknesser?

 

[Silas Gull]

Not a thicknesser. A router table set up with a round-over bit would do it.

 

[AndyT]

I think you could solve your problem and continue to use your current sander. If I've understood, the trouble is that the small pieces are difficult to hold in one hand while sanding. So you could make something to hold them on a bench.

Ideas include:

- use non-slip router matting
- cut a wedge shaped hole in a piece of ply, thinner than the workpieces. Screw this to the bench. Jam a workpiece into the opening, sand, remove, repeat
- as above but a parallel sided hole and a pair of slim wedges
- as above but two thin bits screwed down with a gap between, and a pair of wedges.
- put some screws in the bench, with the heads above the bench, but closer than the thickness of the workpiece. Jam the workpiece against the screw heads.
- hold them in a vice!