Getting them set up slowly but surely

[Taogem]

I spent quite a bit of time grinding, sanding and painting two of these three arbor set ups.

The one on the far left I already had.

Now have added a couple more giving me a greater variety of belt grits available without the need to constantly change them out.

The center unit does have a 8" 80 grit sintered wheel, an expando, and two nice flat rubber padded paper discs.

So now I have a great selection of sintered wheels ranging from 80 to 400, then will sorta rotate out the 8" silicon carbides so as to have grits ranging from 80 all the way down to a well worn 600  :D

I have become pretty comfortable with the silicon carbide and really like working with it.







 

[Taogem]

Got the gravity water system all hooked up between the three.

Everything works great !

[Taogem]

I can not tell ya how happy I am with deciding on the silicon carbide paper for working with.

I remember when first started out. It was a heck of a time getting use to sanding let alone getting them to the point of polishing without having to repeat many sanding steps over and over again.

I truly do have the feel for the different grits of paper, and more easily spotting the scratches and knowing what they should be looking like before moving on to the next grit.

If your new and maybe lurking around gathering information and making choices on equipment and such. I can tell ya that once we get the feel of working with the silicon carbide, some excellent cabs can be finished.

When I talk about working with the different grits, the one single most important thing to remember is to simply not press hard. Use the grits progressively by pressing lightly enough to obtain the expected scratches or surface textures for the various grits. Moving progressively through the grits using this fairly simple process.

Maybe I will try to put together some short videos showing what I am trying to get across. Once I figure out how to magnify the surface scratches, I think will do that.

I know there are many who much prefer diamond. For myself, the paper on expando wheels just feels so darn good!

I am not yet set up to properly use diamond pastes. I do realize that this is going to be necessary for many minerals.

I am missing out on being able to finish up some cabs because of not being set up to use paste.

That is next  :)