DIY sanding blocks, and sticks, on a cheap!

J

Jens Andrée

Guest
Did some tinkering a couple of weeks ago when my nail files (which I use as sanding sticks) had worn out and my soft sanding block was scrapped for being utterly useless.

I've got a descent selection of high grade wet & dry sandpaper at home for finish sanding knife handles and similar so I first cut fitting strips and glued 600 grit on the worn out nail files. I just used spray glue and this worked really well - and they are so much better than any commercial sanding stick I've seen on the market.

I also use quite a lot of semi-soft sanding blocks for sanding surfaces that are not flat so I glued whole sheets of sandpaper to a piece of EVA foam (the puzzle piece floor mat that people use in garages and gyms) that I had at home. 240 and 600 grit. I then cut out a few different size sanding blocks and set out to test them whilst building a Tiger I tank. (I also made some 1200 grit pieces but they are only useful if you need to polish plastic I think and not for general sanding...)

EVA foam is just about perfect with regards to soft/hardness and when using wet & dry sandpaper the final product is flexible enough to conform enough to the shape you're sanding. Ordinary sandpaper is a bit too stiff so the sanding block isn't flexible enough, but wet & dry worked great!

I've been using these contraptions ever since and they are working so well I though I'd share.

This is probably something most of you have figured out already, but in case someone hasn't - get a tile of EVA foam and make sanding sticks/blocks to last a couple of years for virtually no money at all - and the quality is much better than any commercial product I've tried so far!

Also the ability to cut out whatever shape/size you need for the moment is a huge bonus. I've got a few triangular shaped sanding blocks I'm using for those hard to reach areas and it's almost too easy now ;)

This is the 10 mm EVA foam I'm using.

2000031674

I hope this was a useful tip for someone!

Bonus tip: You can make a couple of custom nail sanding blocks for your other half in any shape to score some brownie points ;) You can even find EVA foam in different colours to really make them look extra fancy!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Top