Post by blue on Mar 22, 2007 6:54:35 GMT 12
www.glassattic.com/polymer/sanding_tumbling.htm
You must use wet/dry sandpaper with polymer clay (it's black in color, not brown or orangey)... to keep the polymer dust out of the air.
Regular hardware and hobby stores carry various grits of wet-dry sandpaper, either in packs or sometimes single sheets.
I make my own sanding sticks from (tongue depressor size) craft sticks & mounting tape (the kind that's sticky on both sides, and has a layer of foam between)...these are pretty darned cheap to make.
...lesson: adhere a strip of the tape to one side of tongue depressor (about half length, giving you room for a comfortable grasp); trim away excess tape..... peel the paper from that tape, and lay the newly exposed sticky part on the back of the sandpaper; trim away excess sandpaper.... write grit number of the sandpaper on both sides of the handle!
...when the sandpaper's no longer usable, adhere more foam and sandpaper to the other side (of the dry stick). Ellen RB
HAND sanding....Begin with a 400 grit (or even 320 if your item is really bumpy), then use a 600 grit sandpaper afterwards (some people will then use finer grits, even up to a 2000)... what you're actually doing is making successively smaller scratch marks until they're invisible to the eye and will buff up nicely.
......you must sand either under a trickle of running water, or dip your sand paper continually into a bowl of water to remove the grit & keep polymer dust out of the air
........Here's a word picture (of my sanding): See my big old round Tupperware bin of cool water, black wet-dry sanding paper in sizes 240, 320, 400, 600? Yeah, that's me, sitting in front of the TV, sanding stuff. Each big sheet of sandpaper has been cut in fourths and each fourth folded in half. I'm sanding pens. See me dip the pen and 240 sandpaper in the water, rub the paper on the pen 4-6 swipes, turn, sand, turn, sand, dipping the pen and sandpaper in the water when they start to look clogged. See me change sizes and do the whole thing again with each of the next sizes, changing direction slightly each time. See me finish up with my bench grinder buffing wheel and then look for an audience to admire my smooth shine. Sometimes I wrap the sandpaper around a sponge, especially when I'm sanding round things like eggs and pens -- seems to reach around the object better. There are many variations on this same general theme. Some use sandpaper on up into the 1000s, so I hear….LynnDel
You must use wet/dry sandpaper with polymer clay (it's black in color, not brown or orangey)... to keep the polymer dust out of the air.
Regular hardware and hobby stores carry various grits of wet-dry sandpaper, either in packs or sometimes single sheets.
I make my own sanding sticks from (tongue depressor size) craft sticks & mounting tape (the kind that's sticky on both sides, and has a layer of foam between)...these are pretty darned cheap to make.
...lesson: adhere a strip of the tape to one side of tongue depressor (about half length, giving you room for a comfortable grasp); trim away excess tape..... peel the paper from that tape, and lay the newly exposed sticky part on the back of the sandpaper; trim away excess sandpaper.... write grit number of the sandpaper on both sides of the handle!
...when the sandpaper's no longer usable, adhere more foam and sandpaper to the other side (of the dry stick). Ellen RB
HAND sanding....Begin with a 400 grit (or even 320 if your item is really bumpy), then use a 600 grit sandpaper afterwards (some people will then use finer grits, even up to a 2000)... what you're actually doing is making successively smaller scratch marks until they're invisible to the eye and will buff up nicely.
......you must sand either under a trickle of running water, or dip your sand paper continually into a bowl of water to remove the grit & keep polymer dust out of the air
........Here's a word picture (of my sanding): See my big old round Tupperware bin of cool water, black wet-dry sanding paper in sizes 240, 320, 400, 600? Yeah, that's me, sitting in front of the TV, sanding stuff. Each big sheet of sandpaper has been cut in fourths and each fourth folded in half. I'm sanding pens. See me dip the pen and 240 sandpaper in the water, rub the paper on the pen 4-6 swipes, turn, sand, turn, sand, dipping the pen and sandpaper in the water when they start to look clogged. See me change sizes and do the whole thing again with each of the next sizes, changing direction slightly each time. See me finish up with my bench grinder buffing wheel and then look for an audience to admire my smooth shine. Sometimes I wrap the sandpaper around a sponge, especially when I'm sanding round things like eggs and pens -- seems to reach around the object better. There are many variations on this same general theme. Some use sandpaper on up into the 1000s, so I hear….LynnDel
