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Since I started turning on a lathe, I've noticed a distinct loss of fingerprints when sanding. Mostly at the lower grits, I sure manage to heat up my fingers quick! I went looking for a solution and found the sanding bow. Who knew? Before someone starts with the whole "hold the sand paper with two hands so you don't press your fingers into the work"….yes, yes, you're right. But once I saw pics of a sanding bow I just kinda wanted one…you know, so I can sand and eat a sandwich at the same time or something. Anyway, after some study I pushed together some ideas and made this guy. It uses two slotted dowels, one forward and one rear, to friction wrap the paper so it stays in place and an elevating cap piece to apply tension.

The cap has a hex bolt epoxied in the bottom, which runs through a hole to a nut captured in a walnut dial.

Through trial and error I found 20" is the magic length for the 1" wide paper. This lets me get one full 360* rotation easily on each dowel and have just a bit of slack left, which is taken up by the elevation cap.

Built of a chunk of scrap maple I'd laminated together for another project. Finished with spray lacquer because it was easy. This one yields about +/- 8" of sanding area, which I've found also works very nicely for finishing round over work as well as on the lathe. I might build a bigger one at some point, but this one seems to be about right for right now!

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2,671 Posts
It's so pretty it looks store bought .
Great job!!!
 

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Great job R'Gi... love your tensioner. Some "knurling* on the dowels (bigger dowel) may be of assistance for some, though the tensioner would remove most of that need.

I bought a sanding bow at a wood show many years ago and it's incredible how much use I've managed to get out of it. If you don't have one, you'd probably not miss it (as not aware of their usefulness), however, once have one, they are invaluable.
 

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5,101 Posts
Really like that idea, great job. Guess it will be a build for me down the road.
 

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Some "knurling* on the dowels (bigger dowel) may be of assistance for some,
That's a really great idea. Maybe just some scallops on the ends. I may remake them….if for no other reason than it'll look great! They twist up easily enough for me, but I could imagine someone with a little arthritis would appreciate a little dimension to the ends of those dowels…. Thanks!
 

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Great looking tool. You've got quite an innovation there.
 

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I knocked some quick scallops in the end of the dowels. It's a nice, functional detail. Good call!
 

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Well done! I will have to give that a try. Thanks for sharing!
 

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Looking good.
 

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That looks great, by far the nicest looking bow sander I've seen.

Another one to add to the to-do list
 

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Good design on that one. I was thinking of making a tension bow sander but I like your idea better.

I'll see if I can make some improvements on it.
 

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1,434 Posts
Very cool design. Nice work.
 

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thats a real cool tool,only problem is id need 5 or 6, one for each grit i use,because changing the sanding strips every 30 seconds would be a pain.then again maybe ill make 5 or 6 ?
 

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Thanks for sharing your well-designed, better-executed, great idea! This one's definitely going in the favorites folder.
 

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maybe ill make 5 or 6 ?
Honestly, it would be an easy tool to make in a production setting. Pretty simple cutout, a couple holes, a little routing. The biggest thing would probably be making the dowels and the dial.
 
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