Tip of the Week

Sanding Straight Edges? Use a Fence

It’s natural to think of using a sanding drum to smooth curves. But there are times when I turn to a sanding drum to smooth a straight edge.

Sanding Edges Straight. Clamp a long, notched fence to the drill press table to straighten and smooth long cutouts.

In the photo above, the task is to smooth the straight section of a cabinet base cutout. The solution is to attach a notched fence to the table to guide the workpiece. There’s one thing I want to mention about the fence. It should be about twice as long as the workpiece. This way, the piece will be fully supported as you work from one end to the other.

Set the fence so the drum is exposed to the final depth of the cutout. Then take light passes until both ends touch the fence and the drum stops removing material.

This can also be used on the oscillating spindle sander.