Transcript
Contour Sander Tool Review Tool Reviewed By: David "Willy" Nelson Tool Reviewed: Arbortech Contour Sander About Me: I have been wood turning and carving since about 1995. I was in the Navy at the time and getting a little older and playing less sport. Whilst in high school, a manual arts teacher allowed me to come back into class after school as I had expressed an interest in woodturning. It was this initial interest which saw me purchase a cheap lathe in 1995 and rekindle an affair with timber. As I don’t enjoy watching TV, I have found I have a heap of time of an evening to be productive and creative. Of an evening, if I am not playing Indoor Beach Volleyball, then I can be found knee deep in shavings either turning on the big Durden Lathe or carving and hollowing. What did you use the tool to create? The two main things I do are woodturning and woodcarving. The main tools I use for the carving and hollowing of burls are the Abortech Industrial Carver, Arbortech TURBOPlane and now the Contour Random Sander. What techniques did you use to create your project? I have a huge chunk of Wandoo Burl, with Birdseye which I had recently cut from a farm. This is super hard and I thought this would be a true test of the tool. I was all excited to try out my new toy, errr...tool. I carved the burl out with the Arbortech Industrial Woodcarver, one of my favourite tools. I recently brought the new Contour Sander out to play after a couple of photos. The Contour Sander was okay, but didn't remove a lot of material. It was great in the fiddly parts around detail. I wasn't happy with this and had a chat with the Arbortec's tool designer, Kevin Inkster. Simultaneously, I believe Arbortech discovered the courser grits were not where this tool excels. They have subsequently introduced the finer grits, up to 400. NOW we are talking. I did some smaller burls, and previously where my sanding pads would catch, the contour sander DID not. Usually when my sanding pads catch, I have to repair them, which is time consuming and annoying.
Helpful, handy tips/techniques you would like to share. The sanding pads are held onto the pad through an adhesive. I thought later on, that I might convert mine to velcro as I am set up for that sort of work and can cut all my own disk. Once I understood the operation of the tool, I think velcro would fail. This Contour Random Sander is a random orbit tool, which essentially oscillates. If velcro is used, then the oscillations would be reduced due to the slippage in the velcro. The adhesive pads are direct drive, no loss. So don't be tempted to change to velcro. I am sure the design engineers also tried and failed with velcro. What you liked about the Arbortech tool? The Contour Sander really excelled in the hard to get to, pad bending, disc heating, detail areas. The Sander did not generate the heat that I would have expected. The sanding grits also lasted quite well. I finished the Wandoo Burl and also did some small, deep York Gum Burls. This is the domain of the sander. It is a great tool which has now earned a spot in my shed. It is very easy to use and control. What you didn't like about this tool? I am a little concerned about being locked into a sole supplier relationship, purchasing the high temperature adhesive backed sanding disks instead of making my own. My Project Photos
