Little Things Make a Dreaded Task Fun

No one likes sanding, but I am the president of the non sanding fan club. That is probably what drove me into hand tools more than anything else. But as most will tell you (even the purists) at some point the paper must meet the wood. I usually avoid anything coarser than 220 and let my planes to the talking up til then.

I few years ago, I ponied up the dough for a Festool sander and dust extractor hoping this would take the coughing out of the equation. This system does it’s job admirably and I can even work without a respirator most of the times and just turn on my ambient air cleaner. The problem is that the hose and cord really get in the way and wear you out as the weight of the cord always wants to pull the sander out of your hand. Festool makes a nifty boom arm for their extractors to loft the hose and power cord up out of the way and takes the weight off the sander, but my 7 foot shop ceilings just won’t accommodate it.

So when faced with sanding the Redwood parts for 2 Adirondack chairs and a table, I finally went in search of a solution. It was in my garden shed of all places. I used to hang my mountain bike up in the garage and I have one of those heavy duty rubber coated hooks still laying about. Find a stud in the ceiling near my bench, screw in the hook and problem solved.

Now with the weight of the hose and cord taken off the sander, it just floats over the work piece and does its job like it should. No more sore wrists trying to hold the sander on the benchtop. Surprisingly, this big sanding job just went by without incident.

Of course it was helped along by a Best of Wil Ferrell SNL DVD in the player.

This solution was so simple that I almost hesitated to post it, but I began thinking about all the tiny little creature comforts and time saving tips/devices that we woodworkers implement into our own shops and thought I would share in case anyone else out there is having this problem.

What tiny additions make your woodworking better? Leave a comment and share it with us.