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We are selling our new sander on the Internet at approximately one third of the price of its market equivalent with the added advantage of it being refillable making profile sanding even more economical. FriXander is
recommended for use by joiners and painters working with moulded wood. Our new profile sander
is ideal for preparing routered wood for painting/varnishing and also for
denibbing (sanding in between coats). Frixander takes to the
shape of the routered wood straight away, and lasts longer than other "equivalent" profile sanders because of its unique approach
to profile sanding. The problem with
profile sanding is that the sanding material has to have some give to adjust to
the shape of the profile being sanded, however, at the same time, the basic
principle of sanding is to apply abrasive under pressure. How can this
problem be solved?
Our new sander comes
supplied with 15 non-woven web pads compressed between two 90mm diameter
plywood discs, giving a workable width of approximately 40mm. Should this
be too narrow for the profile to be sanded simply add more pads to increase the
workable width. Also supplied are two smaller pairs of plywood discs which
replace the larger discs if they cause obstruction as the abrasive wears down
(which is the case if the work-piece approaches the profile sander at an angle )
. English traditional
toy maker Cyril
Hobbins found another use for our Frixander and writes as follows: "Thanks a million
for the Frixander, a very useful addition to my tool kit. What an
innovation! Very basic, but very efficient. I gave it a good go
today and realise it is the ideal tool for finishing carvings. I make
quite a few replica dolls turned or carved in oak for museums and usually finish
them with a rotary bristle brush and Beeswax. After sanding things in the
normal way with the Frixander, I experimented
in my own way. I took a carved oak doll, rubbed a block of Beeswax onto
the spinning Frixander then applied the doll. Result - A beautiful waxy
sheen, just right for rubbing up with a cloth as a final touch You just
have to watch your fingers and hold on tight! I showed it to another toy
maker tonight and he was quite impressed. The following review appeared in September 2000 (issue 99) of Good Woodworking:
MACHINED
timber mouldings, whether bought as standard or machined with a
spindle or router, will have minute ripples left in the profile as this passes
over the cutters. It's wise to sand these before use, but this is
laborious;
especially on long runs. The Frixander uses
Webrax-type pads to softly scour the ridges away, while maintaining the profile.
The
design is simple yet effective; 15 squares of abrasive are held between plywood
discs, each pad offset to the next, allowing the corners to do the work.
The discs are held on a threaded bar and compressed with a nut into a mass of
abrasive. This can then be used either hand-held in a drill to clean
profiles in situ or, more effectively, mounted in a drill press, allowing the
profile to be fed at a uniform rate. As
the pads start to wear, the denser area of abrasive is reached. If you
sand the same profile on a regular basis, this will start to take the profile
shape. To get full use out of the pads, three sizes of disc are supplied, with
smaller diameter ones being fitted as the pads wear. I
found these pads very good for light sanding of profiles although, on the ogee
architrave I used, they tended to slightly soften the usual crisp square profile
at the back of the moulding. This isn't a bad thing, as hard edges do need
a very slight arris to ensure finishes adhere to corners properly.
However, I found that if too much pressure is applied on timbers with distinct
hard and soft grain, the Frixander can strip the softer grain. As with
most things, common sense (and testing on scrap timber to get the correct angle
of attack) prevents disaster. As a sanding system, this is a primitive-looking device. It works, so why change it? |
FriXander
is a new, low-cost, long-lasting, non-clogging, versatile profile sander for
sanding routered edges.
Up
to now, profile sanders give way too much under pressure, however, our new
sander is the simple solution to this problem. It is made of a pan scrubber type
material with abrasive grit glued throughout. This material is mounted on a
threaded arbor and compressed between two wooden circular discs using ordinary
nuts. This assembly is then mounted on an electric drill ( hand-held or
bench-mounted ). Effectively what you have then is an abrasive bed soft enough
to conform to any shape yet supported all round to allow the necessary pressure
to be applied.