Sanding delicate pieces such as puzzles

[new2woodwrk]

I know most of you already do something similar or know this, but for those that don't, just thought I'd mention it.

I always sand both sides of my wood pieces - puzzles, hangers, portraits etc.

When I cut out some puzzles however, the pieces can be quite delicate, small and easily broken if I'm not careful (see a few of my past posts LOL).

What I do to avoid that now is, I cut out the profile of the puzzle and retain the outer cut. I try to keep it as a single piece, but if not I will glue it back together - I call this profiling.

Once I have all the puzzle pieces cut out, I place them back into the outer cut (the profile) and sand the whole thing as if it were a single slab just as it was before I cut it out.

The pieces stay together very nicely, there is very little if any breakage ever and I can get the fuzzies out of the back very easily.

Just thought I'd share that

[WayneMahler]

I remember reading about folks using sanding mops for this also. I know if I am working on a very delicate piece I put the  piece back in and tape them for support.

[kmmcrafts]

50 minutes ago, new2woodwrk said:

I know most of you already do something similar or know this, but for those that don't, just thought I'd mention it.

I always sand both sides of my wood pieces - puzzles, hangers, portraits etc.

When I cut out some puzzles however, the pieces can be quite delicate, small and easily broken if I'm not careful (see a few of my past posts LOL).

What I do to avoid that now is, I cut out the profile of the puzzle and retain the outer cut. I try to keep it as a single piece, but if not I will glue it back together - I call this profiling.

Once I have all the puzzle pieces cut out, I place them back into the outer cut (the profile) and sand the whole thing as if it were a single slab just as it was before I cut it out.

The pieces stay together very nicely, there is very little if any breakage ever and I can get the fuzzies out of the back very easily.

Just thought I'd share that

I have done this for drilling the "clock" hole on fragile pieces like this too.. I have also shipped items in this way too for added protection. This golfing wall hanging clock I ship like this so the golf club doesn't get broken. I do trim it off if it's a larger block of wood as to help keep the weight / shipping cost down.