![]() ![]() Safety is first, so always wear eye protection and be mindful of your hands while using a bench polisher! Learn more about bench polisher attachments. However, use with caution, they will rapidly remove material and can nip your fingers. These accessories can be used with bench top polishing machines. Made from foam rubber that has aluminum oxide bonded to it, it can be used wet or dry and can be cut down for the size you need. Discs are great for getting into awkward spaces on a piece. These are small attachments that snap onto your flex shaft or rotary tool. Sanding disks used with a flex shaft Sanding discs The sticks can be either flat or half-round and they are so handy that once you use them you will wonder how you lived without them. ![]() You can purchase ready-made half-round sanding sticks or make your own by gluing sandpapers to popsicle sticks, paint stirrers, dowel rods or other wood forms. Half-round sanding sticks for jewelry Sanding sticks Remember, abrasives remove material so if you aren't careful with a flex shaft you can sand out design elements or weaken the construction fairly quickly. Just be careful you don't use too rough a grit or over sand it. Wrap sandpaper strips on a split mandrel for your flex shaft or another rotary tool to expedite finishing. Use these against a hard or soft surface for hand finishing and the papers can be cut to size to reach into the tightest areas. Sandpaper Assortment for jewelry making Loose paper Hand sanding can be tedious so most studios have jewelry finishing sandpaper in several forms, including abrasives for bench polishers & flex shafts to make it even easier. Combine sanding with jewelry tools for finishing There is no "perfect" finish it is entirely up to you as the maker. You can leave a piece matte satin or you can work your way down to a mirror finish with the finest 1-micron paper if you choose. Once scratches are removed, continue working your way down the grits, changing directions each time until you are satisfied with the finish. Repeat as you progress to finer and finer papers. Choose the next size grit, and sand in the opposite direction until you erase the lines caused by the rougher paper. When sanding, use your first paper with a back and forth motion in one direction. For fine scratches, you can probably start with a 1,200 -2,000 grit, 3-9 micron paper and be just fine. So, don't start with the roughest jewelry sandpaper unless you have some serious, large scratches you need to remove. The coarser the jewelry finishing sandpaper is, the more material you will remove from the surface of your metal, regardless of whether you're working with brass, copper or sterling silver. Start with the right jewelry finishing paper for the job ![]() Then, you can go in with the finer papers for precision finishing. So, it is best to buy the less expensive hardware store papers only for the roughest grits used for removing material rapidly. That variance means results will be less consistent and a larger particle on the sheet can scratch your work. Grit rated papers from the hardware store may be made with aluminum oxide or silicon carbide, but the main difference is that the particles are not as uniform. Micron rated papers and radial disks use abrasive silicon carbide particles of perfectly uniform size. Understand the difference between jewelry sandpaper grits ![]() The larger the grit number, the finer the sandpaper, however, the micron rated grits are the opposite: the smaller the micron number, the finer the sandpaper. Studios typically have both 3M brand micron graded papers and disks, in addition to standard grit rated papers. Understand the jewelry sandpaper numbering system Here are several quick tips to clarify the world of finishing papers. However, for new metalsmiths, it can be confusing to understand the grit rating system and choose the right sandpaper for the job. Jewelry finishing sandpapers are vital in a jewelry studio. ![]()
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