Great Planes Hand Sanders Back On the Market!

Just a quick post to let you know that one of my favorite tools - the Great Planes Easy-Touch Hand Sander - now appears to be back on the market!

This simple but really well-designed sanding block is a must have for hobbyists, including model rocketeers. They're lightweight, easy to use, and comfortable to work with even when sanding for a long stretch of time. I have three of them, so that I can quickly switch between coarser and finer grits of sandpaper.

Because you adhere sandpaper directly to the face of the sander, the sanding surface remains perfectly flat while you work, something you can't quite achieve by wrapping a piece of sandpaper around a block. You can either use standard sandpaper shot with spray adhesive, or self-adhesive sandpaper strips which come in long rolls. I get mine from Klingspor.

Earlier today, the Great Planes website was down, and I worried the company had gone under. It was one of the casualties of the big Hobbico bankruptcy, which had some of us worried about the future of Estes.

While it ended up working out better for Estes than anybody could have imagined, Great Planes seems to have taken longer to recover. I don't know who owns them now, but I can say that I've been watching their stock of tools for a while, and the hand sanders were on "back order" on the Great Planes website for ages, and couldn't be found anywhere else.

But the Great Planes website is now back online, and the hand sanders are back up for order there, as well as on Amazon.

So, if you see one pop up on eBay for an inflated price, save your money. Order one directly from Great Planes or Amazon. Heck, order two or three. This is a great tool for rocketry. Very comfortable to use, and you'll use it on every build.

While you're at it, check out my post on how to apply and remove self-adhesive sandpaper to the hand sander without having to spend an hour peeling off sticky adhesive.

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Sanding Block Pro Tip

A while back, I showed a way to remove self-adhesive sandpaper from an aluminum sanding block, like the Great Planes Easy-Touch Hand Sander*, seen above.

Self-adhesive sandpaper, such as the stuff I buy from Klingspoor, has such a powerful adhesive on it that you can't simply peel it back off the aluminum.

My solution was to hold the sander under a stream of warm water and slowly but firmly peel the sandpaper off.

Any remaining adhesive is cleaned off with a cotton swab and an adhesive solvent such as lighter fluid.

While this certainly works, someone suggested to me a much easier, faster way, and it doesn't require running water.

All you need is cheap masking tape.

The Great Planes hand sander is just a hair over 2 inches wide. I got the cheapest masking tape I could find over 2 inches - a 3-inch wide roll for about $5. (That's a Boston hardware store price. In most parts of the U.S. you should be able to find it cheaper.)

Just adhere a strip of the tape directly to your sanding block.

Trim the tape down to the edges of the sander.

Now you can attach the self-adhesive sandpaper as you would normally, and trim that down as well.

Despite being a lot less sticky than the sandpaper itself, the masking tape will hold up to pretty heavy use. Once you're ready to change paper, you can just peel it off the sanding block with a fingernail.

Now you can quickly and cleanly change paper without any running water, and with no need to use a solvent to clean up any remaining adhesive residue.

You should use one piece of tape wide enough to cover the whole sander. If you try to put two narrower pieces side by side, the ridge will show through on the sandpaper side, and your sanding surface won't be perfectly flat.

Even if you don't own a Great Planes Hand Sander, the masking tape method should work with even a simple wood block sander. Whereas the sandpaper's adhesive would take the surface off a wood block, cheap masking tape should peel off easily. Having the sandpaper adhered flatly against the sanding surface is much better and flatter than simply wrapping a piece of sandpaper around a wooden block, as it gives you more control.

*As of this writing, it's difficult to find a Great Planes hand sander. Great Planes was owned by Hobbico, and as a result, was part of the whole Hobbico bankruptcy. We in model rocketry got really lucky that Estes was purchased by Estes Industries, LLC, run by people who actually really care about the hobby itself. Hobbico's other holdings have apparently been purchased by Hobbico rival Horizon, and so far, the future of all its holdings is uncertain. The Easy Touch Hand Sander has been on backorder for some time. I hope it returns to market some time soon. It's such a simple, elegant tool - my favorite in the tool box. I own three! I'll try to keep track of when the Great Planes sanders come back and post about it here. I recommend you get one. They're inexpensive and a great little tool.

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Removing Sandpaper From an Aluminum Sanding Block

A few weeks ago, on Twitter, I was asked:

"@rocketn00b Can you tell me which spray adhesive you use to stick sandpaper to your aluminum sanding block so it isn't permanently stuck?"

Mark is referring to one of my favorite tools, the Great Planes Easy Touch hand sander. I first found out about this on Chris Michielssen's excellent Model Rocket Building blog, and it's a terrific sander. If you don't have one, I highly recommend it. I have two, so I can easily switch between coarser and finer grits of sandpaper.

The Great Planes sander comes with a few sheets of self-adhesive sandpaper, and you can buy more from them, but only in coarser grits. If you want to use a finer grit (say, 320 or 400), you have a few options. The first is to cut regular sandpaper to size and apply it with spray adhesive.

The other is to buy self-adhesive rolls. A great resource for this is Klingspoor's Woodworking Shop.

The adhesive on this sandpaper is really strong, and after reading a recent post on Model Rocket Building, I realized I wasn't alone in having trouble getting old sandpaper off the block.

But I recently figured out the trick, so I thought I'd share it here.

First of all, to answer the Twitter question, any spray adhesive will probably do. Most of them loosen their grip in water, so soaking the sander for a few minutes should do it.

Simply soak and peel.

But with the Klingspoor paper, that doesn't quite work. This stuff holds really strong. You may try to peel with your fingernails, and end up using some kind of putty knife or scraper, but still the paper tears, leaving lots of sandpaper and adhesive behind which takes a lot of work to remove.

But you can cleanly remove stuck on sandpaper from an aluminum block with little effort using warm, running water.

Start by running a stream of warm water directly onto the edge of one corner of the sander.

After a few moments, that corner will loosen up and you will be able to carefully peel it away from the sanding block.

Allow the warm water to continually flow right onto the seam between the sandpaper and the sanding block. With a firm grip, slowly peel the sandpaper from the block.

You may find that the sanding block is now completely clean. More than likely, however, there will be a few small spots of adhesive still stuck to the block. An adhesive remover will take care of that. Goo Gone will work well. I personally like using Ronsonol Lighter Fluid. It breaks down adhesives but doesn't leave a lot of greasy residue.

Just apply a layer of the lighter fluid to the sanding block and allow it to soak in briefly.

The remaining adhesive will wipe cleanly off the sanding block with a cotton ball or swab.

Rinse the sanding block and dry with a paper towel. It should be clean and ready for more sandpaper.

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