need tips and techniques, i just bought a lathe today

BIC doug

drywall mesh sandpaper to form, finish with 400 grit sand paper.

Be careful.. in no time at all, you can accidently take off more material than you wished!!

Take heed of the above. Drywall screen is GREAT. If you are starting with square blocks, Stanley Sureform files will get it round in a flash but be very careful as it will ciut very fast

Mike (Southgate, MI)
If I don't want to, I don't have to and nobody can make me (except my wife) cuz I'm RETIRED!!

One trick is to use an emory board (like you'd use for a nail file). Comes in various grits and doesn't take off so much at a time. Another idea is 12oo grit paper on a sanding block or round stock.

If you want to make some trim rings (grooves) use a small jeweler's file. A diamond shape will give you one kind of groove, a round file will give you another. Use light pressure.

Uncle Russ
Calico Creek Rods

I must be using the wrong drywall screen because it take FOREVER to take any material off. I am using my rod wrapper not a lathe tho.

Scott, try a lowe siz screen with bigger holes. That might make a difference. I usually start with 80

Mike (Southgate, MI)
If I don't want to, I don't have to and nobody can make me (except my wife) cuz I'm RETIRED!!

Scott, I've complained about the Drywall screen myself, I find it to be a poor choice to use sanding EVA. When I mentioned this, I was told that at SLOWER speeds, the drywall works well. I shape EVA at 3000+ RPM on my DElta Midi, by far, and I mean REALLY far - the best sandpaper to use is a 1" wide belt sander belt, cut into 6" strips. I've used the same 60-120-150 grit paper on dozens of EVA grips, and hundreds of EVA inlays this year alone, and thre is no clogging or problems or loss of abrasive whatsoever. To unclog paper while sanding all you need to do is move it up and down as teh grip spins. At high speeds, teh EVA clogs the drywall making it useless after 4 or 5 grips, and it ain't cheap.

I've turned a lot of EVA and Hypalon and find that a Stanley SurForm file is the quickest way to knock them down to size and shape. Then, switch to drywall screen but only in the very coarse sizes - 40 and 60 grit. If you use finer grits than that you'll end up just clogging the openings in the screen.

Once the grip is sized and shaped the way you want, you can smooth with the finer drywall screen (120 to 150 grit) or use 150 to 220 grit sandpaper. You do not need to go as fine in grit when working with EVA as you would with cork.

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