What is the best way to sand a carbon or fiberglass blank?


thanks
chip

i wont say its the best but i scraped mine with a blade then sanded with 320 wet grit then 1000 wet grit.

If the blank has been painted and you wish to remove the paint, I would first use 400-600 grit and wet sand.
After the blank first starts to peek through I would switch to 1000 grit. And then 2000 grit - all wet sanded.
Herb

Sanding damages the fibers by scratching and tearing them. A thin walled graphite blank, particularly near the tip, is best never touched with a piece of sandpaper unless we're talking extremely fine sandpaper.

..............

can i use a green scotch pad ?Or 600 grit sand paper. What do you think? i'm going to use permagloss for the finish
thanks for the help

chip

Scrape the old finish off, or use a citrus type stripper to remove it. Clean with ScotchBrite. That's your best bet.

...............

There is a good article on "refinishing a rod" in the library section of this site.....read it for more info.

thank you I'll check it out

chip

Chip,
Tom has some very good points.
Generally speaking when stripping a blank, I will use gentle heat to soften the finish. Be sure to NOT and overdo the heat application.
Then, I use a straight edged razor blade held at 90 degrees to the blank. Always scrape from the tip to the butt of the rod. You will find that the fibers run in a lengthwise or lengthwise spiral wrap around the blank. The fibers always run from the tip to the blank. So, if you scrape from the tip to the butt of the blank, you won't catch a fiber and lift it from the blank.
Then, if you sand, the best bet is to sand lengthwise on the blank for the same reason.
A good way to do the sanding is in a bathtub with the shower running with wet and dry paper. The shower keeps the blank wet and rinses away the sanding dust and it avoids clogging the paper.

Start with as course grit as is necessary to remove the remenants of finish after scraping but fine enough to avoid leaving scratches. Then, gradually move to a finer grit. Normally, if you go down to 400 or 600 grit finish and have always sanded with the length of the blank, the finish will be glossy enough for a fine finish. If you choose, you can keep going to finer and finer grits if needed for an even smoother finish.

Take care
Roger

Chip,
Tom has some very good points.
Generally speaking when stripping a blank, I will use gentle heat to soften the finish. Be sure to NOT and overdo the heat application.
Then, I use a straight edged razor blade held at 90 degrees to the blank. Always scrape from the tip to the butt of the rod. You will find that the fibers run in a lengthwise or lengthwise spiral wrap around the blank. The fibers always run from the tip to the blank. So, if you scrape from the tip to the butt of the blank, you won't catch a fiber and lift it from the blank.
Then, if you sand, the best bet is to sand lengthwise on the blank for the same reason.
A good way to do the sanding is in a bathtub with the shower running with wet and dry paper. The shower keeps the blank wet and rinses away the sanding dust and it avoids clogging the paper.

Start with as course grit as is necessary to remove the remenants of finish after scraping but fine enough to avoid leaving scratches. Then, gradually move to a finer grit. Normally, if you go down to 400 or 600 grit finish and have always sanded with the length of the blank, the finish will be glossy enough for a fine finish. If you choose, you can keep going to finer and finer grits if needed for an even smoother finish.

Take care
Roger

I always sand in the 400 grit and higher range. And I sand wet. Pay close attention to your slurry. As soon as the color starts turning to a charcoal grey, you're down to the graphite.

Better to have and not need than to need and not have.

I have stripped a few using Citristrip stripping gel. I usually do a half or third of the blank at a time. Wipe the gel on, wait 30-40 minutes, then I scrape off the finish with a popsicle stick. Sometimes I follow up with 600 wet or a grey Scotchbrite pad. I tried buffing it in my power wrapper with brown paper as suggested by Bill Stevens and that works good as a final step.

Wear good rubber gloves and eye protection. I put newspapers on the floor and do it right in my shop.

Chuck

Thanks Roger and other Rod builders

Thanks allot for all the reply's to my post on this subject.


Chip