[Q] How to thin down a Bone Blank?

I use a Dremel sanding drum to get material off moderately quickly with reasonable control. It's never flat so I stop short of my line and then finish flat with a grinding stone or file. I hold the nut in one of these cheap little hand vises (I don't use the white pillars) ..
http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-5...0001&campid=5338148343&icep_item=182607768247


I have also used a file in the past with the nut in a drill press vise.

 

You have a spindle sander so you can clamp down up a fence and run the bone between the drum and the fence to thin it while the drum is turning. It'll shoot back at you, so you need to go against the feed and use a pushstick and safety glasses. Make incremental adjustments until it is where it is at. Pieces of masking tape on the fence can help as it is thin. Adhering the nut to a block makes that even easier to hang onto and push.

 

Make some jig if you want to do the 10 (now 9) blanks.

If you need only one it is really fast to file and sand by hand. Stick it to a board up or down. It’s very fast to get a wedge too, check the thickness very often.

 

spray stick some 180, 0r thereabouts paper on something flat... glass, piece of corian, marble, etc...

place the bone on the paper and push back and forth.. checking it with calipers and the neck slot... that's how I've been doing it for 50 years.... ain't failed yet..


Oh, I was taught by the guy that worked on Segovia's guitars, so I reckon he knew what he was doing..

you don't need anything special except something flat, spray glue and sandpaper...

rk

 

Start with a file, then go to sandpaper.

Patience .

 

I do exactly as you tried. I stick the blank to a block of wood and use my edge sander. I take my time and test fit several times, especially when I'm close to final thickness. I may even stop the sander and just manually move the blank back and forth to ease up to my final dimension. It really just takes patience.

 

Tried sand bone blocks only 2 times, both were very easy to me. I have used 150 grit if I remember. Sometimes I think that use a coarser grit is worse, because its large grains make the sanding more difficult.

 

OK,, so I had to make a few today, so I dug out the 'ol Nikon... they say a picture is with a thousand words,,, so consider this very verbose couple of posts...

 

And a few more...

 

and even more...

 

I made this jig a couple years ago just for that purpose. It fits in the miter slot in my ROSS and has worked great!

The bottom base slides in a dado groove with a matching tounge on the top part to fit it. Double back tape or spray adhesive the nut blank in the slot and rotate the back knob to turn it into the sander. I have markings on the side that get me close to the thickness I need before starting to trial fit. Cut my nut making effort way down.

Eric

 

As always, thank you Ron & Eric for the pic tutorials when it comes to things like this.

 

Where'd you get that disc sander? I made a smaller one on the cheap but couldn't easily find a bigger platter like the one on yours:

I've had excellent luck shaping nut blanks (slightly softer ivory, though, not bone) using my little 3" disc sander. Would love to have a slightly larger one without going to a 'big' 4" belt/6" disc combo sander. The next common size of disc sanders seems to jump to 12" diameter (with huge over-powerful motor for the small work pieces).

 

I made that one.. the disk is 3.5 inches ..

Made the disk out of Lexan I turned on a lathe and the base and table are all Corian....

r

 

Good howto Ron, thank you.
maybe a tip for others.
if you are gluing some pieces of wood and have some small pieces leftovers of wood, what you could do is to take some sanding paper on a roll, put some wood glue on the back and wait a while.
the paper on the back will soak up the glue and stretch.
then put it on the pieces of wood , clamp them and let it dry.
drying will remove the moister out of the paper and it will shrink and you get a flat surface.
this way, maybe sawing pieces of wood to your favour, you have nice sanding blocks.

o, don't forget to put wet sanding paper a night in water, holds much longer and when folded the edge point will not scratch

 

OK, I received a lot of requests for info on making the little sand disk.. here's a few photos.. the base is Corian.. easy to work with and durable.. you can get it by Dumpster diving about any Solid Surface Counter top fabricators shop.. ask first...

the Motor is a Bodine I got off eBay.. controlled with a Sewing machine foot pedal...

I made the disk by finding an old pulley, glueing it to a piece of Lexan, Lexan only because I had Lexan laying around.. the Corian would do just as well... then I turned it on my mini lathe to true everything up... every thing else is pretty much self explanatory..

Oh, ya glue Corian with CA.. and get it right the first time... Corian has a particular affinity for CA and bonds instantly.... and watch your fingers... freeing fingers from Corian that's glued to 'em can be a bit of a challenge

rk

 

My goodness!!! After seeing those pics, does anyone else feel like they missed their calling? Nice work!!!