Learned something new tonight..

[arkiewood]

I was sanding the imperfections out of some projects I did today. I don't have any mini files so my wife asked me if her emory board she uses on her nails would work?

I gave it a try and wow it worked great. One side was course and one was fine.
I trimmed one end very narrow with scissors to get in tight spots and it worked great.
Now I realize many of you already knew this and used it, but hey, 57 and still learning!!

[Billy in Va]

Arkie  My wife is a retired beauty shop owner and they had a nail girl for a few years. I got all of the silghtly used emory boards of different sizes. I stil have a peanutbutter jar full.  You can pick them up at a lot of places very cheap.  I use them all the time

[IBMer]

Probably a bit more expensive than regular sand paper..      By the way, Harbor Freight tools has Diamond Pin Files for something like $5.00   The work great to get into very tight spaces and quickly remove material..

[canadasgall]

i get mine at the dollar store they come in really handy

[old wormy]

I make my own sanding sticks by glueing sandpaper to tongue depressors and then trim the edges. Use many grits.

[Danny]

Now thats a Great idea.  Using tongue suppressors....  Cool....  Have a Box full of um.
Surely will glue different grits on um.  Thanks for the hint....  Danny  :+}

[chelcass]

Hmmmmm, don't have any tongue suppressors, but I bet popcicle sticks would work.  Especially in small spaces.

[Dean A]

Arkiewood, thats the great thing about this hobby. Always learning new ways and new things and meeting new people.

[Graywolf]

Arkiewood, I'm 68 and still learning. I still have a lot to learn about this scroll saw...

[Jim Finn]

I also make my own  using tongue depressers.

[yyyyyguy]

Yeah but now when your wife is out of emory boards guess who's gonna get the blame

[troy_curtis]

This is a good thing to point out. Someone on here told me that once and it does work great. I am hoping that for Christmas I will get a small file set...but if not I can still use them emery boards. Good tip thanks for sharing.

[Candi_D]

Does anyone use a dremel or is that too strong? My saw hasn't even arrived yet but I was thinking of what I could use for sanding and assumed a dremel on a slow speed would be good?

[julief]

Candi, the dremel works great for shaping and some applications but for general sanding, you will want a sander.  Your blade should give you a nice smooth cut that will require very little sanding on the edges unless you are using a spiral blade (that will leave some fuzzies on the back).  A reverse tooth blade has a few teeth in the upward direction at the bottom of the blade so the bottom of your piece has a nice smooth back with no tear out.  I use reverse tooth blades most of the time.  The mini files are extremely handy when trying to clean up inside cuts.
I recommend a 1/4 sheet sander.  They are inexpensive and do not require specially sized sandpaper.  (You can cut a regular sheet into 1/4 to fit.)
You will eventually want a belt sander/disc sander combo and a sanding mop or two.  They are your best friends when sanding scrolled objects.

[Candi_D]

Thank you for the info! I have a 1/4 sheet sander already so I'll research some of the others you've mentioned as I progress I have the FD blades arriving so that should help too!

Candi, the dremel works great for shaping and some applications but for general sanding, you will want a sander.  Your blade should give you a nice smooth cut that will require very little sanding on the edges unless you are using a spiral blade (that will leave some fuzzies on the back).  A reverse tooth blade has a few teeth in the upward direction at the bottom of the blade so the bottom of your piece has a nice smooth back with no tear out.  I use reverse tooth blades most of the time.  The mini files are extremely handy when trying to clean up inside cuts.
I recommend a 1/4 sheet sander.  They are inexpensive and do not require specially sized sandpaper.  (You can cut a regular sheet into 1/4 to fit.)
You will eventually want a belt sander/disc sander combo and a sanding mop or two.  They are your best friends when sanding scrolled objects.