Expanding upon the question - for those folks who have a machine but not a planer - when doing items like jewelry boxes and such, do you tend to just sand and let it ride, or do you surface to ensure uniformity and such? Just curious.
I surface most everything I put on my Shapeoko with the Shapeoko.
The exception might be a quick prototype job. Youāll find that itās super important to start with a flat surface especially if you plan on doing a V-Carve operation. Most aluminum work I do is held down to a freshly surfaced supplemental spoil board.
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I āsand and let it rideā, if i have understood your meaning.
I think wood jobs need a little hand work as machining eveything to precision and square sharp edges is not a good look. I like slightly hand bevelled edges and a little wavviness here and there. I believe you loose a little character if you use machines for everything.
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Anything that needs to be surfaced. I donāt have a planer, so rough stock (wood) gets bondoād to the table on tape pads, surfaced, flipped, surfaced, then thickness measured with the machine.
Flat stock, like PVC, plywood, acrylic, dimensional aluminum I check a few spots on the top to verify flatness and usually use as is unless it need surfacing.
It depends on the project, but I almost always double surface if it needs to be square. Although I just started using a new planer and so far itās leveling really well, so I may try some āsand and goā tests soon.
If Iām going to apply masking, Iāll also do a little fine sanding, dust off and tack cloth before applying the masking.
If you do more than fine sanding just be careful not to overwork any one area or youāll lose your level.
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If my pieces need to be sanded for masking, I use one of these. This is a tool for 3" adhesive sanding discs. With 40 grit I can take up to 0.005", with 60 grit up to 0.002" at a time.
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Oooh, thatās a nice looking attachmentā¦
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