Hello,
I’m doing small engraving in 3D and was wondering if some of you have some idea on how I can speed up the sanding process of 4 inch or less hardwood engraving with intricate details. I was thinking a buffering wheel, but I’m not sure if buffing is actually removing material to “sand it” or if it’s just feeling micro holes with buffer paste to make it seems shiny.
I just don’t to have to do 25 small piece and go through all the sanding by hand and multiple sanding paper.
Thanks 
Can you show a picture that illustrates how much sanding you need to do, and how much detail the carving has?
On the 3D carvings I’ve done, I just use a stiff nylon scrub brush to remove any hairs/strings/fuzzies that get left.
If you rough down close (0.010"), then seal the wood really well with a good penetrating sealer, the finish cut comes out very smooth, with only a few ‘strings’ that didn’t get removed. Any small imperfections get filled in with the finish coat if you use a clear coat finish.
Soft woods burr bad i do a finish cut across the grain and then make my z axis go to zero then set your precision z movement to like .01 in and move z down .01 and do another finish pass with the grain. It will almost make white oine shine if your using ball nosed bits another thing is dilute zinger shalic. 50 50 with denatured alcohol and brush it on kinda heavy and let it dry for hour or till it feels dry if the humidity is loe it will dry really fast. And then rerun the finish pass or use red or gray fine scotch brite. Dremal and ryobi makes 1 inch dia. Bristle things with grit in yhem that are great as well. But doing soft stuff across the grain helps. Better to run 2 passes against then a light .01 inch with the grain. Hope this helps shelac is great sanding sealer. For almost all projects that your gonna poly after . Not good for a project that will be stained.
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