Sanding enclosures

[cooder]

I have one similar to this, it is still portable and doesn't need to be screwed down on you dining table (well, that wouldn't go down well I 'spose...). You just need some space preferably outside so you don't have the dust floating in the house.
http://image.classictrucks.com/f/tech/1110clt_basic_tig_welding_101_with_inverter_machines/33796024/1110clt-12-o-%2Bbasic-tig-welding-101-with-inverter-machines%2Bbench-sander.jpg

[muddyfox]

hah, cool!
will look for it, seems like just the ticket.

[FloorIt]

I think a belt sander would be way overkill.  The belts only go as high as about 120 grit.  You'd take off too much material with one of those and end up with some pretty deep grooves and you would still need to sand those out with some other method.  A random orbital sander is a good tool to have if you don't already have one and could be used on a variety of different projects.  That would be my suggestion.  I love my Bosch and it got very good reviews from Fine Woodworking.

[selfdestroyer]

If the scratch/gouge is that deep could you just fill it with a filler and sand it down? I'm thinking like Bondo or J-B Weld.

Cody

[davent]

220 belts are easily had around here.

I'm guessing any sort of motorized heavy hand held tool is going to be as detrimental to muddyfox's condition as the handsanding is. I really like Cooder's linked tool, an already mounted inverted beltsander. Easy to control the sanding as you only hold the lightweight enclosure, a perfectly flat platten to sand against and easy setup and take down.

The disc would be the ideal ticket for final sizing/tweaking of etched pcb's.

dave

And then there's Amaazon, if they have others will, 600grit.

http://www.amazon.ca/Magnate-R4X36S60-Closed-Sanding-Aluminum/dp/B008XEAYO2/ref=sr_1_9?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1409618814&sr=1-9&keywords=600+grit

[lars]

I agree with the bondo idea for those cheaper, badly-gouged enclosures. Sometimes it looks like they hit 'em with 10 grit sandpaper and still can't get the bottoms to line up. The other option is to go with real Hammond enclosures from Mouser, made in the U.S. They're a little more expensive, but the quality is 20x better than the Taiwan knock-offs. The 1590B's I received recently were practically polished aluminum right out of the wrapper.

[muddyfox]

I'm not in the US. Mouser is prohibitively expensive shipped to my neck of woods ($130 flat rate no matter how little I buy) so I'm stuck with crappy boxes.
Amazon also only ships books and dvds to me, no tools or electronics.

I'll look into belt sanders locally because any sort of tool vibration just aggravates the pain and this seems to be the least invasive option.

As things stand right now, I can build but I can't box so it's kinda pointless to even build. I need to get this sorted out but at my age, the aches and pains rarely go away so I need to find a workaround.
Thanks all, I'll report back when I buy something.

[alanp]

Muddy, would it be worth paying some trustworthy, energetic young person who is good with their hands to do the sanding part, then? ("Always two there are, a master and an apprentice...")

[muddyfox]

Good call!

I don't have any such individuals living in the vicinity but I'll look around 4sure...

[muddyfox]

OK I just ordered this thing sight unseen. Mostly because it's the only one available locally 

http://www.fervi.com/ita/macchine-e-accessori/macchine-lavorazione-legno/levigatrici-a-nastro/levigatrice-a-nastro-da-banco-inclinabile-pr-3972.htm

The specs seem right to handle the enclosures of needed size and the price is a bit steep but doable.
The sales guy told me that it normally comes with 60-80-120 wood belts but 240 and 400 for metal can be ordered. So I did. 
It's gonna take a fortnight or so as it's not in stock locally, will post my "review" when it gets here.

[cooder]

I wold think that will be a good one for you.
If you have deep gouges and marks on enclosures you will need to sand first out with 80 grit or so and then work your way over 120 to 240 / 400.
The stop bar on belt sander part will make handling/working pretty easy, not much stress on hands at all.

[davent]

I agree with the bondo idea for those cheaper, badly-gouged enclosures. Sometimes it looks like they hit 'em with 10 grit sandpaper and still can't get the bottoms to line up. The other option is to go with real Hammond enclosures from Mouser, made in the U.S. They're a little more expensive, but the quality is 20x better than the Taiwan knock-offs. The 1590B's I received recently were practically polished aluminum right out of the wrapper.

Last Hammonds i received were labeled as Taiwan made too... started the hobby with Canadian made, next they started coming EU labeled now we're into Taiwan.