Dremmels on hammers was RE: mini belt sander for filing hammers

[Alan Barnard]

David said: "I've never been able to control a sanding drum on a Dremel
precisely enough to do a nice job -- it's too easy to take a big divot out
of the hammer, the rpm's are too high, you can't get the bottom side of the
hammers on vertical actions without removing all the damper levers, and
it's extremely hard to take off just one layer of felt"

You can use a Dremmel comfortably if you buy the battery powered one, the
MiniMite. You can select down to 5,000 rpm and have a lot of control. I
think I'd stick with sanding paddles on that concert grand, but for
everyday use, and especially on old beaters, the Dremmel's great.

I still use the paddles and stips for the back and underside of most
upright hammers.

Where I really like it is on the angled bass/tenor hammers. But the slo-mo
Dremmel also gives you good control for light work on the treble.

I owe Alan Hoeckleman credit for talking me into trying this; I only had
the plug-in, dentist's drill version before and was totally unwilling to
use THAT.

Reminds me of a funny moment. In a chapter technical, we had a class on
hammer filing and a discussion of the Dremmel ensued. Someone mentioned
that little device that's supposed to guide the depth of cutting. Wim Blees
was in our chapter back then; his comment was, "Well, it let's you control
the depth of your divot."

Alan Barnard
Salem, Missouri