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

[Thomas Cole]

I use a corded Dremel and don't have problems with divots. I had some 
goofs at first but soon got the hang of it. It's not a ham-fisted job - 
you have to use a very light touch, moving the tool with the direction 
of rotation, like a front-wheel-drive car with a floored accelerator. If 
you move against the sanding drum's rotation - it will inevitably dig 
in. Start with a very light pressure, increasing gradually as you get 
the feel of it. Lessen the pressure (and change from 3:00 to 9:00 angle 
as appropriate) to smooth out the "ruffled feathers."

The Dremel works really well on grand hammers, getting to all areas of 
felt if you're looking to reduce weight. It can be a little awkward on 
uprights, but with a little creativity you can manage the underside 
areas if you don't mind sanding a little bit "cross grain." After 
shaping and basic surfacing, you can switch to finer grits of sanding 
strips.

Tom Cole


Alan Barnard wrote:

>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
>
>
>
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