My experiment du jour

[GazzaS]

Recently I've decided that hand-sanding is obsolete.  Time consuming.  .And inefficient.  So, I've been using a cheap electric toothbrush with double-sided foam tape to hold no-fil sand paper.  It's improved the quality of my modelling time quite a bit.

 

Have you seen the adds for Alien Tape?    ...bear in mind I have no association with Global Shop Direct, or anyone who makes anything they sell.

 

Anyway Alien Tape is a double sided, clear material that uses no adhesive and can be removed from anything but painted surfaces and porous substances like paper or drywall.  When I first saw the commercial, I wondered what use it might have for modelling.

 

After further pondering, I thought it might have a use for wet sanding when mated with my electric toothbrush, wet/dry paper, or micromesh.   My tests show pretty positive results, especially with the wet/dry paper.  The Alien tape would not become separated from either the toothbrush nor the paper despite repeated dunkings and over a half hour of wet sanding.

 

With micromesh, I was able to sand for over half an hour without the micromesh and Alien tape separating.  Eventually, though enough water seeped through the fibers of the cloth backing to cause separation.

 

This bodes well for wet sanding with resin.  I've been working hard to avoid resin dust by sanding while wearing a mask while outside.  But it's rather inconvenient as mosquitoes love my blood, and the verandah isn't really set up to prevent me from losing small parts.

 

Anyway...  thought I'd share.

 

Gaz

 

[GazzaS]

Just a little more information:

After a few seconds of dipping the used piece in water and giving it a few second finger scrub, I set the used pieces to dry.  They regained their tackiness once they were dry.  So, any time they are used with micromesh, they can be re-used.  But the ones attached to sandpaper become permanently joined.