Not much has improved since last week, I countersunk the mount holes for the main pivots and started test sanding the handle material, I was initially planning on a complex pattern however my means of sanding the handles rely on a hand held Dremel sander which in my shaky hands would be impossible so I am going for a random look like the image below.
Due to the extremely toxic nature of the material dust, (gloves, respirator, and safety glasses required) I am wet sanding the material to keep the dust down, and have been practicing my sanding on a few pieces of scrap. Below is an image of my progress so far with the sanding.
The Dremel is quite unsteady as you can see the randomness of the cuts. One interesting thing, the handle is still quite strong even after the sanding it remains quite inflexible and sturdy.
Hopefully I can achieve a good random sanding process that will allow for a striking finish to the handles, and after a bit of wet sand finishing and coating (wd-40 of all things) the handles will have great eye catching appeal.
Image courtesy of http://srmlj.blogspot.com/
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Personally, I really like the randomness of the sanding patterns on the handle. I think it adds personality, character, and a sense of originality to the project. I excited to see where the project goes from here, and how everything comes together!
Oh gosh that looks so amazing! I definitely like the random look you are going with. Have you tried sanding across your layers yet? Like you have all of them going in one direction but maybe try just sanding diagonally or horizontally through small portions of it just to really create a random wave-like vector effect. Or just completely randomly sand cuts and shapes in it and see if you like that maybe?
I am not sure if it would work or not, but you could ask Greg in the machine shop to see if you could use his grinders to get the worst of the sanding out of the way and use your tool to add the last minor touches. You might look to see if the aerospace department’s workshop will be able to handle the finer details of your project.