Sanding Supplies

I had a customer call the other day and the Eagle America catalog he used to order from was a catalog he borrowed from his father, that is not that unusual but the catalog was from 2000.  He is not the first customer to order from one of our catalogs from several years ago. I’ve asked "Why do you keep them so long" they usually say they keep it for reference. They would see a woodworking accessory or router bits that they had not seen before. So they hold on to it for when they need that item.

Do you know we carry over 6000 different woodworking tools? We have everything from; router table systems, router bits and router bit sets, saw blades and saw blade accessories, woodworking clamps, sanding supplies, wood carving tools, Kreg pocket hole jigs…. and the list goes on.

A few years back we ran a promotional offer to see who had the oldest catalog and I believe we had multiple customers that supplied us with catalogs from the late 80's and early 90's.

  Yesterday's Catalog                                      Today's Catalog
                                 

Wow what a difference, so don’t be so quick to toss that old Eagle America catalog it just may be worth something in the future.

As a customer service representative at Eagle America, the interaction that I have with our customers is one of the best things about my job. When I hear, "my project came out exactly the way I wanted it to" or ”the router bit did exactly what I needed it to do" it brings a smile to my face. 

Recently, I received an email from Roman and he was simply letting us know he was happy with the shaper cutters that he had ordered from us. He was trying to match a profile from an old building on the south side of Boston. Well you can see for yourself how happy he was and what the final result was.

Roman writes:

Sirs:

Back on 2/25, I ordered a set of exterior door shaper cutters and I felt compelled to tell you how satisfied I was with them.

I was commissioned to build a replacement exterior door for an old building in South Boston.  I needed a set of shaper cutters that offered a similar profile to the original and that were milled to match each other for a snug fit.  The 285-8512 set I received was perfect for the job.  I was building this door from 1-3/4" thick Poplar and wanted to use my Delta shaper to carve each cut with one pass. Setup was easy.  Most importantly, the fit between the joints was perfect, making an extremely tight fit to make the glue-up snug and reliable. A minimum of sanding supplies were needed to finish my project. 

The price you charge for these shaper cutters were also attractive; especially when you consider that you also include both 1/2" and 1/4" center panel cutters and bearings.  Most of the time these are only supplied at an extra cost. 

Rest assured that I'll order again from Eagle America if this product is representative of the other cutters you provide.  Shipping was quick and much appreciated.

Sincerely, Roman

I asked if he would be willing to forward some photo's of his handiwork and he was happy to do so. Here are the before and after photo's of what Roman did with our shaper cutters.

Roman replied:

All of the buildings in S. Boston butt up against each other but they are painted differently. Thus the red/black stripes behind me.  This place is modestly sided but trimmed nicely.

The lumber I used was "torrified" Poplar.  Yes, that's poplar with no finish on it.  They take the lumber and heat it to about 240 degrees until all the cells shrink and the wood turns that brown.....almost burned color.  Since the cells are shrunk, water has no affect on it like normal lumber.  It won't swell or shrink or split or check.  It's extremely stable and perfect for outdoor projects where you'd normally use cedar or teak.  It glues up extremely well.  I used Titebond's waterproof adhesive.

The cutters I bought provide me with about 5" of gluing surface on a 1-3/4" thick board.  So, the joints are extremely tight and should last for many years. 

Here's a close-up of the fit.  The rain started just as I loaded my tools into the car.  The door is simply wet, here.  Torrified lumber takes on a deep......very deep hue when you oil it or wet it.

Roman

Another project that went as planned, as I smile to myself!

Whenever I have an hour or two to kill, I dig through my scrap wood box and come up with a quick project to keep me occupied.

Recently, I came across a Eucalyptus log that had been sitting in my woodshop for a while.


It looked like it would have some nice figure to it so I gathered a few of my band saw accessories and of course, the duct collection accessories to go along with it and began re-sawing some slices to see what I would get.

Sure enough, it had a nice figured grain but there wasn’t enough material to build anything substantial.

After a few moments of pondering, I looked through my selection of woodworking drill bits and found a hole saw that happened to match a clock movement that I had sitting around.

After drilling the hole for the movement and cutting a base, I had a small clock. After a quick sanding using my sanding supplies, I gave it a few good coats of clear polyurethane.

It is always great to walk into the woodshop with no clue of what to build and to walk out with a completed project!   

One of the great things about Eagle America is that our Outlet Store offers classes for woodworkers of all skill levels.

I had a chance to participate in a turning class where the group was turning wine bottle stoppers. Now I am not an expert turner by any means but I had turned a few projects in the past. The wine bottle stopper looked like a fun project that I could do in between larger projects so I signed up.

The class was very informative had the instructor was easy to understand.


The process is very simple. You can turn the stoppers from one piece of wood or if you want to get fancy, you can glue up different species for contrasting colors.

Grab a few band saw accessories and dust collection accessories and cut your piece to size. Find the center of one end of the material and use a premium drilling bit to drill a hole in the end for the threaded mandrel.

Chuck the mandrel up in your lathe and turn to your heart’s content. It is almost impossible to mess up. You can turn any design you want. Use a few sanding supplies to smooth your turned piece. Then you can burn in some wax and polish it to a nice sheen.


Remove the turned piece from the mandrel and thread the bottle stopper into the bottom.

This is a quick and easy project that makes a great gift for family and friends!

• Woodworking Router Bits
• Table Saw Blades
• Wood Bandsaw Blades
• Scroll Saw Blades
• Woodworking Clamps
• Sanding Supplies
• Wood Carving Tools
• And more!

Eagle America is well known for having some of the best woodworking tools and woodworking accessories in the business but I bet you never would have thought you could find a tool that is great for tile work there.

The Fein Multimaster is one of those tools. I am currently working on a bathroom remodeling project and found this tool to be indispensable, from the demolition to fine trim work.


One of the features I was most impressed with was the carbide tipped segment saw blade.

No matter how good you are, when it comes to mounting tile, some thin set will inevitably squeeze out between the tiles. This can be a problem when you go to grout the tile if you don’t clean it out before it dries.

In the event that it does dry, you have to chisel it out which takes more time and creates a big mess. The carbide tipped segment saw blade on the Multimaster solves this. Simply attach the blade and turn the tool on and you can quickly and easily clean out your grout lines.

It is even great for those looking to replace grout without disturbing the tile!

The Fein Multimaster has many wood cutting tools, sanding supplies, and other accessories great for any project. Not only is this tool one of the best woodworking tools to have around the shop, it is one of those tools that seems to get the job done when no other tool will.

Back in August my husband decided we needed to replace the doors on our shed.  So we removed the doors to use one as a template to make the new ones.


After buying materials, we got to work in the pole barn.  Since I own all the woodworking tools, I was volunteered to help him build the doors.  We did not have to do any router woodworking but we sure did a lot of nailing!


Well, you know how one job leads into other. The next step was painting them. I put a primer coat on by brush. Then we decided we should put a coat on the whole shed.  

I took the easy way out and used a sprayer called the Earlex. It's a great new addition to the line of woodworking tools.  After checking the viscosity of the paint, we were able to easily spray a coat on the doors and lightly coated the rest of the shed. 

And while I was at it, the trim around the garage doors needed repainting. 
 

So I got out my sanding supplies to see what I needed.  One of the new woodworking accessories I tried out is called a scuff ball.  It is brand new in the sanding supplies category at Eagle America. 

I used it to get the paint off the trim around the garage doors. It hooks up to a hand drill and it actually did a good job taking the peeling paint off. 

I decided to hand brush because of the siding so I put a primer coat on the trim and then brushed on the final coat. 

 It’s nice to have the right woodworking tools to do the job right but I really hope this job lasts a few years! 

You know you want me, but do they know that?
 

• Festool Power Tools - They will change the way you work, we promise!
• Kreg Pocket Hole Jigs or a new Kreg Router Table - Both will make your woodworking life and projects much easier.
• Router Bits - We are "The World's Router Bit Source" after all, you can never have enough bits.
• Sanding Supplies - Have you seen our new Scuff Balls?  They are one of our most popular new items because they are a true problem solver.
• Table Saw Blades - A sharp new Freud blade would be welcomed by your table saw.
• Woodcarving Set - Give carving a try, it's fun!
• Woodworking Clamps - Seriously, do you ever have enough clamps?  NO!

Mike, one of our Eagle woodworking guru's writes:


The Christmas season found many woodworkers looking for gifty projects. One type of project that was very popular this year was making bowls and trays using a router and various templates.

Besides the standard tray and bowl templates, there were also holiday oriented templates such as a Snow Man, Christmas Stocking and a Christmas Tree.

I too thought this to be a good project, but I wanted something different than the templates that were available, so I decided I would make my own.

I wanted to keep it simple since I planned on making ten trays. I also had some 5/4 wide cherry stock and did not want to do a bunch of Glue ups. I was in the shop one day thinking about size and noticed the template I had used to cut the opening in my router table top for my router height adjustment lift. It was the perfect size!

The beauty of this template was that is featured straight sides that could be ripped on the table saw to get the width of the tray sides after it was hollowed out using my routers bits.

Templates, patterns and router jigs are great time savers but don't let them limit your imagination. It’s easy to make your own for whatever shape you desire.

Following are some photos of the sanding supplies and finishing process I used after drilling out and routing the hollowed out part of the tray.
 

I first used the direct drive setting on the Festool Rotex sander to smooth out the bottom of the tray and clean up the radius corners.

 




The final sanding was done with  the Festool rectangular random orbit sander so I could get into the corners better.

The inside radius edges were done with the Fein Multimaster with the profile sanding attachment.

To speed things up while applying the finish I used Painters Pyramids so I could do both sides at once.

 
And here is the final batch of nine trays. My kids loved them and it didn't take me all month to make them!

Dan, Eagle America's founder writes:

So another summer went by and I just got tired of my bride saying how much those old chairs needed refinishing. Hey, after 10 years of being on the porch, you would need a make over too!

My Eagle woodworking project started by washing the chairs down with soap and water and then Naptha. The second step was to fix the runners that were rotting out. Here I used Timbermate Wood Filler. A great product! A handy suggestion would be when spreading it out, dip your putty knife in water first.

Next it was on to using my Porter Cable 390K Sander with a contour sanding pad and a few other sanding supplies that really made the job go fast. Using an 80 grit abrasive I knocked off all the loose paint from the entire chair and brought the runners back up to their original profile when sanding the Timbermate filler.

Switching to 180 grit, I went over the entire chair. For spots that the 390K would not get like between the back spindles, I used the Fein Multimaster and smiled when I thought of all the time I saved by not having to hand sand that job!



A quick rub over with an abrasive pad dipped in Naptha again and we were ready for the spray booth.



I placed my chairs on cardboard that I placed over a Painters Finishing Turntable . My weapon of choice was an Earlex 5000 spray system with high gloss enamel latex paint.

When mounted on the turntable, it was a pleasure to just slowly turn the chair, instead of myself, while keeping a constant spraying action in one direction and not getting it all over the place, or myself. The Painters Finishing Turntable and the Earlex 5000 Spray Station are two of the best woodworking tools anyone could have.

After two coats they were put in storage.


Just think, in a few months when the snow melts they will be ready for their place of honor on my front porch again. Stop by any time, have a seat and tell me your refinishing story. I’ll even supply the beer!
 

George, one of our Eagle woodworking associates writes:

"Walking canes are not hard to make, in fact, they are very easy, enjoyable and rewarding. It depends on how much detail or carving you want to put into your creation. The sticks I use generally come from the woods in my back yard. I find them in the winter time when the leaves are off the trees. All you need are a few tools: a measuring tape, some wood cutting tools such as hand pruning cutters and a hand limb saw, sanding supplies and a few woodcarving tools. Not to mention, a creative imagination!
 

The limbs that seem to work the best for me come from Crab Apple, Hickory or Hard Maple trees. The limbs should dry for one season. Rasps, hand files and sanding sleeves can be used for shaping your handle, making sure to sand off any sharp edges! The foot of the cane can be completed with a brass or rubber end cap. To finish your cane, you can leave it natural, stain it or spar varnish can be used to protect your completed piece.

I hope this little story helps inspire woodworkers to try cane making. It really makes for a fun project!"

Happy Cane Makin’

George “The Cane Maker”
 

Giving these old chairs a new look was simple and fast using some really great woodworking tools we carry at Eagle America.  I used sanding supplies such as sanding sleeves and sanding drums to clean up some of the rough edges and the Festool Rotex sander to clean up the flat surfaces. I also used one of the Kreg pocket hole jigs and a few other premium drilling products to fix a few loose joints.  

A great woodworking accessory for any woodworker to have is the Earlex sprayer. Within a half hour I sprayed 4 chairs, one table and one ottoman. By using the sprayer, it deeply penetrated the wood grains and gave it a clean uniform look.