River Tool introduced a new profile sanding tool at AWFS 2015, the latest launch in 25 years of innovation for the Goshen, IN, manufacturer of cutting tool technology.

When you feel you air-powered sander's rate of cut slow down, it could be telling you, 'I'm Thirsty.' After operating an air-powered woodworking tool repair service for 10 years - repairing and rebuilding thousands of sanders of various brands - I put together some of the most commonly asked questions, including lubrication.

3M showed its Cubitron II 775L Film and 732U paper sanding discs at the AWFS Fair 2015. The expanded grade range is now available in 80+ to 220+ grit. When 3M introduced Cubitron II two years ago, it described it as "a revolutionary advancement in abrasive technology featuring triangular shaped ceramic mineral. As grains wear, they continually fracture to form sharp points that slice through the substrate and wear evenly.

Key to the quality of any wood product are the sanding and finishing operations.

At the AWFS Fair woodworking show, smaller-scale robots are taking up hand finishing duties. Biesse and Prime Heat are each showing Fanuc robots to sand and finish doors and furniture parts.

Bob Clagett of I Like to Make Stuff.com shows how build a downdraft table and use a shop vac as the vacuum source.

There seems to be a huge amount of voodoo involved in setting up segmented platen sanding machines. Techs and the folks running them just don’t understand the concepts, so they just play with the settings until something looks okay.