Trimming Dog Nails - The Power Tool Way

We've got pugs at home. One thing that I can safely say about them, their nails grow very quickly. The general rule with pugs is that if you can hear them on a wood floor, their nails are too long. Understanding that and having our 2 little boys running around the house means my wife is constantly trimming nails. But what's that have to do with power tools? Well, for us - a lot.

Dremel Sanding Drums
Yes, I'm bringing up a Dremel here. Those rotary tools are excellent for many jobs, and this just happens to be one of them. By using a sanding drum, my wife is able to hold each dog on her lap and quickly buzz each nail. They jump the first few times, but it only takes a few minutes and gives them a nice pet-icure. Ok, so that was a bad pun, but their nails are neatly trimmed and smooth from the sanding, just like a pedicure. The only thing she doesn't do is add nail polish. Hopefully she doesn't read this and decide to try that next.

Watch the RPM
We've got two Dremel tools at home. One is cordless, the other is electric. I had the cordless from a long time ago. The maximum speed on that one is only 10,000 RPM. That seems fast compared to my car motor, but it isn't fast enough to buzz our dog's nails without grabbing the nail and bumping their foot to the side. The other we have is an electric. Maximum speed on that is 35,000 RPM. At that speed, the buzzing is done before our dogs even know that my wife had selected a nail to trim. Someday soon I'll have to surprise my wife with a new cordless model that has the speed to trim nails cleanly.

Cool remodeling product - Saw 'n Sand

The Saw 'n Sand from BH Innovations makes my list today as a cool remodeling product. As you can see from the image to the right, it's got a lot going on for just being a saw blade. But, it's not just a saw blade. It's a saw AND sand blade.

What does Saw 'n Sand really mean?
With a standard blade, you're going to need to do some sanding when you're done cutting. The edge of the board will have a pretty distinct texture, and you'll probably be able to tell what direction the board was cut. By contrast, when the Saw 'n Sand is used you end up with a much smoother finish, and you can't see any distinct cutting direction because it's smoother. Some finishing may still be necessary, but in most cases you won't need to do much if any.

Precision ground premium C4 micro carbide tipped blade
This is a bunch of geek talk to most people, so I'll try to break that down for the rest of the world. Precision ground isn't tough to understand - the carbide is ground under very precise conditions, using premium C4 carbide. C4 micro carbide tipped is more difficult to decipher the meaning and importance, though. C4 is a type of carbide (no, we're not talking plastic explosives here) that can be applied to the tips of the blade to make the teeth stay sharp longer. There are grades from C1 - C4, with hardness ratings of 1400 - 1660. Basically, C4 is the toughest carbide available. The micro part comes in when it's a small carbide particle, which makes it last longer yet. If you envision a bowl of large marshmallows vs a bowl of Rice Crispies, the smaller particle bowl will take much longer to empty when removed one at a time. So they're just saying that this is a long-lasting blade.

10" 60 tooth industrial polished blade
Again, 10 inches isn't difficult to understand. 60 tooth isn't too bad either, but the result is a bit less clear. Table saw blades normally are available in 24, 40, 60, 80, and 120 tooth models. There are also some specialty blades that have other numbers of teeth. The more teeth, the less each cut does and the smoother the result. This also makes the cutting slower, so 60 is a nice medium. But since we're also sanding, we're not as concerned with a high number of teeth to keep the finish smooth so much as having something that cuts reasonably quickly so we can sand it with the sides of the blade and be done.

This is an industrial grade blade, which means it can be sharpened, if necessary, down the road. Better materials are used so it doesn't wear out as quickly and is less likely to break, so the blade itself can last quite some time. Finally, it's polished so there is a nice smooth surface for your sticky back sandpaper to adhere to.

High quality aluminum oxide grit
This is simply saying that we've got a reasonable quality sanding disc on the sides of the blade. But simply sticking a piece of sandpaper on the side of the blade won't make it work very well. First off, that increases the thickness of the blade, and the edge of the sanding disc will be very vulnerable to being peeled off of the blade itself. Instead, this blade has a very specific convex surface (bowed out in the middle) and a recessed area just inside the cutting tooth area. This keeps the disc stuck to the blade while also keeping the thickness of the blade down a bit.

Great, but how well does it work?
Not having had the chance to use it myself, I decided to ask Chris. He had received some feedback from one of our customers on why he didn't think it was a good blade. The customer said he was only on his 3rd house when the sandpaper started to clog. Well, once he thought about it, it was great for two full houses worth of trim, and he didn't realize that there were replacement sanding discs available. His impression of the blade changed drastically once he learned about those, and he now thinks it's a great blade.

There are a couple of words of advice that I can also pass along from customer experience. Make sure your table saw has plenty of horsepower, because the extra friction of sanding can bog down an underpowered unit. If your table saw has any sort of an issue with harder woods, you probably don't want to use this blade. Also, best results occur when you have a slow, even feed of the material. Too fast doesn't allow the sanding to occur nearly well enough. But it is a cool blade that will last you quite a while and a real time saver for anyone doing a lot of trim work during construction or remodeling.

Random Orbit Sanders - What are the holes for?

Pictured to the right is a random orbital sander, as some of you probably could tell pretty easily. I've looked at them quite often in my position at a tool company, and I've noticed the holes in the abrasive discs, but I hadn't ever really thought about what those holes were for. I just assumed they had a purpose, not really caring what that purpose was. Festool explained it nicely when they came in to give us product training, so I don't have to wonder any more.

Dust Extraction
Yes, since my previous post was talking about the dust extractor, this is again a dust extration technology. The holes are used to allow the sanding dust to collect in the bag on the back of the unit or in the dust extractor instead of bunching up and getting packed into the grit of the sandpaper. What a novel idea! Just one problem - if you apply suction to the sanding surface, it will be tougher to move the sander. While most vendors simply fix this issue by allowing for a suction leak out of the side of the pad, Festool has a patented active approach to the suction problem.

Guided Debris
By adding in a center hole which blows air out, the sander is no longer stuck to the surface of the material. But wait - it does more than that. By having the outer holes with vacuum and the inner hole blowing air, the result is actually an outward path of all debris to the collection points. Instead of just hoping that the holes eventually get close enough to the material, it now gets guided to where it needs to go and the sander becomes even more efficient. Festool calls this the "Jetstream principle". Other companies added that center hole to make them look the same, but after use there is just a large collection of sanding dust in that hole since it doesn't expel air.

Not Just Holes
When you really stop to consider it, those holes aren't just holes. They are an active part of making a random orbit sander work as it was intended. Knowing this, I may never look at holes the same way again - at least not on a tool.