Sanding, is there a better way?

This is in regard to sanding the rib edges ? the hard to get into places.

Sanding the HS and VS rib corners and notches were a pain, partly because I did not find a good tool, I think. I have the all the suspect tools, the Dremel, the Scotch Brite wheel, emery cloth, emery boards, sand paper, etc. Emery cloth are too coarse from the hardware stores, the Dremel ? in sanding drum does not fit in notches. Sandpaper would not bend nicely around corners, etc?

The only thing that I found to work somewhat well is a 600 sandpaper glued to a piece of leather. It made it more bendable without creating sharp creases.

I am done with preparing all empennage ribs and I will have many more ribs to look forward to - the wing ribs!

Was a better way discussed here or have you came-up a better way that you are kind enough to share with me?

Many thanks,
Ansarie,
RV-7A
Empennage phase.

A trick I learned is this.

1. Cut three 0.5" square pieces of scotchbrite pad.
2. Attach them to a dremel mandrel by pushing the scotbrite pad onto the screw one piece at a time and then screw all that into the mandrel.
3. Put it in your dremel tool and you now have a tool that both smooths all those flange gaps as well as the small tooling or conduit/wire holes.

Hope this helps.

Thanks Steve!

I had a chance to try that last night and it worked great. Also, the end-product can be trimmed with scissors to fit into or around almost anything. It is gratifying to find this smart, easy, and cost effective solution .

I love how this forum works, many thanks to Doug, also.

Ansarie.

Steve, where was your solution when I needed it!?!?!

It sounds like that is a whole lot easier, but for those that maybe don't have a Dremel, here is what I did...

I flossed the teeth of the ribs with 1/4" strips of 400-grit emery cloth. I found a four roll set of light grit emery cloth at a local woodworking store Woodcraft. A pile of the worn out emery cloth can be seen in the picture.

I've been wet-sanding with soapy warm water and good sandpaper; wet sandpaper is much more flexible so you can roll it up tight and it won't break -- and because it's wet you don't end up with aluminum-plated Kleenex at the end of the day! 220-grit knocks the rough stuff down very quickly, and in sensitive areas like rib notches I do a little 400-grit too.