Sanding Small Pieces Tips Needed

[kmmcrafts]

I may have already solved my issue but thought I’d post anyway to see what you guys have done with small parts sanding. 
 

I started making some jewelry and other small pieces. What started as a small gift for my wife has turned into making everyone she knows things too, lol. I made my wife a matching set of earrings and a badge real for her work. Now I’ve made about 20 more. I don’t have pictures but it was just a snowman engraved on a 1.5 inch circle cutout and her name engraved in it too. Then snowman earrings and painted details to match. Now they are talking about all the different themes for the holidays and seasons etc that I’m going to have to make. Oh boy what did I do..

So first I used my multi tool with detail sander on it. Upside down and hold the small pieces with my fingers but keep sanding my nails off. lol  The parts are so small and light that they just won’t stay under the sanders. I’ve used my 1/4 sheet sander, r/o sander sends them across the shop. The multi tool was the only one that worked but now I have very short nails and no fingerprints. 

What I did come up with was taping painters tape down to the bench sticky side up and stick the parts on the tape and my 1/4 sheet sander so far seems to be working well. 
 

Any other suggestions from those more experienced folks out there? 
 

Here is a photo of some I made today. Was going to put a quarter by them for size reference but all I have is a penny as I’m not very rich. Actually have two pennies but didn’t want anyone to think I was flexing or showing off.

Okay so first photo has the penny but didn’t show any badge reels so I added a few more pics to show a little more of what I’m dealing with. 

[JTTHECLOCKMAN]

Any time I work with small parts, weather it is cutting sanding or finishing. I break out the double sided tape. I use turners tape because I know it sticks well even under heat because with turning you build heat. I use alot of that stuff when I built this pool table pen box. besides the pieces were small and thin but fragile. Taped to a larger piece and worked well. 

 

 

[kmmcrafts]

4 hours ago, JTTHECLOCKMAN said:

Any time I work with small parts, weather it is cutting sanding or finishing. I break out the double sided tape. I use turners tape because I know it sticks well even under heat because with turning you build heat. I use alot of that stuff when I built this pool table pen box. besides the pieces were small and thin but fragile. Taped to a larger piece and worked well. 

 

 

Beautiful box JT!! 
 

For some of these pieces are quite fragile I don’t want or need tape that is too sticky. I already broke two of the nes shown but no one will know because I broke the other one to match so they still look the same. 
They broke just pulling them off of the painters tape. Though this tape is getting old and seems to be more sticky than it was when new. What color tape is less tacky? I don’t need it super sticky. 

[barb.j.enders]

This is the tape I have been using in my Intarsia.  It holds, for the most part, quite well.  It isn't so sticky to cause breakage when removing bits.  For your situation, I would tape the small pieces to a larger piece of plywood. https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B09D782N6X?

[Dan]

Double-sided tape is my choice, also. I found that I can use it to secure wood to a carrier board and plane them down to 3/64". I just put a piece on each end and run it through. 

The next time I need to sand small pieces I'll try using it to hold pieces to a small board and use the mop sander. 

[BadBob]

XFasten Double Sided Woodworking Tape works well for me, and it is designed to be used on wood. It doesn't leave any residue and is easy to remove. 

[jerry walters]

Impressive!!!

Jerry

[kmmcrafts]

35 minutes ago, Dan said:

Double-sided tape is my choice, also. I found that I can use it to secure wood to a carrier board and plane them down to 3/64". I just put a piece on each end and run it through. 

The next time I need to sand small pieces I'll try using it to hold pieces to a small board and use the mop sander. 

Hmm, I originally was thinking if I could use my mop sander it'd be nice but I guess I didn't think about taping to a board like that.. even though I did finally figure out to tape them to the workbench, LOL.. I might give this a try the next time I make a batch.

[JTTHECLOCKMAN]

1 hour ago, kmmcrafts said:

Hmm, I originally was thinking if I could use my mop sander it'd be nice but I guess I didn't think about taping to a board like that.. even though I did finally figure out to tape them to the workbench, LOL.. I might give this a try the next time I make a batch.

Well that is a delema because in one hand you do not want the piece to fly off when sanding especially using a sander of any kind. But need to be able to pull it off. That is why you use tape designed for wood use and not carpet tape. Big difference.  I use turners tape from here. https://www.ptreeusa.com/turn_accessorie_tape.html

You ask about tape colors. If using painters tape then purple is less tacky. Green is about the same. Then blue and then yellow really tacky. 

Just an example, those bumpers on the rails have 3 different angles on them that were done on a router. If I did not have tape and wider sacrifice board there is no way I could get that shape. Now you know how much force a router has when spinning so that shows it works well. Same goes for all the trim work on it. Cut on a 10" tablesaw. Worked very well. I have many rolls of that tape in the shop and use it alot. It does not leave residue behind and if difficult to get off, just a little heat will solve that. All the examples others are showing are tapes used for woods too so that is a good thing. 

Edited December 23, 2025 by JTTHECLOCKMAN

[TAIrving]

Nice work @kmmcrafts and @JTTHECLOCKMAN.  And very informative discussion about double-sided tape for woodworking.  

I have been using "cheap double-sided carpet tape" as recommended by Judy Gayle Robets on her website, intarsia.com.  It works but is very sticky and hard to remove.  I have also used golf grip tape which is double-sided masking tape.  It is somewhat less sticky than the carpet tape.  

I will try some of the tapes mentioned here when I next buy some.  

[JTTHECLOCKMAN]

1 hour ago, TAIrving said:

Nice work @kmmcrafts and @JTTHECLOCKMAN.  And very informative discussion about double-sided tape for woodworking.  

I have been using "cheap double-sided carpet tape" as recommended by Judy Gayle Robets on her website, intarsia.com.  It works but is very sticky and hard to remove.  I have also used golf grip tape which is double-sided masking tape.  It is somewhat less sticky than the carpet tape.  

I will try some of the tapes mentioned here when I next buy some.  

You will notice the difference for sure. I am building a couple jigs for a box project I am working on that will done on my lathe and I trust the tape I linked. Now with that said I have made a sanding disk for my lathe because I sand pen blanks and other things on it and needed a piece of flat sheet metal attach to the face plate. I did not want to use adhesive because do not trust it and also I could not have lumps behind it. needed to be exactly flat. for this I did use carpet tape but I used the strongest I could find and that was from Home Depot in the carpet dept. It is made for outdoors and is better than a cloth tape and has string fibers in it to give it shear strength. I did not want that plate flying off. I knew this wood tape would not hold that. So carpet tape has a place. In this photo you can see the first version I did was plexiglass and then switched to metal. but you can see the carpet tape design in that photo. I also use it to hold that jig where I was thinning a quarter down to demonstrate to someone this was a method to thin a quater so it can be bent around a pen tube for casting. the second method I showed him was me cutting a quater in half down the middle on a scrollsaw. he bet me I could not do it but I won and did it. If anyone wants to give that a try. I would like to see it. I think I have those photos too. Done on my Dewalt 788. I know went off track here. I might as well finish the story. This happened on my pen turning site. This person would use a scrollsaw to cut quarters of the different states and bend them and cast them into a pen blank. being I make pen blanks with a copper mesh I sent him my blank and being he lost he had to cut a NJ quarters and cast it into a pen for me. here was that prize. well worth the effort. 

 

 

 

Edited December 23, 2025 by JTTHECLOCKMAN

[Hudson River Rick]

@JTTHECLOCKMAN

REAL NICE work John.  

The pool table is remarkable.  Thanks for sharing.

Rick

[yamatetsu]

I would make a small jig for this.

- cut two boards to identical size

- cut one earring out of one board

- use spray glue / double tape to glue the two boards together

- plop the earring into the hole

- sand it

- pull the boards apart, remove the earring

- tape / glue the boards together

- plop the next earring into the hole

- rinse and repeat

[Sycamore67]

For sanding small things, I sometimes use my Dremel.  The small drum sander accessories work on some things and have diameters from 1/4-1/2".  On the small compound cut Reindeer, I used the Dremel with the abrasive fiber sanding wheels.

[kmmcrafts]

9 hours ago, yamatetsu said:

I would make a small jig for this.

- cut two boards to identical size

- cut one earring out of one board

- use spray glue / double tape to glue the two boards together

- plop the earring into the hole

- sand it

- pull the boards apart, remove the earring

- tape / glue the boards together

- plop the next earring into the hole

- rinse and repeat

Might be a possibility if I were mass producing these all the same size and shape.. many of the small parts are a 1 off type thing where I would be wasting material to make a jig. This whole small earrings and things started from trying to use up all the small parts of a sheet of plywood. This photo shows that I'm making these from what otherwise would have been scraps from making ornaments. I normally was burning these scraps in the burn barrel or campfires.  

Edited December 24, 2025 by kmmcrafts

[yamatetsu]

You could still use that as a kind of jig.

- Cut a scrap board, cover it with painter's tape, this will be the backer board

- put small strips of painter's tape at the yellow dots

- put a dab of superglue on those strips

- glue the two boards together

- put the piece in and sand it

- twist the two boards to separate them without breaking the template board