A handmade home for woodworkers and admirers of woodworkers. Our community icon is submitted by @inquanto@lemmy.world, winner of the Christmas 2025 gift contest with a lovely series of hardwood cutting boards.
I can't see any problem with sanding. I don't see why you need to clamp though and risk introducing a bend while you sand. I'd glue or tape a sheet of sandpaper, larger than the workpiece to a hard flat surface and rub the piece on it.
Except thst I woudn't because I'd use a hand plane, No real benefit, but I prefer a planed finish, I enjoy planing more , and, plane shavings are way cooler and harder to inhale than sanding dust.
I don't know if you have a router available? If you can make a leveling jig that you can run the router over, flattening is easy.
I do have a router. I'm not sure how I'd secure the heart though, as it's quite small.
I might have just thought of a way, but I need to look and see what scrap I've got first. Thanks for the idea :)
A piece of double sided tape might be enough if it is not that heavy. Just make sure to take slow passed and not too much at a time.
If it is really small I've been know to just hold it against my orbital sander, just be careful for your fingers.
I wouldn't have thought that tape would be enough. It's definitely worth a try though, thanks :)
It's a bit too big to hold against the orbital sander, but I was thinking of clamping some wood that's the same thickness to either side, then screwing those to a bigger piece attached to the table, so the scrap pieces act like a clamp. That should hold the heart in place, and give me a reference of the correct thickness to either sand or route. Maybe...