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I love my Veritas sanding block, but due to the soft felt bottom, am looking to find a truly hard bottom sanding block to ensure crisp corners when sanding down a blank.  Any recommendations?  (Louis DeVos)

You can find them at Harbor Freight. I got a 10" X 4" hard rubber sanding block there very reasonable. This was several years ago, they also have the 6'X 4" blocks. I am sure you can find them other places too like Wholesale too. and J&L.  (Tony Spezio)

I cut a piece of 1/8" plastic to size and contact cemented it to the felt. Works great.  (Jerry Foster)

I use a piece of 3/4" steel bar a few inches long.  About as hard a block as you'll find.  Aluminum or brass would also work, of course, but I had the steel.  (Neil Savage)

Is there any reason you can make one out of MDF - can't get much harder and flat for the money than a nice scrap of that stuff?  (Tom Key)

I had the same problem. My solution was to make my own with some scrap acrylic I had laying around. I purchased a bolt of the correct size and ground down the head as much as possible, made a recess in the acrylic for what remained of the bolt head, and J B Welded it in place. I used acrylic 1/4" thick but probably would have done better with 1/2" material. The thinner stuff flexes when snugging the bolt tight so I added washers of the appropriate thickness between the acrylic and the wood "handle". Works pretty good.  (Steve Shelton)

Look up the Easy-Touch hand sander made by Great Planes. They make a long one that is 22 inches that you can cut into shorter lengths. Tower Hobbies has them online at $6.99. If you have a local radio control aircraft hobby shop they will most likely have one or you can order it. I have one cut off piece that is 2 inches long that is great for sanding off the last of the glue, and another one that is about 9 inches for the final removal of enamel before final planing. Keeps everything nice and flat. They also sell the stick on paper in rolls of 220 grit, or you can use some spray on contact cement and make your own sticky paper. No financial interest just thought I would share what works for me.  (Floyd Burkett)

I appreciated the suggestions for a hard bottom sanding block. From a newcomer's perspective, it has felt a bit strange to me to be measuring the taper so closely during the planing stages and then the sanding process seems quite imprecise by comparison.

Do most folk leave a set "oversize" margin, that they then remove by judicious sanding, to achieve the proper final dimensions?

This sanding stage of rodmaking has felt somewhat out-of control to me so far. This may be a more acute discomfort since I have been waiting to remove the enamel after gluing up the rod.  (George Deagle)

You can replace the felt with a thin layer (1 mm say) of compound artist cork sheet.  (Nick Taransky)

A short time ago there was some discussion on the list about sanding blocks.  There was talk of an aluminum sanding block with adhesive sandpaper.  There was a 22" version and a 5-1/2" version, I think.  I have just changed computers and of course I lost all my notes on where to look for these sanding blocks.  Can anyone refresh my memory?   (Hal Manas)

I believe the product you are referring to was a sanding block/bar put out by Great Planes. If you go to their web site, they will give you locations of dealers/hobby shops  that are supposed to have it. I have tried to find them at some of the recommended stores but they do not seem to know what I am talking about. In order to try them I will have to order on line but that always increases the costs because of shipping.  (Bill Bixler)

It's an Easy Touch Bar Sander sold by Great Planes. It's common use is to level wings on radio controlled model aircraft so if you can find a hobby shop that sell the model airplane stuff they can likely order one for you on their next order to Great Planes. That is if they don't have one in stock. I took an 11 inch one and cut 2 inches off one end to make a small block. Use the longer piece for leveling the enamel, and the shorter one for sanding the last of the glue residue. If you buy the longest one (22 inch) you can make a couple of each and won't have to stop as often to change the paper.  (Floyd Burkett)