MW Production: Sanding
M M l P r o d u c t i o n www.modernwoodworking.com 36 SEPTEMBER 2009 Indiana Dimension, Inc. (IDI) has undergone a major transformation in the past year. After seeing a trend where assembled products were increas-ingly requested in the place of ready-to-assemble parts, the Logansport, Ind.-based wood component manufac-turer started positioning itself to provide more value-added products primarily fi nished and unfi nished cabinet doors further down the supply chain. The transition led IDI to completely overhaul its pro-duction with a huge investment in new machinery, in-cluding a state-of-the-art sanding line from Timesavers. What sets the line apart is the ability to produce thou-sands of doors per shift using three in-line sanders and go straight into the fi nish department without the need for hand sanding, and doing it all with just one operator. Our goal was to be able to take rough parts after assembly and go right through the sanding line and di-rectly to the fi nish line, says Roy Rentschler, president. The sanding line has eliminated the need to do much of any touch-up or cross-grain sanding. This line basically gives us the ability to make the fronts and backs of the cabinet doors look exactly the same a fl awless fi nish all the way through. Parts come to the sanding line after having passed through a knife planer/sander that removes material and provides a 180-grit fi nish. The fi rst sander in the new line is a four-head machine set up with a 120-150-180-220 grit sequence. Parts then proceed via automatic conveyor to an orbital sander to remove scratches with a 220-grit setup and three polishing platens. The last machine on the line is a brush sander, set up with 180 and 220 grits depending on the fi nish application requirements. We can change the rotation on the machine to get a fi ner fi n-ish, or if we need the stain to grab into the wood a little New sanding line helps wood products manufacturer thrive in new market By Jeff Crissey