how do I sand tiny pieces of wood to make miniature furniture?

All great answers so far !!

I'm a professional model builder / props-master and I use a mixture of all the above.

My FAVORITES and about the CHEAPEST are the VAST array of foam-backed sanding sticks available at a beauty-shop supply store (same thing sold in hobby shops, but usually at TWICE the price !!).

I also have a simple set of miniature files.

Building a 1/35 scale diorama, I used tiny dowels, clamped them in my Dremel tool... and used it as a lathe with files and sanding-sticks to turn balustrades and other work. This takes a bit of practice and a TON of patience... but is worth it for the results.

IF you ever need to make a LOT of a turned item... I recommend making the FIRST as above... then using plaster to make a mold and molding them in resin !!

Good luck !

1

A Dremel is good but can be too much power for small/tiny pieces of wood, especially bass or balsa. The idea of sand paper around a toothpick is good. Sometimes, when doing fine work on a ship model, I use a magnifier and the finest emery paper I can find. Sometimes nature's tools and a lot of patience are the best things to use.

Use a very fine piece of sandpaber wrapped around a toothpick. Dremmel has some good equipment for micro work as well. In some cases, just rubbing the toothpick on the wood helps to smooth it too.

Best 'o luck

The Dremel tool answer is a good one. They have dremel kits with all kinds of small attachments for sanding teeny tiny pieces

At beauty supply stores they have electric manicure kits. It comes with all different sizes of electric files that would work on small pieces of wood I bet! Just a thought! I use mine all the time, and it's strong enough where you have to be careful or you'll file your nail off! I bought mine for about $20.

Read and digest all of the earlier hints. Add to these "with the grain" of the wood. Add to these "begin with a finely-grained wood".

Sanding cross-grain or against the grain is ill-advised. It really is easier to get good results with fine-grained rather than coarse-grained woods.

If this is a class project, there should be extra points for "authenticity". In a primative cabin, the surfaces would've been knife-scraped or ax-scraped or stone-rubbed for smoothness, rather than sandpapered.

Dremel makes a wonderful tool for this type of work. But, take my advice and get the one that you plug in. The battery operated model might be convenient, but its not worth the price. The battery is alwasy dead, expensive to replace, and seems to always need to be charged when you want to use it most. It has a lot of different tips and tools to add as your use of it increases.

If it's just one or two small pieces and you don't want to invest in anything large, try using a fingernail emery board. I've used them for making models with great success. Hope this helps!

Sandpaper wrapped around the end of a paint brush