John Vojtech made a big splash at several nationals a while back with his magnificent builds of a B-2 and C-130 to name a few. To build these models, John actually fabricated some of his own tools and over the years has refined them and is now selling them. This UMM-USA tool is the VojTech Hand Sanding Bar. These bars come in five convenient sizes: Extra Large, Large, Medium, Small, and Fine. Made from polished aluminum and with 6 flat surfaces, these tools are useful in many applications.

The part reviewed here is the extra-large bar. Using it is simplicity itself. Get a piece of the appropriate sandpaper cut a strip the width of the sanding bar or a little less. Wrap the sandpaper around the bar of the side you need. One end of the sanding bar is longer and comes to a sharper taper. The other is wider and not as sharp of a taper. You can also use tape to attach the sandpaper also

The beauty of this device is that you can use any grit sandpaper you want and dry or wet sand - it will not lose its shape or hard edges like the sanding sticks. I don’t know how many sanding sticks I have delaminated by wet sanding and this solves that issue. You can also use the flat surfaces for a true straight sanding as this will not bend.

I have always had trouble sanding wing joints and stabilizer joints on planes without obliterating the detail surrounding them. The sanding sticks were too wide or narrow. By using these, you can get down to a fine line and sand what you want and save time having to add detail back. You can change grits and polish out scratches if needed.

This is a great tool. Simple, easy to use and solves a modeling problem. It also comes in different sizes too. Highly recommended. My thanks to John and UMM-USA for the chance to review it. Go to his web site, www.umm-usa.com , and get yours now.