Dynamitt Sanding Glove Review

by Mike Schwing from Md

I received a complimentary Dynamitt Sanding Glove in the mail recently. A letter was enclosed telling me that it had been sent me free to use and review and pass my thoughts along to my turning club, which I figure that means you guys/gals (plus the Baltimore Area Turners).

It is a canvas mitt with a large piece of Velcro™ on the palm side and a rubber insert used to stiffen the palm area. Also enclosed are several of each grit from about 60 grit up to 600. Nice assortment actually, but missing a jump from, if I remember correctly, 180-320 grit.

I used it today on a large 16" black cherry bowl. I was unimpressed—completely. The very first time I removed a piece of sandpaper from the mitt, the 120 grit, the velcro backing on the paper separated, making that piece unusable again. Same thing happened on the next piece of 120 grit.

The mitt works as advertised, but it is very large and clumsy. I have average sized hands, and they get totally lost in this thing, making it impossible for me to feel my way around the surface being sanded. I used it both on the interior and exterior of this bowl and found it to be less useful than power sanding, but a little better than holding paper by hand. I was a bit worried about getting it too close to the chuck as well, so I could only use it on a small portion of the exterior of that large bowl. On the interior, it is possible to use the stiff rubber insert to advantage to smooth out any profile errors, but it is impossible to avoid the typical sanding scratch marks that occur when power sanding.

After using it to go up to 180 grit, I decided to abandon the thing and go back to power sanding with 3" discs. No scratch marks, easier to feel what I'm doing.

This might be more applicable to spindle sanding, but I don't do spindle turning, so I couldn't judge its worth for that.

I think a smaller, more form fitting version would be useful. I like the removable rubber insert, but the large clumsy mitt was more like a mop.

Rick Allen adds: Thanks for the review Mike. This is a rip-off of Bruce Hoover's sanding glove. The sanding glove does most of the things that the sanding mitt fails at. It fits better and is available in different glove sizes. The velcro is on several fingers, both sides. The idea being that you can use the glove without cramping your hand for hand sanding operations. The glove is specifically not for sanding with the lathe running.

I don't have much problem holding onto a piece of sandpaper so I don't use or own a Bruce Hover sanding glove.

Not only is the sanding mitt a rip-off of Bruce's idea, the poor execution of the idea degrades the perceived value of Bruce's product.