Mr. Bruce,
I have a small set of the Dura-Block sanding blocks and have been pretty happy with them. I got my Dura-Block set in an effort to look more like a professional.:) Not sure that it did that....I still look like a hick...
I have used a piece of 5/8 birch ply wood in the same manner as my Dura Block and it seem to work about as good. I have a piece of 3/4 that I use when trying to level the plastic filler. I would love to have a air file, but I figured I would appreciate it more if I put in the elbow grease. I just took some scrap birch plywood and cut it cross ways of the outer grain of the wood so that it would flex. I have even used those old paint sticks wrapped with paper. That worked pretty good, it can be hard to hold and sometime the latex gloves get caught in the paper.
Oh, if you don't know this, (i did not) always use gloves when doing any sort of sanding. It keeps the oils from your hands out of your work. Also there is no telling what is in some of this stuff you sanding off too.
