Shop made disk sander

[Mike Henderson]

I have a VERY small shop and can't fit hardly any more floor mounted tools in it. I did buy the Ridgid oscillating spindle/belt sander a while back but that still left me without a disk sander.

Someone had posted the idea of using your lathe as a disk sander. I took that idea and made a disk sander for my small shop. My lathe is a 12" so I was limited to a 12" sanding disk. I bought some 12" disk sandpaper on eBay and used scrap wood that I had around the shop.

The negative is that when I want to use the disk sander, I have to set it up, and when I want to use the lathe for something else, I have to tear it down. But in my small, one man shop, I can do that.

The rest is best described by the pictures.

The first picture shows the sander set up on the lathe. The disk is made from some composite board. The surface is a piece of scrap plywood.

The next picture is looking up on the underside of the work surface. I have two adjusting knobs so that I can adjust the surface square to the plane of the disk.

To hold the work surface in place, I made a disk and cut off the sides so that it would fit between the way. Then it is turned 90* and the locking lever is used to tighten it. See the next three pixs.

I made two sanding disks so I could have one set up as coarse sandpaper and one with a bit finer sandpaper.

Mike

[Chris Padilla]

Excellent job, Mike! :) I use my table saw for such things as I don't want another piece of equipment hogging up more floor space.

[Shawn Walker]

Very cool... I like the two disk feature.

[Jim O'Dell]

When I was cutting and installing my PVC for the cyclone, I made a sanding disc out of an old 10" masonry blade and used spray glue to put some sand paper on it. Put it on my RAS and built a V shaped jig that would hold the pipe in it to sand the ends so they would flush up better in the fittings. Also beveled the ends so the pipe would fit the fittings for the way they are made. Worked pretty slick. Jim.

[Dan Bertenthal]

Mike,

These pictures are extremely helpful. I'd like to copy your design for the work surface if you don't mind.

I've been in the process of concocting something along these lines for my Jet 1220 though I haven't been as methodical about the design. The inspiration, really, was that I noticed Amazon was selling Forrest's 10" dampeners for $12 and they came with a 1" bore which matches my lathe's spindle, so I picked up a pair of them. I ordered some 10" PSA sanding disks from Grizzly though I'm still waiting on them to arrive. The main downside of this design versus your use of composite board is that I'll need to secure the metal disk to the lathe spindle using a large nut and washer, which will reduce the useable sanding surface a bit.

Great design and thanks for sharing!

Dan

[Mike Henderson]

Mike,

These pictures are extremely helpful. I'd like to copy your design for the work surface if you don't mind.

I've been in the process of concocting something along these lines for my Jet 1220 though I haven't been as methodical about the design. The inspiration, really, was that I noticed Amazon was selling Forrest's 10" dampeners for $12 and they came with a 1" bore which matches my lathe's spindle, so I picked up a pair of them. I ordered some 10" PSA sanding disks from Grizzly though I'm still waiting on them to arrive. The main downside of this design versus your use of composite board is that I'll need to secure the metal disk to the lathe spindle using a large nut and washer, which will reduce the useable sanding surface a bit.

Great design and thanks for sharing!

Dan
Dan - here's a picture of the disk from the other side, if that's of any help to you. I used a 3" faceplate. If I had had some 3/4" MDF I would have used that for the disk. I just used that composite board because that's what I had. One suggestion, if you make your's out of wood, as I did, take a cut across the front so the face is true - so your sanding doesn't 'bounce". After I took that cut, I used a piece of mdf with sandpaper glued to it to sand the face of the disk smooth and flat. Then I put shellac on it to allow the psa glue to stick better.

Good luck on your project. Post pictures when you're finished.

Mike