20" disc sander questions

I'm in the process of making a 20" disc sander. It'll be powered by my wood lathe. I have an old tablesaw table that I cut. For those of you who have one how large of a table size do you think is about right? Right now, after cutting out the opening for the saw blade it's 27"x 8 1/2". But I could make it 14 1/2". It'll add weight (I'm guessing 20 lbs vs 40 lbs) and since I'll be lift the table to place it on the lathe bed and removing it I would rather not add extra weight unless it'll be useful. My plans are for smaller pieces of wood but if others think it'll limit me then I'll do the extra work to add it.

That leads me to the next question, the table tilting. Clearly making it fixed with just enough adjustment to make it perpendicular to the platen is easier. How often do people actually use the tilt feature of their sanders? I'm assuming that it'll just be for sanding compound miters. Looking at commercial units they usually have the table tilt from -30° to 45°. If I did make the table tilt should I go through the extra work of making it tilt both directions or just perpendicular to 45°?

Really, only you can answer those questions as it really has to do with your work and what you will use the sander for. Personally, I've never used the tilt on a disc sander. One solution is not to build it until you need it.

As to the width of the table, realize that you can always extend the table when needed by clamping a piece of ¾ ply or mdf to the narrower table.

Mike

My State 20 inch disc sander has a table width of 27 1/2 inches and it protrudes from the disc about 10 and three-quarter inches with tabs on the sides that go back about 3 inches.

If that helps.

Can you tilt the arbor?