What Sander

[Robert B Povalkins]

Hi everyone,

I am going to attempt doing some segmented turning. I am starting to get some of my tools together and want to buy a 12 inch disc sander. I've looked from harbor freight to jet. What should I be looking for? Thanks

[Bob Coates]

You can make one from mdf that mounts to your lathe. Use two with different grits to flatten the rings. You could mount on face plate or attach to block threaded for your spindle. I spray the mdf with 3m adhesive and the cut section of rolled sanding paper.
Bob

[John M. Smith]

I have looked at these. I would definately go with the Jet. That is also the one Malcom Tibbets recommends. The cheaper ones do not have a good mechanism for locking the table square. A must for segmented work. That being said, I made a disc to fit my lathe. And a worksurface that attaches to the bed.

[Robert McGowen]

I have a Rikon 12" disc, a Jet 12" disc, a Powermatic 20" disc, and a Jet 10-20 drum sander. About all I do is segmented work. (The following is just my opinion!). The drum sander is worthless for segmenting. It is much easier to just hold the rings up to the disc sander to flatten one side, then flatten the other side after it is glued to the vase and on the lathe. The Rikon is not as heavy duty as the Jet disc. I took the table completely off of it and just use it to smooth off one side of the ring for glueing. It is certainly capable of doing the job though. The Jet disc is great. It will do about 90+% of what you are trying to do. The sandpaper for it is fairly cheap and it does not take up much room in the shop. The Powermatic is a whole different deal. YMMV

[Brian Brown]

I have the Delta 12", and It mostly works good. The table tilt locks are not so great. However, if I were you, I would stay away from the Delta. IT IS NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE TO GET MOST DELTA PARTS NOW. This problem has been around for almost 3 years, with no end in sight. It is incredibly frustrating. I went to a segmenting demo with Malcolm Tibbetts. In the past he has been an avid proponent of sanding the segment for a clean fit. At this seminar, he said that he no longer sands because he found a compound miter saw and blade combination that produces a cut so clean he no longer needs to sand. The saw is the Festool Kapex 10", and I am unsure what the blade is. IIRC it came with the saw. You could e-mail him, or send a PM, and I 'm sure he would respond. Good luck.

[Michelle Rich]

I stopped sanding segments 5? yrs ago. A good clean cut from a good blade works very well. I have always found it easier to get a perfect angle with the tablesaw, than trying to screw around with a sander that may not be flat. many aren't.

[Robert B Povalkins]

Thanks all for the insight. I can see I have a lot to think about. The jet seems to be the top runner so far.

[Greg Just]

I have the 12 inch Jet and it works fine now. I say now because the disk was not flat at the edges. Luckily I have access to a machine shop and they were able to flatten the surface. My mistake in that I should have checked it out of the box but didn't. initially I was only sanding small stuff and the center 10 inches were fine. When I went bigger, I realized the outside was not flat. No matter which sander you buy, make sure to check the disk.

I also have a Jet 16-32 drum sander too and use it to flatten rings that I can't do on the 12 inch disk. It works well. I have used the Festool Kapex saw and it is great. For now I use a jig on my table saw, but I can see buying the Kapex in the future.

[John King]

I stopped sanding segments 5? yrs ago. A good clean cut from a good blade works very well. I have always found it easier to get a perfect angle with the tablesaw, than trying to screw around with a sander that may not be flat. many aren't.

Ditto Michelle. If you use a premium quality blade on a decent table saw or chop saw, you should be able to cut segments that do not require sanding. A little touch-up sanding to remove "fuzz" on the segments is all that is required. Why take a well cut segment and run the risk of screwing it up on the disc sander? What do you hope to gain by sanding? Check with Malcolm Tibbetts on this. He has long been an advocate of sanding segments. But I believe he has now joined the no sanding required crowd. - John