submitted by Jeffrey Schnell
The following article explains how to make an inexpensive sanding disc. The article identifies the materials needed and the assembly procedures.
They work great. Build some and see for yourself.
Supplies:
- Wittek 1 ¾ in. Soft Flexible Rubber Tees, #78803, $1.00 ea. Flexible Rubber Tees or 800-869-1800 /
847-943-2399. - Klingspor Aluminum Oxide J-Flex cloth sandpaper. 9×11 in. sheets, 5 sheets per package each grit up to P600 or 35 Sheet Combo pack P80 to P320. Klingspor Cloth Backed Sandpaper or 800-228-0000. Prices for individual grits $8.49 and Combo $29.95; S/H extra.
- Rubber cement- Weldwood-Original Formula, quart size.
- 3 or 3 1/2 in. by 5/16” bolt (all thread to cap) w/ two nuts or 5/16” threaded rod (make sure nuts are locked down on the end of rod).
- Goop or Shoe Goo (viscous, polyurethane) glue.
General Procedure:
- Lock nuts tightly down against the bolt head.
- Rough sand interior of tee hole and base (and a solvent wipe?) to remove die wax.
- Apply Goop into the tee hole and insert bolt all the way into the hole, and let ‘dry’.
- With the step 3 drive discs, line up sandpaper upside down, overlapping the different grits, and apply rubber cement to both sandpaper and tee-discs (a 2×4 with holes drilled is handy to support the inverted tee’s while they dry).
- When rubber cement has flashed off solvent, apply the tees to the sandpaper, leaving 3/16” between ea. to allow trimming out with scissors.
- Trim out ea. tee, leaving about 1/16” of sandpaper overhanging the rubber edge.
Replacing Sandpaper:
I use a heat gun, and pliers to pull off the old sandpaper discs, and then repeat steps 4 and 5 above. It takes about an hour to do three dozen or so. (You can clean the residue with Mineral Spirits.)
In summary, each drive tee will cost about one dollar. Re- building cost just a dime or so each. And oh yes, Tom and I both use a Craftsman 3/8” cord type, variable speed drill as the driver.
The tee sand-disc is very robust, in 5 years I’ve only had one to shear off. Versus a small commercial sanding disc system I tried which tended to fail after about 5 discs were used- very expensive, and frustrating.
I’ve evolved to using the discs for the heavier sanding, and generally do the fine grades by hand, where it’s just hitting it briefly to remove the previous grit scratches.
REK-1/2009 (Updated 12/7/2020)