Dungeon Made Sanding Pad......

You know these sanding pad things............

..... they are about $12 or $15 each, and when the one you are using comes apart, when you are just about finished power sanding something, what do you do??

Well, I fixed this one, but in doing so, I've come to the conclusion that I'll just make more of these, I'll not buy any.

Here is how I made this one again.


I started out with this stuff, the washer, threaded shaft,
and T-nut from the one that broke, two kinds of rubber padding,
some glue, and the piece with the Velcro attached to it from the busted pad.


I cut a piece of the harder rubber padding just slightly larger than the washer, and drilled a hole in it.


I used a drill bit that was the same size as the outside of the T-nut to enlarge the hole in the hard rubber pad


Next I put contact cement on the T-nut and the rubber pad


then I clamped it in the vice to get a good tight fit and to really press the T-nut into the pad.


the result is the T-nut is really embedded into the hard rubber pad.


next up, I put contact cement on the backside of the washer and on the pad, opposite of the T-nut.


I inserted the threaded shaft and tightened everything up snug.


For the second pad, I used some softer padding, this is actually the old mats I used on the floor, the stuff was originally acoustic noise dampening pad, but is works well for this. I also cut the Velcro pad off the old one, and glued it onto the very top. I then put it into the drill chuck on the lath, and got out my nice sharp 1/2" skew........looks kind of ratty now, but.........

.......

with a nice sharp skew and a little work, it looks much like the real thing


There we go, all back together again, on the angle drill, ready to finish the sanding.

Total cost, well not much at all, I had the parts from the busted pad, I had the glue and I had the rubber padding, so out of pocket, maybe 15 minutes of my time (not counting the time the contact cement took to dry!)

Even without the parts, a bolt, with the head cut off, a nut, a fender washer, a T-nut, some glue and a bit of rubber padding and you could make one of these fairly easily.....

If you do have one that comes apart like this one did, fix it, don't throw it away.

Cheers!

Looks like a nice save, Stu. I've used hot melt glue to reattach the pad back onto the backing before.

Stuart, the only thing I can say, VERY CLEVER.

Gentlemen,

This is timely. I'm still pulling my hair out over sanding options. Should I 1). buy one of Randy's hand sanders with a bearing, or 2). make my own (I have some roller skate wheels) or 3). keep going down the power sanding road? All are viable options, but what's cheaper in the long run? As you know, I'm still not very good with the chisels, and do a lot of sanding. A lot. I would bet that 20% of my time at the lathe is sanding. It's getting expensive, especially since I'm mostly sanding wet wood, and the paper loads up fast. I've even been thinking of making my own 3" discs, With a folded up sheet of sanding paper and a hole saw on the drill press...

I keep trying different things, but still haven't found a good solution. Does anyone have Randy's bearing sander? I've seen his videos, and they look promising, but it also looks like he's sanding very dry wood, which doesn't exist in my world...

Thanks,

Bill

Bill, I have to say, sanding wet wood seems like folly to me

Wait for it to dry, then finish turn it and then sand it.

Stu,
I like this thread.
Tanks, for taking the time to post it.

I've made a couple using 3/4" plywood, a 1/4" bolt and 2 layers of a mouse pad. Works pretty well.