Homemade sanding wheels

geigerpipes · Post by **geigerpipes** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 6:52 pm

Just spent half a day making something i've been wanting to do for a while a home made disksksander that takes fiber backed wheels and a french wheel wich i plan to make a few more of for different grits..

Bouth work great! and making them wasd phun indeed ... I thought I'd post some pics for insipration..

As materials I used 2 buffing arbors, an old plastic chopping-board,An aluminum plate salvaged from my dads minature junck yard (beginning to understand the meaning of thouse) and a peice of wood leftover from the shop renovation..

Post by **KurtHuhn** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 9:18 am

Awesome, Love! I've been meaning to make a few more of those. I've been getting side trackeded, however, and haven't been able to get around to it.

The ones I've made are designed for velcro and padded abbrasives. Right now I have to re-center the disc each time I swap it out (I allow the disc to overhang about 1cm) which is a mild hassle. I'd really like to make enough so that I don't have to swap out the discs at all - just swap out the entire assembly for each grit and leave the disc in place on the wheel.

geigerpipes · Post by **geigerpipes** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 10:17 am

I used to use velcro backed designed to cut steel... these 50 grit sanding wheels however are made for angle grinders with a stiff backing and last much longer, since i mostly use the edge the Velco ones would get worn quick...I turned down the arbor where it meets the paper to centerthe hole in the paper

Nick · Post by **Nick** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 12:22 pm

bummer, the links seem broken now.

geigerpipes · Post by **geigerpipes** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 3:34 pm

bummer, the links seem broken now

Hmm they work for me

Frank · Post by **Frank** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 4:24 pm

KurtHuhn wrote:The ones I've made are designed for velcro and padded abbrasives.

Which padded abrasives are you using?
Where is the best place to get a bunch of the arbors like Love's? I'm assuming they're left hand thread.

kbadkar · Post by **kbadkar** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 9:24 pm

I got arbors that look very similar from Caswell. I have arbors from other places (Delvies, Pimo, HDepot), but they aren't as good.

geigerpipes · Post by **geigerpipes** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 6:21 am

kbadkar wrote:I got arbors that look very similar from Caswell. I have arbors from other places (Delvies, Pimo, HDepot), but they aren't as good.

Thouse look exactly the same...mine where bought here in sweden but made in the Us be sure to get the ones with the ticker shaft

Post by **KurtHuhn** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 10:05 am

Frank wrote:
KurtHuhn wrote:The ones I've made are designed for velcro and padded abbrasives.
Which padded abrasives are you using?
Where is the best place to get a bunch of the arbors like Love's? I'm assuming they're left hand thread.

I got mine at McMaster-Carr, and they look a little different. They're item number 43555A25 for a 5/8" shaft. If I had a decent jacobs chuck for the motor, I would probably use the ones that Love did.

For padded abrasives, I really like Abralon. There is something that McMaster-Carr carries at the bottom of page 2612 of their catalog - one of the part numbers is 4205A21. I have not tried these, but they are available in onsey-twoseys, and it's difficult to find Abralon pads in singles. They're very expensive. On of these discs costs as much as an entire package of regular paper discs, but they are *so* worth it, and last as long as an entire package of paper discs. The last time I bought these, I bought 5-packs of each grit I needed - and that was two years ago.

Frank · Post by **Frank** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 2:36 pm

When it comes to abrasives, you're dead right, quality counts. That much I've learned from experience.

Since I haven't had experience using hook-and-loop, my question is: What do you apply to the face of the disk holder to hold the disks in place?

kbadkar · Post by **kbadkar** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 2:49 pm

What do you apply to the face of the disk holder to hold the disks in place?

The velcro does the job, nothing else. I've never had one fly off, unless I've inadvertantly melted the hooks by getting too aggressive with pressure and not noticing that the disk had ripped. It's damned near impossible to do that with pipemaking though.

Frank · Post by **Frank** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 6:02 pm

kbadkar wrote:
What do you apply to the face of the disk holder to hold the disks in place?
The velcro does the job, nothing else. I've never had one fly off, unless I've inadvertantly melted the hooks by getting too aggressive with pressure and not noticing that the disk had ripped. It's damned near impossible to do that with pipemaking though.

Still puzzled. Do the sanding disks themselves come with a detachable sheet of hook/loop to glue to the disk holder, since the home made disk holder will start out as bare wood?

kbadkar · Post by **kbadkar** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 6:18 pm

Frank wrote: Still puzzled. Do the sanding disks themselves come with a detachable sheet of hook/loop to glue to the disk holder, since the home made disk holder will start out as bare wood?

I think you are confusing two different setups:

The Abralon discs have specialized arbors with a pad with the hook material glued on. In between the arbor pad and the Abralon sanding disc you can get another pad, soft or firm, to prevent wear on the arbor pad. One reason for getting the intermediate pad is that the arbor pad is very expensive and you don't want to mess it up, though that's pretty hard to do.

For a homemade wooden sanding disc, if you want to use a hook and loop set up, you will have to glue the hook material to the wood. I'm pretty sure the hook material is easy to source, thanks to the internet. Just buy loop sanding discs, like those for the orbital sanders. Don't get the ones with holes in them.

Frank · Post by **Frank** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 6:43 pm

kbadkar wrote:I'm pretty sure the hook material is easy to source, thanks to the internet. Just buy loop sanding discs, like those for the orbital sanders. Don't get the ones with holes in them.

I'm pretty sure the velcro sheets are available at craft and/or fabric stores. I'll probably go with Kurt's suggestion of using McMaster Carr's item 4205A21 to 4205A26 disks. They have a foam backing which is what I prefer.

Post by **KurtHuhn** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 8:01 pm

kbadkar wrote: The Abralon discs have specialized arbors with a pad with the hook material glued on. In between the arbor pad and the Abralon sanding disc you can get another pad, soft or firm, to prevent wear on the arbor pad. One reason for getting the intermediate pad is that the arbor pad is very expensive and you don't want to mess it up, though that's pretty hard to do.

The Abralon disks are a layer of cloth impregnated with abrasive (silicon carbide I think), on top of a layer of soft foam, on top of a fuzzy backing - the "loop" part of the equation.

You use these just like any other hook and loop disk. The disc holder has velcro hooks (not the fuzzy part of velcro) and you slap the Abralon pad on it. Abralon pads will work with any hook and loop disc holder. If you homebrew a disc holder like Love's, use the hook tape you can get from sewing supply stores, or even the specialized stuff you can get from Woodcraft.

They don't come with an arbor or backing pad unless you buy a big convenience pack, and even that the backing pad or holder is usually designed for one DA sander or another.

kbadkar · Post by **kbadkar** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 8:34 pm

KurtHuhn wrote:
kbadkar wrote: The Abralon discs have specialized arbors with a pad with the hook material glued on. In between the arbor pad and the Abralon sanding disc you can get another pad, soft or firm, to prevent wear on the arbor pad. One reason for getting the intermediate pad is that the arbor pad is very expensive and you don't want to mess it up, though that's pretty hard to do.

The Abralon disks are a layer of cloth impregnated with abrasive (silicon carbide I think), on top of a layer of soft foam, on top of a fuzzy backing - the "loop" part of the equation.

You use these just like any other hook and loop disk. The disc holder has velcro hooks (not the fuzzy part of velcro) and you slap the Abralon pad on it. Abralon pads will work with any hook and loop disc holder. If you homebrew a disc holder like Love's, use the hook tape you can get from sewing supply stores, or even the specialized stuff you can get from Woodcraft.

They don't come with an arbor or backing pad unless you buy a big convenience pack, and even that the backing pad or holder is usually designed for one DA sander or another.

This is the arbor I was talking about...http://www.woodturnerscatalog.com/store ... ders?Args=

I got it so I could use it with the Abralon and the wave sanding paper. I have an intermediate soft pad for the Abralon (which I can't find online anymore), since the pad on the arbor is firm and both soft and firm intermediate pads for the wave stuff:

http://www.woodturnerscatalog.com/store ... pads?Args=

Of course, this backing pad and arbor thing isn't necessary if you make your own. The major bummer about my set up is that 3" just isn't big enough for all tasks.

Tech question: how do you guys make the long web address disappear and replace it with "link name" of your choice?

Post by **KurtHuhn** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 8:53 pm

Ah, I see now! That's actually called a "disc holder" or "backup pad". An arbor is just a shaft that something with a hole in it goes onto.

I usually skip the intermediate pad when using the Abralon. They're plenty soft, and conform nicely.

You make the longer URL lin disappear like this:

Code: Select all

[url=http://www.pipecrafter.com]My website[/url]

Which yields this:
My website

Frank · Post by **Frank** » Sun Mar 09, 2008 9:07 pm

KurtHuhn wrote:Awesome, Love! I've been meaning to make a few more of those. I've been getting side trackeded, however, and haven't been able to get around to it.

That has been the bane of my life, trying to find Round To-its. They're almost as rare as hen's teeth.

KurtHuhn wrote:Right now I have to re-center the disc each time I swap it out (I allow the disc to overhang about 1cm) which is a mild hassle.

Kurt, couple of questions:
Approx. how thick is the wooden disc at the centre, i.e. the thickest part?
Do you find that this setup works best with the sanding disc overhang?

Thanks

Post by **KurtHuhn** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 7:23 am

Frank wrote: Kurt, couple of questions:
Approx. how thick is the wooden disc at the centre, i.e. the thickest part?
Do you find that this setup works best with the sanding disc overhang?

I've actually changed how I do that. I went to a homebrew setup using DA disc holders and a piece of aluminum. Now I just swap out the holder with the disc attached, and I don't have to muck around with recentering the disc each time. The discs are "knife edge" discs I found at an autobody supply place in the city and over time they take on a slightly convex shape. Of course, this means I had to buy half a dozen disc holders, but it's still less than buying half a dozen custom made french wheels.

I find that allowing the disc to overhang lets me use the edge to get into tight spots and sculpted areas. I can also use it as a very non-aggressive

area for light sanding.

ArtGuy · Post by **ArtGuy** » Fri Mar 28, 2008 11:10 am

Trent Rudat makes a great firm padded French Wheel that he sells for 100 bucks or so. It comes with a chuck similar to the Beall system that will fit on a motor shaft. I bought one last Nov. and it is seriously one of the best things I have ever bought for my shop. I bet he is going to have several of them in Chicago if anyone is interested.