'Free' Disc Sander

[DaninVan]

Serge comes up with another rather clever idea...
https://atelierdubricoleur.wordpress.co ... ans-frais/

Edit: it just occurred to me that the carbide teeth are proud of the blade's side plate. Ie at the front and back of the blade they'd contact the project you're trying to sand before it ever moves in close enough to contact the sanding medium. Am I mistaken???

[Nickp]

Serge comes up with another rather clever idea...
https://atelierdubricoleur.wordpress.co ... ans-frais/

Edit: it just occurred to me that the carbide teeth are proud of the blade's side plate. Ie at the front and back of the blade they'd contact the project you're trying to sand before it ever moves in close enough to contact the sanding medium. Am I mistaken???

Probably depends on the thickness of the sanding disc...but valid point.

On a side note, as clever as this might be, it's not something I would do. First and foremost, whether the teeth are going in reverse or hidden in the cutout, it seems one's fingers could still be damaged pushing a piece into the sanding disc...it seems the work piece could get away from the operator.

And I don't think I would want a 3500-4000RPM disc sander...pretty tough to hold the piece at the back of the spin...

Sorry, but not for me...

[DaninVan]

Where's your sense of adventure?

[Herb Stoops]

That is interesting. I had the large sanding disc they sell for the table saw. I can't remember if it was 9" or 10". It worked very well. But it was made to use either with the fence,or the miter gauge. It was not flat all the way across. The center was dished out slightly so that the board had clearance beyond the center of the disc to keep from being lifted and thrown back at the operator.
https://www.woodcraft.com/products/wood ... 20Products
Herb

[Nickp]

Well, here's good ole John Heisz to the rescue...



...he's surprised at the results...

[Nickp]

Where's your sense of adventure?

...okay, maybe I jumped the gun...

[Cherryville Chuck]

And I don't think I would want a 3500-4000RPM disc sander...pretty tough to hold the piece at the back of the spin...

Sorry, but not for me...

Maybe you have different ideas of what it might be used for than I do as I see it as promising. The average disc sanders that I've been looking at lately because I'm considering getting one is 3600 rpm. So not much different than a saw. The diameter is smaller since the average size dedicated (not a multi function machine) disc sander is 12" but once again it mostly matters depending on what you want it for. Disc sanders have much heavier and more rigid backing plates so that might be an issue as saw blades are flexible. Just get one good and hot in a heavy cut and you'll see how flexible. If it's too flexible then using an extra blade as a backing plate for the one with the sandpaper might work. You could also consider cutting the teeth off one or both. Once mounted you could turn it on and mark a perfect circle by holding a marker or pencil up to the blade. I'm also wondering what a laminate scoring tool would do to one but that might be a little risky.

One of the uses for a disc sander is smoothing miter cuts and you have a table top there already with miter slots that should already line up 90* to the blade and you already have a miter gauge at hand so those issues are satisfied before you even start. I also usually round the end of boards when I need them to be a semi circle by machine sanding them round by hand and as long as the flex is removed from the setup then it should work just fine for that too.

[Nickp]

@Cherryville Chuck Good points. I didn't like it as a disc sander because of the potential exposure to the teeth. Cutting off the teeth could solve that, to your point. And I'm probably "disc-sander-blind" as a result of using shooting board or miter knife. I like the oscillating belt/spindle better for ease of loading different grit.

I looked at Serge's idea more for cutting and sanding at the same time rather than as a disc sander. If it's used as a pre-sander for cross/rip cuts it would make sense to set up a blade with an appropriate grit paper and use the table saw normally...looks like it would save on sanding. By design, it looks like the teeth would be a good thing as they would protect the paper from catching and peeling on entry. I wonder what grit paper would match to the teeth anyway...

It looks like setting it up Serge's way might just take care of the flexing issue. Although the aux fence might get a bit hot...