Make a Drill Disc Sander
While there are commercial attachments for your drill that will allow you to use it for sanding purposes, there may be a time when you just don't have the spare cash or the time to run down to your nearest hardware store to pick up the appropriate piece or pieces, or you may not have the money to spend on a dedicated sander. Either way, this article suggests one method for putting together a disc sander for temporary use.
Steps
- Find a fairly short, preferably round piece of metal that has a reasonably sized hole in one end. This will become the arbor for your Sand Compound Joints disc.
- Cut a piece of Make a Recycled Cardboard Wreath to the size you want your sanding surface, preferably in a circle. If you've already got sanding discs to use, use one for a template.
- Poke a hole in the center of the cardboard cutout and insert a short screw. The screw should extend about 1/4" to 1/2" (6.35mm to 1.27cm), depending on the depth of the Put a Plug Into a Plug Socket. This will be your mounting surface for the sandpaper.
- Fill the socket portion with a filler that will harden and stick to the metal of your selected arbor. "JB Weld" or something similar will probably give you your best margin of safety for this project.
- Screw the mounting surface into the filler in the arbor. Do this quickly after filling the arbor hole so that the filler is still soft and easy to screw into. Make sure you get in the center of the arbor or the disc attachment will be unbalanced when you try to use it.
- Let the filler fully cure. If you try to use this before the filler has hardened, you risk not only your homemade disc attachment falling apart, you also risk your safety.
- (optional) Cut the Make Sandpaper Last Longer to fit your disc. This is only necessary if you're using sheet sandpaper, or pre-cut squares/rectangles.
- Attach the sandpaper. Use adhesive-backed sandpaper if at all possible. If you have to glue the sandpaper to the cardboard, use a light application of glue close to the edge if you plan on changing the paper. You can also use more glue and just keep gluing new sandpaper on top of the old.
- Put the finished attachment into the drill and tighten the chuck. Give it a spin to see if it's balanced. If it meets your expectations, you're good to go.
- Finished.
Tips
- This is about as simple as you can get. If you've got materials and tools to thread an internal hole drilled into the end of a solid metal rod to accept a machine screw, you'd be much better off. You would also be better off if you could cut a circular piece of wood instead of using cardboard.
Warnings
- This is a potentially dangerous construct, above and beyond any normal dangers for use of power tools. You take your own health and safety in hand if you follow these directions. You would be much better off purchasing a commercially made sanding disc attachment with pre-cut sandpaper.
Things You'll Need
- An electric drill, either corded or cordless.
- Metal rod with a hole or opening in the end. An unused screwdriver bit extension or a small socket extension would work ideally for this, but make sure it is something you can do without, because this project will possibly render it unusable for its original purpose.
- A short screw. The size needed will depend on how deep the hole in your arbor is.
- A small piece of sturdy corrugated cardboard, or other similar or sturdier material. It needs to be fairly easy to cut with tools you have on hand.
- A filler of some sort that will harden well and bond to metal. "JB Weld" is one suggestion.
- Sandpaper. Adhesive back pre-cut discs will be ideal, but you can use any sheet sandpaper if you've got scissors to cut it to size and glue to attach it to your disc surface.
