What Sandpaper grit for sanding blanks square?

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RobS

RobS

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Carlsbad, CA
Ok, Finally getting around to turning the lathe into a disk sander.
What grit sandpaper do you recommend for squaring blanks?

Wood, Acrylic, acryluster.

Thank you for the help.

RobS
 
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I use 80 and 220 grit. The 80 grit gets me close to the tubes, the 220 is used to remove the rest to get to the tubes. Sometimes I will rough turn the blanks between the 80 and 220 grits so there isn't as much to remove with the 220. Also, the 220 is used if I need to remove some extra finish that got on the ends.
Bob
 
It depends on how much material needs to be removed. I only turn wood. I use a pen mill if I need to remove a lot of material. Then square sanding I start at 150 or 220 and go to 320 or 400 depending on how it's going.

After applying finish, usually CA but also WOP, I clean up the ends again using 400.
 
So what I've read is to use an adhesive backed sand paper for the disc sander, if that is true. How do you guys switch between grits for squaring? Are is the adhesive sand paper disc reusable?

Thanks
 
I have two different plywood discs -- one for 80 and one for 220. The plywood is epoxied onto some pine or oak smaller discs that are tapped to thread onto the headstock spindle. The plywood discs have epoxy on the face so that the pressure sensitive sanding disc is a little easier to remove. Use mineral spirits to remove left over adhesive.

Bob
 
Thanks Bob,

I ordered one 6" DIA, BY 1/2" THICK aluminum disc from mcmaster, should have ordered 2. Oh well, live and learn.

Thank you for the info.
RobS
 
I've been buying the 120 grit self-adhesive round paper for use on my home-made sander. You can also use 3M adhesive to stick regular paper--DNA easily cleans the disc when you change paper.

Regards,
Michael
 
RobS said:
Thanks Bob,

I ordered one 6" DIA, BY 1/2" THICK aluminum disc from mcmaster, should have ordered 2. Oh well, live and learn.

Thank you for the info.
RobS
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Go pick up some baltic birch plywood from a local lumberyard or home center and just make the silly disc yourself ... better yet, pick up some large diameter nuts as well that match your lathe's spindle shaft and use multiple layers of the plywood to give enough depth to embed the nut inside the plywood so that it has good holding power on the wood.


Nuts of that size are under 2 dollars each (the 3/4" x 16 one for my lathe costs me around a dollar each), and baltic birch ply has so many uses around a shop ... it's very strong, stable, and has very very few voids between the layers.

Another option would be a piece of leftover Corian from a countertop project, in several layers. Glue the layers together with plumbing PVC pipe glue and clamp it up well (book press or just stack heavy stuff on top).
 
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