Circle cutters?

[Lefley]

I’m looking for sandpaper circle cutters in the regular small sizes. 2, 2 3/8, 3 , 3 3/8 inches. I see craft ones but has anyone bought or made a durable cutter that will last and cut sandpaper out? I’m a little tired of placing orders for 100 disks at 25$ . I see I can get rolls of sandpaper Velcro backed we’re I could lower my costs to $5.00 with my free labour , punching them out well watching the news in the morning!

 

[MARK.B.]

Anywhere near you that does pipe work, a small off cut and a quick chamfer with a file would do the job for little outlay

 

[Lefley]

Anywhere near you that does pipe work, a small off cut and a quick chamfer with a file would do the job for little outlay

I saw a picture of someone doing that. Anyone have any engineering background or tool making skills. I’m thinking of using Mark B. Idea and incorporating into a hand punch with a lever. I just priced out buying 4 inch rolls of premium Klingspor hook and loop paper in 25m rolls. I can get 975 out of a roll at about less than 1/3 the cost of buying disks with a better quality paper in the end. 2 inch electrical conduit with 2.01 in inside diameter is 4$ an Inch.

 

[Phill05]

You would need to keep sharpening the pipe as soon as it cuts through the sand it will take the edge off.

 

[Lefley]

You would need to keep sharpening the pipe as soon as it cuts through the sand it will take the edge off.

I was thinking of cutting through the back of paper and if I made a lever machine some how have a depth gauge so just punches through paper? I wonder how exactly the companies punch out there’s so nice?

anyone good with drawings. Can you post a possible lever contraption to get me started on how I would mount a chunk of tubing to punch out these With a handle of some sort for leverage. This could just be the project that gets me the okay to get a small metal lathe for making things like this!

 

[Phill05]

I found this online gives a good idea either to make one larger or this is heavy duty if you could fix a tube to it to press it out



Edit: just been thinking what about an old drill press?

 

[Yojevol]

Do the circles have to be accurate? I use scissors for cutting all grades of abrasive papers.
Brian

 

[baldkev]

Wouldnt you be able to use a die , punch and former? As in, you get your sandpaper over a lump of 2" scrap and punch the pipe through a corresponding sized hole. You could set that up on a drill press, pipe fixed to a circle of ply with a dowel centred to go in the drill. Or use a holesaw, spinning?
I used a die, punch and former to cut holes in thick waterproof fabric and then attach eye holes in brass. The punch is blunt, the die is metal so the fabric just gets sheared off.

Does that make sense? If not I'll get a photo

 

[Alasdair]

You could try a compass cutter. Dont know how long the blade would last but there cheap.

 

[gregmcateer]

I've seen someone use a set of hole cutters with the teeth ground off- seemed to work well.
Can't remember where I saw it

 

[kinverkid]

Thinking about gregmcateer's suggestion. Filing a single sharp edge to a hole saw in theory sounds like it should work and it would be easy to keep sharp if it's spinning on a mandrel in a pillar drill. I'm going to keep that in mind for next time. Only this morning I received my disks from Aliexpress. A bag of fifty 50mm 80 grit £2.93 and fifty 120 grit £2.96 free postage. Ordered on 10th January. That has to be a record.

 

[bp122]

Do the circles have to be accurate? I use scissors for cutting all grades of abrasive papers.
Brian

+1. It will take you less than a minute to cut one. Can use a cardboard / MDF template to get the sizing accurate. Or even draw a circle with a compass on the back.

Or you can cut one at the bandsaw (if you have one) with a circle jig. Will be easier to make than a punch and die tool.

 

[Sachakins]

Have a look at this

https://www.woodturningbasics.com/make-your-own-2-inch-sanding-discs/

 

[Sachakins]

 

[Droogs]

All i could find is these
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/100...-1;3.15;-1;-1@salePrice;GBP;search-mainSearch
and these

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/100...1;29.88;-1;-1@salePrice;GBP;search-mainSearch

 

[GarF]

I've seen a video where Glen Lucas does this on a large scale to supply his teaching workshop- possibly on his instagram feed in the last twelve months. Think it involved a punch and some kind of press.

 

[Sachakins]

You can use old bandsaw blades. Turn a disk 15 to 20 mm larger than punch size, then turn a thin groove at required diameter of sand paper size needed. Calculate circumference of the circle (pi x dia) this gives the length need for piece of band saw blade to cut. Then grind away teeth to give a knife edge finish.
You then fold this into the groove you cut and secure with elastic band, now epoxy glue the bandsaw circle in place.

Then add extra back to thicken the die you have now made.
These are best used as as a press die instead of punch die. Add a few sheets of sand paper,(5) place an mdf block on top, like a burger in a bun, place in a vice and screw tight until punched through.

 

[Paul Hannaby]

Look for wad cutters, they come in many sizes!

 

[Lefley]

Okay want to thank everybody. I’ve got a few solid ideas. the Leather punches and the arch punches. Also went to Glenn Lucas site. His punches look notoriously like a modified hole saw. I have some of those so I’m going to mount one in my wood lathe chuck and get an angle grinder and take teeth off and sharpen. Thinks again. Will post my results. This will offer huge savings on sand paper.

 

[Bob Chapman]

Several good ideas above but I'd like to sidestep them by asking 'why circles'? I buy abrasive in rolls about 4" wide and use a simple jig to cut 2" strips off this and then cut them in half to give 2" squares. This takes two cuts with a Stanley knife to produce two squares. I leave the corners on the squares and have no problems using them just as I would use the circles.
They are not good if you need to sand up to an internal corner, but in those rare circumstances I use scissors to cut the square into a circle the edge of which can go right into the corner.
Just a thought.