Disc sander issues

[Trevanion]

By the way, can anyone explain the utility of a disc sander?

Pencil sharpening.

They're a rare use machine I find but they can be very handy for doing work on end-grain and some smaller work which would snag on a bigger belt sander or work that requires a pretty precisely flat sanded surface, what would beat one in almost every way is a waterfall sander but you don't really see them too much here in the UK, quite popular over the pond though.

 

[AJB Temple]

When I first started out in DIY woodwork, my FIL made me a disc sander. At the time I was producing picture frames and boxes for my extended family. I had never heard of a guillotine for this purpose, and I used the sander to true up mitres. Worked very well! And as Trevanion says they are great for pencil sharpening.

 

[Bacms]

If I am correct in thinking that the disc sander is the 12" model the run out that the op has mentioned as being between .3mm and .5mm should not cause him a problem if he just gets on and use it rather than spend time measuring it.

Good, advise in fact it is really really helpful. Did you bother to read the post at all? I used the disc and I wasn't getting a square mitre instead I was getting a compound angle. Hence why I posted here to try and understand whether it was expected for the disc to not be flat. The only reason I measured it was because Record Power technical service asked me to.

Anyway, let me explain why I bought the damn thing in the first place. Box making is one of my favourites woodworking tasks and I have started an online course with Andrew Crawford. As probably most of you know he is a big fan of abrasion rather than cutting for small scale pieces while I tend to use a shooting board for everything including mitres.

Once we got to the section of inlaying lines he moved straight into explaining how he uses the disc sander and contrary to other sections where we discussed several alternatives to do things his advice on this section was, well if you don't have a disc sander you really must buy one. We then swapped a few emails and settled on the Record being the best option. So my intended use for it is to mitre the inlay lines (8x1 mm) at 45 degrees using 240 grit paper on the sander, off course I didn't buy just for this project as I thought it would be useful to do the final trim on mitred boxes as well.

So maybe I am asking too much precision of this type of machine but the advice to use such machine came from someone who has way more experience than me at this task

 

[Richard49]

It's this thing about having a 'get out clause' with regard to 'acceptable tolerances'; it all depends on what acceptable tolerances means, what's acceptable to me might not be acceptable to you.

It's a 'cop out'.

 

[Eshmiel]

It does sound like you are after more precision than a cheap machine will give, have you tried a shooting board? Obviously that’s not a panacea

aidan

ps - anyone who wants to give their thumbs a rest can put Eshmeil on ignore, makes things much easier to read

PPS Sigh - the short little attention spans generated in the TV-watching generations. Can you even get to the end of one sentence? Not everything has to consist of flashing screens containing 1 second of cartoon character antics, you know.

Still, best to ignore things you wish to remain ignorant of if the result of paying attention for too long will be a bout of Cabinetman's "overthinking". Gaw - you might have to change your mind!

Eshmiel

 

[J-G]

...ps - anyone who wants to give their thumbs a rest can put Eshmeil on ignore, makes things much easier to read

Already done !!

 

[sunnybob]

I think someone needs to ask eshmiel his viewpoint on pushsticks.....

 

[transatlantic]

I wouldn't be without my disc sander. It's a very useful machine that is easy to use and gets the job done fast.

It does have it's drawbacks though

- narrow working area. For a 12" machine, it's only safe to use about 5 1/2", else you risk those god awful scary "kick backs". I do have the guard off on mine sometimes, and will use the other side on occasions, but you really do have to be careful!
- changing the discs is a royal pain, which is why I just stick to always having 100 grit on there. I have thought about trying the velcro, but it's very expensive, and I have found 100 grit to work just fine for almost all situations I use it for.
- relatively small surface area, so clogs up pretty quick! you basically need to wipe it with a rubber block after every other use. But thats fine
- The varying speed of the surface across the disc means things sand faster when closer to the edge of the disc, than to the center

When I get more space, I would love to have one of the vertical belt sanders I remember using back in school. Huge 12" belts that must have been a meter or so long. It was lovely to use. You don't see them these days though, it's mostly the horizontal belt sanders like this, which also look great, although way over kill in most situations.

 

[AJB Temple]

Yes, a vertical belt sander is useful. I bought one from a member here. I think the belts are 8" wide.

 

[MikeG.]

I think someone needs to ask eshmiel his viewpoint on pushsticks.....

And how his very recent move from Wales to the Hebrides went.

 

[TheTiddles]

And how his very recent move from Wales to the Hebrides went.

Can you imagine him walking off the ramp onto the beach, down a lane to a small village huddled amongst the hills, smoke slowly drifting from the chimneys in the early evening... to find that even up there people think he’s a pineapple.

Aidan