12- Flat Sanding Disk Uses

[rlkeeney]

One significant difference between the flat/conical disk for edging is the sanding direction.

flat = circular across the grain
conical = with the grain

Assuming grain direction = direction of workpiece feed.

Good point. I bought my conical disks foe smothing plywood edges.

[JPG]

Oh the flat works for that as well.

[Maurice]

Good question, I've been wondering the same myself, so I asked my ShopSmithonian (I scraped the entire forum and every PDF/doc, OCR'd everything, and turned it into a very powerful chatbot). It sort of sucks the fun out of things like AI tends to do, but it is useful.

Anyway, it spat this out...

Here's the combined list of 12" flat disk uses beyond plain hand-sanding of small parts, drawn from Power Tool Woodworking for Everyone (PTWFE), the manuals, and past threads here. Page numbers are from the 1953 edition:

From the book and manuals:

• Sanding to exact length - rip fence as a stop, miter gauge to keep it square, and the quill feed with the stop nuts set so every piece comes out the same length (p. 266).
• Jointing a long edge to an exact width - set the fence slightly off-angle and feed from the rear. The book calls this the ideal way to joint plywood edges. Note this offset-fence trick is a flat-disk thing, not conical; the conical manual specifically says do not offset the fence (p. 268).
• Circular work on a pivot jig - truing a round workpiece, rounding over the ends of a straight piece, or bevelling the edge of a circle by tilting the table (p. 268).
• Duplicating rounded corners - sand each corner to a 45-degree facet (tangent to the curve) using the miter gauge and stop rods, then blend it round by hand (p. 270).
• Miters, bevels, compound miters and chamfers - using the miter gauge and/or table tilt, the same settings as the matching saw cut (pp. 270-74).
• Pattern sanding (the pattern rides a guide strip while the workpiece sits proud of it), and sanding a curve to a uniform width against a pointed guide stick (pp. 274-77).
• Pointing dowels and fence pickets, and even sanding metal with the right abrasive (pp. 274-78).
• Finishing a long turned cylinder, where the 12-inch disk gives a dead-straight result (p. 167, Fig. 450).
• Cleaning dried glue squeeze-out off a joint (p. 173).
• Grinding lathe chisels with the Shopsmith Sharpening Guide held against the disc - though the belt and strip sander work for this too, so the disc is just one option (per the Sharpening Guide instructions).

Extra uses owners have raised on the forum:

• Alan uses the quill feed stop with a backing fence to sand parts to identical lengths, ideal for picture frames.
• Disk-sanding with the table-saw insert and lower saw guard fitted, which gives far better dust collection - see the table-saw insert tip and nuhobby on the lower guard catching the dust.
• That setup needs the steel disk (flat on both sides, with the longer hub) - chapmanruss explains why the longer hub is needed.

[peterag]

Pretty much under the heading of "sanding to exact length," but: I used it to uniformize a bunch of [rough] birdsmouth cuts (notches in rafters to secure to wall plates) that I had made using the bandsaw. I locked the miter gauge/guide at the appropriate place/angle, and probably fixed a support and stop off table to support the rafters etc and advanced the quill as desired.

[chapmanruss]

Robert, or anyone for that matter,

You can change just the Hub to upgrade the 12" Sanding Disc(s) instead of buying an entire one. It is the longer Disc Sander Hub part number 514493 for $34.95. Half the price of buying the complete 12 Inch Steel Sanding Disc Assembly part number 555143 at $69.95. I changed at least one of mine.

[JPG]

OR, just extend the quill(only matters if using the disk through the table insert). M5/500 folks just use it off the left edge of the table and the arbor is irrelevant.

[rlkeeney]

I have been debating whether I should buy the hub upgrade. That is what started me thinking about sanding disks and brought me to ask about usage. Years ago, when I did most of my work outside, I used sanding disks a lot. Enough that I have three of them. I have a Disc Sander Dust Chute and what looks to be a sanding disk insert for my 520 table. I'm thinking that I can use the disk sander for something.

Don't upgrade the hubs and run off the edge of the table, provided the dust collection will work.

I can buy hubs from Shopsmith and replace my short ones. I would have the short hubs that are probably nearly worthless.

I could buy used 520 hubs. I have been looking at this, but it doesn't make sense to me to pay $25-$30 for something I can buy new for $35.

I could buy used 520 disks and sell the ones I have. However, the ones I see for sale are in poor condition, the photos are so bad I cannot tell their condition, or they have sandpaper mounted on them. I don't think I want to buy a sanding disk that I can't see the surface condition. Apparently, "good condition" on eBay means the rust hasn't eaten through the disk yet.

I think I just talked myself into buying new hubs from Shopsmith.

[JPG]

Those "worthless" short hubs can be used for mounting anything one self creates - like a hand wheel mounted on the top aux spindle while doing lathe work(like Cap't Eddie).

[rlkeeney]

Those "worthless" short hubs can be used for mounting anything one self creates - like a hand wheel mounted on the top aux spindle while doing lathe work(like Cap't Eddie).

I did think about using them to mount something else, but nothing came to mind. The wheel is a good idea. Thanks.

I have watched a lot of Cap'n Eddie Castelin's videos.

[algale]

Robert,

I found this older post from Alan. Has he been back on the forum since the forum came back with the new owner?

I still check in occasionally. I have been doing less woodworking for a variety of reasons and haven't seen any topics where I could add anything of value to the discussion.