Make a 20 Inch Disc Sander Using a Lathe

I make a lot of Keepsake and jewelry boxes, as well as doing segmented turning on the lathe. I needed a big disc sander to flatten things out.

When I make a keepsake box and cut off the lid, then the surface of the lid where it was cut, and well as the top part of the box, are now rough with bandsaw or table saw marks. So I need to sand them down to be Perfectly flat and in a single plane.

I needed a 20” disc sander to do this. But after looking on line for one, I see they are not cheap. At $1500 to $2000, they are not something that I can afford. Luckily I have a lathe.

With my lathe I can turn it into a perfect disc sander, using only scrap wood. And the only specialty tool I needed was a Spindle Tap. Which was in the $20 - $25 range.

And the cool thin about this, is that I can make 3 or 4 of them, and put a different grit on each one! I can just spin off the first one and in under a minute, I’ll be sanding on the next finest grit, and so on. You can’t do that on a Disc Sanding Machine.

The whole build took me about an hour, and I was sanding away immediately. In the past, I would often spend an hour or more flattening all of the ends of my boxes on a sanding board. It now just takes seconds to do the same on this big disc.

Note: If your lathe doesn’t have a rotating headstock, you can still make this. You will just have to make a smaller one. Maybe a 12” or a 10”

One more Note: If you are considering making this, make sure you buy the Spindle tap that fits your lathe. Mine was a 1” x 8 threads per inch. I will put the links to various sizes below.

Here is the article on the Case Western Reserve glue strength study done by their engineering and materials science department:
http://www.titebond.com/Libraries/New...

Things we used for this project:

Tools:
BOSCH 12 Inch Sliding Glide Miter Saw - https://amzn.to/3j331SU
Kreg Trak and Stops Kit - https://amzn.to/3ZVgnkB
Kreg Self-Adhesive Measuring Tape - https://amzn.to/3DGNpLU
Steel Ruler Set - https://amzn.to/3jvY2ua
6-Inch Compass - https://amzn.to/3ZVfQ25
Grizzly Bandsaw - https://amzn.to/3XUUobR
Dewalt Power Tool Combo Kit with 2 Batteries and Charger - https://amzn.to/3johJUr
Milwaukee Drill Bit Set - https://amzn.to/3IeEOTb
Drill Chuck - https://amzn.to/3KOvKGj
(Make sure your lathe taper fits this)
Best Carbide Forstner drill bits - http://amzn.to/2zdGZ3e
Steel Taper Tap - https://amzn.to/3J8yNrL
Hand Sanding Block - https://amzn.to/3Rnsx1F
Empire Framing Square - https://amzn.to/3XRfnvX
Dewalt Circular Saw, Tool Only - https://amzn.to/3DplHTx
5 Minute Epoxy - https://amzn.to/3xiiHoM
Dewalt Pre-Drill Countersink Bit Set - https://amzn.to/40wTMer

Materials:
Sandpaper Set 5-Inch - https://amzn.to/3Wygb7S
Tack Cloth - https://amzn.to/3XRezYh

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