Disc sander

opaul

KNIFE MAKER
I haven’t used my disc sander in a while but want to get it up and ready. I’d like to get a rubber backing for the metal disc. With just the sticky back sanding disc it gets really hot. What do you guys use? TY
 
I used to use a rubber pad but now I just use a piece of rhynowet stuck to the aluminum disc with 3M feathering adhesive. I use my dunk bucket just like I do on the grinder. I gave up on the rubber pad because mine was too thick and was rounding edges and when I stopped using it I discovered that the hard disc alone was all I needed. Now, that's not exactly right- I had to fix my disc because I had some runout that I had been hiding with the rubber pad. The keyway was also scratching my blades and the sharp corner edge of the disc would gouge if I laid the blade across the corner edge by mistake as I was laying it down. To true up the disc, break the edge, and fix the keyway issue I ran my disc slowly and rode it with a file. It went from "ting ting ting ting" to smooth and even fairly quickly. As it turned out, the dang keyway was the real culprit to my disc sander woes. Riding the center of the disc with the file took the corners off the keyway slot.

It most certainly does not cut as fast without a backing of some sort, but I don't use mine for that. Generally my disc is my "corrector" when I go too heavy handed on the belt grinder and I've got more to get rid of than I want to do with hand sanding. The disc is like my lathe. It hardly ever gets used, but when you need one nothing else will do.
 
I've used both cork and rubber backing. They make grinding smooth, but tend to wash out the grind lines. Now I'm using only the aluminum disk without the backing. Like John, I don't use the disk grinder all that much, but when I do, nothing else seems to work as well.
 
Knife and Gun supply carry an 1/8 rubber disc in 9 inch size. I have a homemade and run 60 self stick on one side and the 1/8 with adhesive spray for 120,220,400,600 and 1000 on the other side.
 
Do you have any trouble with the cork coming off with sanding paper disc.
I put the cork on with contact cement. It might be difficult to get off though. I have one of Nathan's 1 degree discs. It is steel, I figure I can heat it if I need to remove the cork. I use feather disc adhesive for the paper.
 
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