A wood-turner must have easy access to strips of
abrasive paper covering a wide range of grits. These
are most frequently used with the lathe running, to
smooth the turned items in preparation for the
application of finishes and also buffing/polishing.
The grit grades are very sparsely printed on the
cloth backing of the rolls as supplied which means it
sometimes takes some time to locate a specific grade
when they are stored together without labelling. This
dispenser has been designed with accessibility in
mind and allows instant access to 12 different grades
of paper.
I purchase the cloth-backed sandpaper in 50mm width
rolls with a length of between 1 to 2 metres. The
dispenser has been designed to work with rolls of
those dimensions.
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Sandpaper dispenser plywood base.
Sketch plan of the 18mm thick plywood base with
dimensions and positions of drilled holes for
the plastic pipes and wooden laths (taken from
a Sketchup drawing).
(Click picture for larger view)
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Plywood Base Ready for Drilling.
Photograph of the plywood base marked up with
the positions of the fixing holes for the pipes
and laths, ready for drilling.
(Click picture for larger view)
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Drilling the plywood base.
The easiest way to drill all the pilot holes
for fixing the components to the plywood
baseboard was to mark up all the positions,
then transfer the board to the drill press
table and drill the 3mm pilot holes (12mm
depth, for the 4mm pan-head screws to fix the
plastic pipe sections). Next the 4mm pilot
holes (drilled right through the baseboard),
for the countersunk 5mm screws, fixing the
wooden laths to the base board were drilled.
These were countersunk on the opposite side of
the board using a countersink bit in the drill.
(Click picture for larger view)
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Drawing showing how the laths were fixed to
the plywood base.
The next stage was to screw the softwood laths
to the baseboard as shown in these drawings.
(Click picture for larger view)
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Cutting across the plastic pipe.
The 54mm diameter plastic pipe was cut into 12
lengths of 60mm. To ensure the cuts were at
900, the pipe was cut across using a
mitre and a fine-toothed saw.
(Click picture for larger view)
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Drawing a level line on the pipe.
This is a quick method of drawing a level line
on the side of the pipe. The pipe was laid on a
flat surface against the stock of a try square.
A pencil was used to scribe the line with the
pipe held against the stock.
(Click picture for larger view)
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Plastic Pipe Measurements.
On the horizontal line (made as described
above), the positions of the fixing holes for
the pipe were pencilled in and then drilled as
shown here.
(Click picture for larger view)
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Drilling the fixing holes in the Plastic
Pipe.
Done freehand on the drill press. Starting with
a 1mm diameter twist drill and working up to a
4mm diameter bit.
(Click picture for larger view)
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Cutting a slit in the Plastic Pipe.
Using the technique described above, a
horizontal line was drawn along the length of
the pipe at a point diametrically opposite the
line of the fixing holes (This doesn't have to
be exact). Scissors were then used to cut all
the way along the pipe (which should be easy if
the plastic wall of the pipe is about 1.0mm to
1.5mm in thickness). Repeat for all twelve
pipes. These slits enable screwdriver access
for the fixing screws and also become the feed
out slots for the sandpaper rolls.
(Click picture for larger view)
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Fixing the Plastic Pipe to the Baseboard.
The plastic pipes could then be fixed to the
baseboard using 12mm long M4 self-tapping
screws, driven into the previously drilled 3mm
diameter pilot holes (See above). The slits in
the pipe provided access for the screwdriver.
(Click picture for larger view)
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Cutting a hacksaw blade to size.
The hacksaw blades (for the tear off plates),
were cut to a length of 50mm using a small
cut-off disk on a miniature rotary tool
(Dremel).
(Click picture for larger view)
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Drilling through a hacksaw blade with a cobalt
drill bit.
The two 4mm diameter fixing holes for each of
the 12 hacksaw blades (for the tear off
plates), were drilled using a drill press. The
blades were held in a vice and cobalt drill
bits were used which are designed to drill
through hardened steel. A 2mm pilot hole was
drilled first.
(Click picture for larger view)
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Fixing the hacksaw blade tear-off plates to
the front of the laths.
The hacksaw blades were attached with 4mm
diameter pan-head M4 self tapping screws,
through a 4mm diameter hole at each end of the
blade. A washer beneath the blade at each
fixing point ensures that the sandpaper can
pass beneath the blade when the dispenser is
used.
(Click picture for larger view)
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The completed sandpaper dispenser.
The completed sandpaper dispenser in use,
loaded with rolls of sandpaper. Since writing
this it has been pointed out that to avoid the
possibility of contamination, the finer grits
should be stored at the top of the dispenser
with the progressively coarser grits towards
the bottom.
(Click picture for larger view)
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Keeping ones place!
It's useful to be able to attach a marker to
the grade of sandpaper last used so as to
quickly identify which grade is next in the
sequence. The easiest way to do that is by
means of a coloured button magnet which can be
attached to the hacksaw blade beneath the tube
of the last grade used. In the photograph a red
button magnet is being used
(Click picture for larger view)
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