Disc Sander Question

[Lew Hodgett]

You do realize that I bought a Disc Sander, not a Sanding Disk, right?

think what most realize is you got what you paid for.

Lew

[Mac Davis]

In my experience, (12" disk on shopsmith), you have 2 methods of sanding, puching between fence nd disk and moving the disk towards the fence for squaring or getting uniform lengh... If you're running the stock between the disk and fence, as you would through a table saw, I can't see where spped at any point of the disk is relevent because you're pushing the stock past the entire disk, right??

[Lobby Dosser]

Have not heard that unit of measure used for about 40 years! Glad there are still folks around who know the true measure of tolerance!

[Lobby Dosser]

That's it, just turn it down in place! Imagine it's a bowl lathe ....

[Doug Miller]

Considering the quality of most of the stuff that Horrible Fright sells, I'm not sure he got even that much.

[DerbyDad03]

I agree!

That said, I'm still not sure what I got.

All other things quality-related being what they are, this question is still on the table (no pun intended):

Is my disc tapered because it was designed that way or is my disc tapered due to poor workmanship?

Since there certainly appears to be an "object" known as a tapered disc, could it be that this is what comes with the HF Disc Sander or are tapered discs only used on table saws?

[Bill]

I refuse to let you guys worry me about the birdbath I recently bought from Harbor Freight! If it can't hold water it's going back (and yes there is a screw going right through the bottom of the bowl, with a rubber washer)! Seriously though, I'd just repair that. I hope the birds aren't too rough on it... ; )

[Doug Miller]

You bought it at Harbor Freight. You paid 80 bucks. Do you *really* need to ask that question? :-)

Obviously that's "what comes with the HF Disc Sander" -- the question is whether it's intentionally so.

Seriously, though: the disc should be flat. Maybe not dead flat -- a disk sander is not, after all, a precision tool -- but it should *not* be out by

1/16" across an 8" disk.

[Larry Blanchard]

Yes I do. If either the table or the disc tilts you can use it just as I described by setting up a rip fence of some sort. If no tilt, then you can't use it as a jointer and should have a flat disc.

[Edward Hennessey]

"Mac Davis" wrote in message news: [e-mail]...

MD:

The thread somewhere took a subtle jog from the OP's (and my) interest in a separate machine driving a sanding disc where contact across the total face may be desired to a table saw mounting a disc.

Apart, we agree on your point. I hope Baja is being good to you.

Regards,

Edward Hennessey

[Josepi]

I would take it back. I had a disk sander made at a local machine shop years ago and from the way I use it, have used it, and have used other disc sanders, it would be almost useless and screw my wood machining up.

Sometimes you need/ want the whole width of the wood to be completely flat and I have no other awareness of why you would want a cone peak in the centre. This makes it a half diameter disc size from what you paid for in my book. To shear off the back of a box or similar wide wood piece you would need to run the piece across the surface and risk waves in you work as you hit harder and softer pieces to sand. Try planing a door edge completely flat with a 8" long plane. Similar thing and you pay for size just like the women that hire you....LOL

----------------

All other things quality-related being what they are, this question is still on the table (no pun intended):

Is my disc tapered because it was designed that way or is my disc tapered due to poor workmanship?

Since there certainly appears to be an "object" known as a tapered disc, could it be that this is what comes with the HF Disc Sander or are tapered discs only used on table saws?

[Leon]

I am not buying in to the statement that the disk is beveled on a disk sander to compensate for the rate of stock removal. It would be a night mare trying to keep the surface flat.

Either way I don't use my 12" disk sander for sanding a straight edge unless it is a short edge, < a couple of inches . I the disk sander more for rounding a straight edge. Use an edge sander If you want to sand the edge of a board straight. Basically a disk sander sands in the wrong direction, against the grain of the wood, if you use it to sand the edge of a board. It really is more of a shaping tool.

[Leon]

No wobble at all. I would have already returned it if it did.

Now I'm really confused. Some say that it's a beveled disk and can be used as a joiner, you say it's an issue if I try to use it to flatten a surface. Isn't a joiner used to flatten a surface (edge) for gluing?

A fine suggestion, if I feel like taking the plastic straps off the boxes, cutting the packing tape, removing the packing foam, lifting the units out of their boxes and taking them out of the plastic bag. Then, after checking each disk - 'cuz I'm a nice guy - reversing the whole process and packing them all up again. ;-)

Why would switching to a 12" model ensure that I would get a flat disc?

A stationary disk sander is not used to straighten anything but small stock. AND it sands against the grain. It should be use to shape curves. A 12" model will shape faster.

[Leon]

I agree!

That said, I'm still not sure what I got.

All other things quality-related being what they are, this question is still on the table (no pun intended):

Is my disc tapered because it was designed that way or is my disc tapered due to poor workmanship?

I would say it is either poor workmanship or the disk should have been attached to some other kind of sanding machine.

[Leon]

IF you use the bench top sander which sands in the middle of the disk to sand the edge of the wood with the aid of some sort of rip fence, WHAT do you use to remove the sanding marks that will resulf. The scratch pattern will be 90 degreed to the grain dirrection.

[Larry Blanchard]

This is turning into a seminar :-).

If you take a tapered disc and tilt it so that the taper is perpendicular to the table, the only part that touches the wood is a thin vertical slice. That slice is moving parallel to the table and to the grain. Yes, there's a very slight arc - a few degrees - pretty much invisible.

I've described this several times now. If you still don't understand it I can't help any more.

[dpb]

If the point is simply to straighten the edge for jointing, doesn't matter (assuming you're not use 40-grit chunk o' rock paper, anyway). Any fine scratches won't harm the glue joint at all.

Or, as Larry suggests, set it up instead of on the center edge to use the top edge in a (nearly) parallel direction if you prefer and the scuff pattern will be w/ longways.

[Josepi]

You may find the 12" sanding disks easier to find in stores.

Also the conical surface may be difficult to stick flat sanding disk onto without wrinkles.

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Why would switching to a 12" model ensure that I would get a flat disc?

[DerbyDad03]

At least for now, HF carries 10" discs in multi packs:

Also the conical surface may be difficult to stick flat sanding disk onto

I haven't tried attaching a sheet on my own, but the 80 grit that came installed on the unit is perfectly flat.

We'll see.

[Andrew Barss]

:> You can even find a 10" sanding disc that is designed to fit a table saw :> that is tapered on one face and flat on the opposite face. :> :> Supposedly the tapered face is designed to produce a jointed edge.

: But that only works if you can tilt the disc slightly. I doubt the HF : sander has that capability.

: I have a tapered disc for my tablesaw. Tilting it to remove the taper so : that only a small arc touches the wood, and using the rip fence, I can : get a pretty smooth edge.

I'm confused. Why is this better than a plain flat disc?

And if the disk is flat, you get a 90-degree edge when the TS blade is set at 90 degrees, etc., but the tapered disc is going to require some adding/subtracting.

-- Andy Barss