DIY Portable Power Hand Sander: for Sanding 3D Printed Objects

Hey there

It is a DIY (do it yourself) project that helped me in making my work easier by reducing the time and effort.

Its a power sander thats handy enough to fit in your hand and powerful enough to sand the surface of your printed object or any thing else for matter of fact.

I was inspired by : https://www.instructables.com/DIY-Electric-Sander/... but wanted to make a cheap alternative for 3d printed objects specifically.

Supplies

DC motor (old/new dosen't matter)

Adapter AC-DC (old phone charger works good)

Badminton Cock (you can use anything that suits the purpose)

Sandpaper

3D printed body (.stl files provided)

Step 1: Introduction

We all know how hard and frustating post 3d printing work can be. Specially removal of support material and then sanding the remains of for a smooth finish.

After removal of support the sanding process is quiet boring and slow process and the fact that there are some places that are difficult to sand such as curve (as in sanding and not disorting or changing the curve of the printed poduct). Also because its a manual process the surface area of contact and the pressure applied on sand paper is not even which result in more manhour of work although sometimes.

Here I have solved the task of manual irregular sanding by making small hand size sanding tool using household/cheap product that works great.

This tool help me to sand at only the targeted areas (when printer goes to next layer height a small bolt is created or places from where support material is removed) and with uniform consistency that to a lot faster.

Step 2: CAD Design

I used ThinkerCad for my designing as its fast and simple to make simple cad design in it. I used a White Board Marker as my refrence for length size of my power hand sander. The length of it just felt right.

Dimensions

: 26x26x100mm (LxWxH) For cylinder [ I used bevel to round of the top and bottom edges for nice curve and ergonomi feeldesign].

: 24.5x24.5x10mm (LxWxH) For hemisphere [ the LxW is less than 26mm to match with post bevel diameter of cylinder top].

Make your own or just download the .stl files below-

Step 3: 3D Printing

After downloading your .stl files from ThinkerCad, open them in your slicer software and use whatever slicing setting suits you and you respective 3d printer.

My slicer setting:

Nozzle - 0.4 mm

Layer height- 0.3 mm

Printing speed- 80% of normal

Step 4: Tool Head

Upcycling an old badmintom cock :). You can use anything that can be a replacement of cork.

STEPS:

1- Use an old badminton cock and remove the back part (cork) of it.

2- cut out the cylindrical part from the cock, just follow the already made lines and gap.

3- make a hole in back side of the cork. Make sure its in centre.( it is where your motor axel will go in)

4- Cut out and stick sand paper cutting on your cork piece.

Please refer to attached photos for more details.

Step 5: Connection

Now we will connect the DC motor with the power supply (adapter).

STEPS:

1- Pass the wire of the adapter through both the parts( hemisphere and cylinder) [make sure you have the hollow part of cylinder couple with hemisphere part].

2- Tie a knot at around 10 cm from end of wire ( this will prevent any wire stress to directly apply on motor termnals).

3- Now solder the wires to the terminals of DC motor (use soldering iron with caution)

4- Now push the motor into its place carefully.

refer to photos for better understanding.