We’ve got a quick tip today - how to make a simple DIY flap sander. There are a lot of elaborate DIY flap sanders out there, but this is one you can make in a pinch. It’s great for getting into hard to reach spaces that are hard to get with a typical flap sander. Plus it’s super flexible: you can make it long and skinny, you can make the sandpaper itself longer or shorter, and you can swap out the grit whenever you need to.

Tools and materials needed:

Step 1: Clamp and Cut

First clamp down some ⅜” aluminum bar stock and cut off the length you need with a jigsaw using a metal blade. We cut off a length that was about 4”, but you could go longer if you needed to.

Step 2: Turn Into Split Mandrel

We’ll turn this piece of aluminum into a split mandrel to hold our sand paper. We placed it on our drill press V block to keep it centered (which we clamped into place), and cut a slit into it on our band saw.

Step 3: Insert Into Drill

Then pop the split mandrel into your drill and place a folded piece of sandpaper in the slit. Tighten the split end around the sandpaper with some pliers.

Step 4: Enjoy!

This is great for getting hard to reach spaces that a store-bought flap sander can’t get to, and it’s really so easy to make. Hope y’all found this helpful, let us know if you have any questions!

………………………………………………………………
You can also find us at:

Instagram(sneak peeks @evanandkatelyn)
YouTube (all our DIY videos)
Patreon (if you wanna support us, but no pressure!)
Pinterest (stuff that inspires us)
Blog (includes tutorials from our pre-YouTube days)
Twitter (us, in 140 character doses)
Facebook (be our friend)
………………………………………………………………
Note: This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for supporting us!