Use Any Sandpaper on an Orbital Sander

Im going to show you how to use any sandpaper you want on an orbital sander. Lets say you were sanding a solid cedar table, but you run out of sandpaper for your orbital sander or don't have a fine enough grit, or your sister did a "craft" with the rest of your sanding pads and you can't go to a hardware store because you can not drive yet. If so here is the instructable for you.

Step 1: Materials

here is what I used

- 1/4 inch plywood
-hotglue
-superglue
-spray adhiesive
-an old sanding pad
-sandpaper (duuhh)

Step 2: Cutting a Circle Thingy

Trace an outline of the outside of your sander and cut it out. I used my bandsaw to cut it out

Step 3: Gluing Stuff to the Circle Thingy

now that you have your circle cut out glue the old spent sanding pad to the wood fuzzy side up. I used a combination of superglue and hot glue to achieve this.

When that is done apply whatever type of sandpaper you want to the other side. I used some purple p400 I have an abundance of.

Step 4: Finish

now trim the paper (or not) and start sanding.

Comments

[handyandrea]

thank you..Got the sander. did not know how to glue the pad on, it went flying, somewhere, the paper I mean, so tried super glue and it works fine. Got a piece of extra thick rubber from a rubber shop to make the perished rubber base.

[spthorn]

I would be curious as to the long-term effect on your palm sander. This method puts more stress on the rotational components due to the mass of the plywood. Not being critical, just curious. It may be worth it in the long run, after just having purchased a handful of expensive sanding pads last night.

[hsanford]

It's almost a great idea....but how do you get regular sandpaper to stick to the fuzzy side of your wooden base? You have to have the opposite side of the velcro somewhere.....don't you?

[cwright15]

I know a guy that spray glues it directly to the sander problem solved.

[tsmith129]

it won't stick to the Velcro very well

[seamster]

Did you glue the old velcro pad to the new wooden base? I'm not sure I understand what you did. Can you elaborate just a bit, specifically on step 3?

[tsmith129]

yes, I did. I glued the old pad to the base to get the velcro from the sanding pad attached to the wood