Kind of a dumb question. What's a disc sander good for?

[dbhost]

Okay guys and gals, clue me in. I have never used one, or seen one used. But I see LOTS of you have them and seem to love them...

What are the used for exactly?

Mind you, my stationary sander experience is limited to belt, or spindle sanders, both fixed and oscillating.

[RodKirby]

On wood AND aluminum:

Rounding corners, squaring ends, "fixing" miters

I couldn't live without mine

[sparkeyjames]

Taking off too much wood and having to start over.

[dbhost]

Taking off too much wood and having to start over.

Oh, I gotcha. NOW I understand...

Seriously though, if they are useful for "Rounding corners, squaring ends, 'fixing' miters" and these are all things that say an oscillating edge belt sander does. It doesn't sound like they offer anything different as far as end result, just the way to get there right?

[richclemson]

I made an animal collection and used the disc to touch all the legs to at one time. Took the "wobble" out. I have a combination belt and disk and have found on faces where the belt might flex, the disc works the best. Like rod said, work really well for cleaning up miters.

[dbhost]

I made an animal collection and used the disc to touch all the legs to at one time. Took the "wobble" out. I have a combination belt and disk and have found on faces where the belt might flex, the disc works the best. Like rod said, work really well for cleaning up miters.

NOW we are on to something...

So a disk sander DOES offer something additional...

The reason I ask is I have recently seen a project, either here on at SMC where the poster made a disk sander accessory that he would mount up in his lathe chuck, and fixed a little table to it. Looked like a GREAT way to get double duty out of the lathe, just wasn't sure the project was worth fooling with...

Real simple deal though, he turned a cleat to get grabbed by his chuck, and glued it to a slightly oversized plywood disc, which he then turned down to I think it was 6", and stuck the hook and loop stuff on it. Made a little table thing that stuck in the tool rest holder... Pretty cool project...

[cgallery]

these are all things that say an oscillating edge belt sander does

But due to the fact that the sandpaper disc is glued to the very flat aluminum or steel disc, you get very sharp corners and flat surfaces with a disc sander. More so than a belt sander, in my opinion.

I "only" have a Ridgid oscillating belt sander and have often thought that a good, 12" disc sander would still be very handy.

[Alex Franke]

What richclemson said, plus with the disc sander, the sandpaper goes down toward the fence (on the side of the disc you're supposed to use), which makes it a little easier to control when rounding stuff off. A belt sander always wants to drag the wood off to the right.

[LCHIEN]

i agree with the above posters. Though similar in some respects to a osc belt table sander, it's real Good for rounding corners, miters, and putting precise flats on objects. The hard, flat disk gives better, flatter sharp definition and the downward motion of the disk face when used on the correct part of the disk make it easier to control than a belt sander which wants to throw the work to the side.

You can get 10" flat metal disks with a 5/8" arbor hole to turn your table saw into a 10" disk sander. 10" sanding disks with PSA are available for this. The blade tilt makes it a precision miter table. The BT3 having a universal motor makes it easy and safe to use a router speed control if 4-5000 RPM is too fast (might be). Having a table and all and bigger it would be quicker and easier than making a lathe into a disc sander.

here, woodcraft has them for under $20:
http://www.woodcraft.com/Product/200...-Disc--10.aspx
they also have 10" PSA-attached sandpaper disks in 40 to 120 grit linked on the bottom of that page.

[richclemson]

One more quick comment.... I saw recently freud makes a combination calibration blade and disc sander for a table saw. Interesting thought... model is CD010 ... it's on page 32 of the "Best ever Tablesaw Jigs, Tips and Ideas of 2009.

[RodKirby]

I hate "combination" power tools I gazillion years ago I had one - and no matter what I did, I could never plan a process where swapping out one "tool" for another was workable - ie it was ALWAYS a PITA.

Taken to an extreme; imagine if you had a combined router/table saw (run off the same arbor)

In Oz, dedicated 12" disk sanders are "cheap" -AND- they don't take up much space

[LCHIEN]

yeah, it was just an afterthought suggestion for a cheap solution and a space saving. I'd rather have dedicated tools for everything, if at all possible.

[cabinetman]

You can get 10" flat metal disks with a 5/8" arbor hole to turn your table saw into a 10" disk sander. 10" sanding disks with PSA are available for this. The blade tilt makes it a precision miter table. The BT3 having a universal motor makes it easy and safe to use a router speed control if 4-5000 RPM is too fast (might be). Having a table and all and bigger it would be quicker and easier than making a lathe into a disc sander.

Using the TS as a disk sander is in reality fairly useless as it spins too fast. It can burn the wood very easily. Safety wise, if the disk catches the wood the wood can get spit out at a tremendous speed.

Most sanding mediums work best when run at recommended speeds. One advantage of a disk sander is the element of control. The stationary machines that are belt driven with a multi speed pulley setup, have great latitude for good results. That also applies to the belt portion.
.

[LCHIEN]

Using the TS as a disk sander is in reality fairly useless as it spins too fast. It can burn the wood very easily. Safety wise, if the disk catches the wood the wood can get spit out at a tremendous speed.

Most sanding mediums work best when run at recommended speeds. One advantage of a disk sander is the element of control. The stationary machines that are belt driven with a multi speed pulley setup, have great latitude for good results. That also applies to the belt portion.
.

so that's exactly why i took the trouble to suggest using a router speed control. About 1800 RPM would probably be good with a 10" disk... I think the 6" disk I have turns about 3400 RPM. That would giive them approx equal linear speeds in the sanding region of the disk, so if my 6" sander is running at the right speed then so will this 10" with speed control.

[Bill in Buena Park]

Dave,
Agreeing with all posts above, one thing I've found the disk sander does better than belt (unless it's a vertical belt) is to give you a big ol' table surface and good control to remove extra stock on projects that have outside-curve geometry.

When I cut a piece with an arc on my bandsaw, I generally do not cut to the line, but leave about 1/16 to 1/8in extra outside the line that I can remove with better control at the disk sander.

However, for $199, this Ridgid oscillating belt/spindle sander could probably achieve the same results. Both my OSS and 12" disk are HF, and I got them each on sale for a combined price of $170, and they work very well.