Disc sander for flat grinding?

Is the disc sander good for flat grinding a small blade (3-5")?
Is the 9" disc the best size for this? Thanks guys!

5" might be stretching it unless you have one of those nifty new cone type disc's I do 3" blades on my 8" disc, couldn't gfind a 9 when I bought mine

I use mine for flat grinding, among other things.For those that don't have a tapered disc, you can glue a piece of micarta to the disc and turn it on a lathe, sand or file it (like I did) to make a taper.Also helps in paper removal.Dave

why do you need a taper disc?

Airwright,

I don't recognize the name so welcome to the forum. You may want to register so you can become an official member of the CKD. It is free.

The beveled disc is only slightly beveled (Center farther out than the edges) a few degrees. If you think about sanding on a disc you will have the disc rotating downwards on one sie and upwards on the other. As you slide your material to be sanded across the disc you don't want it to hit the upward side of the disc. The bevel makes the material go out into the air after it passes the center and there is no upward side sanding.

Hope this clears it up for you.

As Bob said, the beveled disc is for better control.
I'v heard that it helps eliminate vibration too. I don't have or use a disc, so I can only report what I'v heard on that one.
I have the stuff to make one, just hadn't put forth the effort yet.

You guys share what all you use the disc for, OK?
I'm sure it is for more than just bevels, right?
Squarring, dovetailing, ect...

And how about some pics of your custom disc setups?

We all need inspiration....

Bob Sigmon

I have been using a disk sander for almost 10 years now and I wouldn't know what to do without it.

I made my own sander by tearing apart an old combination 1"X42" - 8" disk sander. I had a disk made of 3/8" neoprene rubber and glued it to the aluminum disk. The rubber eliminates chatter and gives a smooth finish. I use cheap spray adhesive on sheets of wet/dry sandpaper. I cut the wet/dry sheets to just over 8" square and save the rest of the sheet for hand sanding.

I use our disk sander for cleaning up the full flat grinds that Phillip and I do. I don't use it for cutting the initial bevels in the blades. The 2X72 works best for that. The disk sander just cleans up the bevels and makes them look better. I have sanded blades from 1" long up to 20" long without any trouble (My disk is not tapered). I have also sanded blades from 120 grit up to 400 grit with great results. I have found that the higher grits like 600 and 800 give decent results but take longer to attain a great finish. Since we give the majority of our blades a hand rubbed finish we usually stop at 320 grit. The 320 grit finish makes hand sanding go a lot faster and easier.

Hey Guy's
I got a 9" bevel face disc from Rob Frink a couple weeks ago and let me tell you it's almost too pretty to use. I'm in the process of mating it with a 1hp reversable motor and will let everybody know how well it works.

Scott

In my shop, I have a tool lovers dream. It's called a ShopSmith. The ShopSmith gives me a 1HP adjustable speed 12" disk sander in one of it's set-up modes. It also has a way bigger table then any store bought disk sander I have seen.

As for it's uses.....

It is about the fastest tool for profile sanding/grinding. And like a 2x72 belt grinder is better then my 2x36, the 12" disk cools fast and lasts long.

Scott B. Jaqua
(and it doesn't hurt that the same machine can do all the wood working on handles and such)

I don`t even own a belt sander..unless you count the 1x42 which I use fro handles. all I use is an 8" disc not tapered, and can grind 11" of blade no prob!