Mini Disc Sander

**Beserkleyboy** · Nov 10, 2018, 02:49 PM

Good ideas Frank.

**Beserkleyboy** · Nov 10, 2018, 02:56 PM

You can get the plywood lasercut, but will char the edge. Make sure to use interior glued product, NOT exterior glued! You can tell the exterior glue (phenolic resin) from its dark brown glueline. It unfortunately keeps the laser from penetrating rapidly, concentrating to the point of severe charring, even ignition. Lots of hyperbole about in forums regarding plywood and laser cutting. Problems may be worsened by poor laser settings, but glue type is the actual culprit. Do not use, Structural, Marine, Exterior or Aircraft plywood, only Interior grades. They should be available through quality timber yards (not necessarily big box stores) or specialty timber outlets. Cheers
Jim

**DIYer** · Nov 13, 2018, 03:53 AM

Thanks cuttransformglue! We've added your Desktop Disc Sander to our Disc Sanders category,
as well as to your builder page: cuttransformglue's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

Desktop Disc Sander by cuttransformglue

tags: sander

**cuttransformglue** · Nov 13, 2018, 01:38 PM

Great, thank you for your input Frank! I'll look for thin plywood sheets (never seen it where I live through, only 1 cm or more).

**cuttransformglue** · Nov 13, 2018, 01:43 PM

Originally Posted by Beserkleyboy

You can get the plywood lasercut, but will char the edge. Make sure to use interior glued product, NOT exterior glued! You can tell the exterior glue (phenolic resin) from its dark brown glueline. It unfortunately keeps the laser from penetrating rapidly, concentrating to the point of severe charring, even ignition. Lots of hyperbole about in forums regarding plywood and laser cutting. Problems may be worsened by poor laser settings, but glue type is the actual culprit. Do not use, Structural, Marine, Exterior or Aircraft plywood, only Interior grades. They should be available through quality timber yards (not necessarily big box stores) or specialty timber outlets. Cheers
Jim

Wow, didn't know it could be that dangerous! Thanks for the input! I'll ask for help from the people of the lab, that runs the laser, about the correct configuration for the plywood. If I manage to find the thinner ones like Frank suggested.

Originally Posted by DIYer

Thanks cuttransformglue! We've added your Desktop Disc Sander to our Disc Sanders category,
as well as to your builder page: cuttransformglue's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

Such an honor! I hope this project helps someone out there, like it is helping me. Thank you DIYer

**wizard69** · Nov 25, 2018, 08:17 AM

First off a fantastic handle for your YouTube channel!!

To my eyes that material looks like HDF , not MDF though that might be due to the laser cutting. Probably doesn’t matter as this is one impressive little sander.

To be honest I have considered something similar for retirement travels, a miniature machine shop if you will. The thought is to build a unit that takes Roloc type disks, for quick changes and a large selection of disk materials.

Frankly a lot of ideas have flown through my head about how to build the machine and it’s functionality. One idea involves driving an arbor with a collet system to allow chucking of parts. This would make the machine multi purpose and fairly easy to build with an ER collet extension.

As for your next build do not dismiss fabrication with metal if you have access to a CNC. Even if metal is only used for a few key parts it offers up real advantages. One is weight which can be very handy in small machines to keep them from moving during use. To put it another way I wish I had access to a CNC😜😜

The only other thing to offer up here is to make a timetable table adjustable In and out.

In any event I’d love to see what the new machine will look like.

**wizard69** · Nov 25, 2018, 08:33 AM

This is interesting because I was under the impression that there is no difference in the glue used for exterior vs interior plywood. The difference is supposedly in the lamination quality. That is no cracks or voids to let in water.

Makes me wonder if the gluing practices vary with the plywood plants.

Originally Posted by Beserkleyboy

You can get the plywood lasercut, but will char the edge. Make sure to use interior glued product, NOT exterior glued! You can tell the exterior glue (phenolic resin) from its dark brown glueline. It unfortunately keeps the laser from penetrating rapidly, concentrating to the point of severe charring, even ignition. Lots of hyperbole about in forums regarding plywood and laser cutting. Problems may be worsened by poor laser settings, but glue type is the actual culprit. Do not use, Structural, Marine, Exterior or Aircraft plywood, only Interior grades. They should be available through quality timber yards (not necessarily big box stores) or specialty timber outlets. Cheers
Jim

**Beserkleyboy** · Nov 25, 2018, 01:41 PM

Wizard, sorry, but you are mistaken. And glues used in plywood and engineered timber products are not propriety products of manufacturing sites, but products of glue manufacturers! Marine plywood uses dedect free veneers coupled with void free layup to acheive a superior construction. American and Canadian 'so called' Exterior plywood is really just Structural plywood which must use the phenolic glueline for short exterior exposure and most importantly, lack of glueline creep, potentially found in interior glued product. Your perceptions are probably because you have such a limited range of plywood product manufactured there. Sad but true, I'm afraid...cheers.
30 yr expat in AUS