Hand sanding disk block

My Random Orbit sander finally gave up the ghost this past year. It’s okay. It served me well for a LONG time. I think was on its 3rd replacement pad. (The motor was acting up - running super fast and digging into projects on initial contact, and the screw holes that were supposed to hold the pad on were totally stripped out, causing the pad to fall off) As I was "retiring" the sander, It occurred to me that the pad would do well as a hand sanding block (It was still in very good shape), if only I turned a handle for it. And so, this week, I finally did.

If you’ve been watching my projects for the shop (in Instagram) you’ll notice that they all tend to be maple, and this one is no exception. In an attempt to clean up some of the scrap from the offcuts bin, I glued up a blank from several pen size pieces, and gave that a spin on the lathe. This was more or less designed on the fly. I turned a nice little handle separately and glued that on (with a 3/8ths dowel), then gave the whole thing a final spin to refine the shape.

The five inch “hook and loop” pad is held on with three little screws. I was going to leave it “au naturale” but in the end, I finished it with some wood butter.

One of my last purchases of last year was a new random orbit sander - an nice upgrade from the one I had. Reduced vibration, and improved dust collection. How ironic that one of the first projects of the new year was a completely manual counterpart. They each have their place, and I’m quite happy with how this one turned out. Looking forward to putting it through it’s paces on the next project!