Home made mini sander

[Colin-Partridge]

I love this board for the reason that everyone is so willing to share ideas and their talents. I got to thinking (with me that can be a dangerous thing) My old electric tooth brush had seen better days so I purchased a new one. Got to thinking that if that brush had a sanding pad on it would be great for doing fine sanding detail. So here are some pictures of the toothbrush modified. By the way it works great just dont expect it to take off too much wood it is designed for finishing in small places. What I did is remove all the bristles with a scapel blade I am sure a sharp knife would work as well. Then I sanded the bristles down to nothing until I had a smooth surface on both the agitating surface and the rotary surface. The with super glue I attached two pads onto the surfaces. Make sure that you dont smother the surface with super glue so that it gets down into the mechanism as you can imagine what that would do. Once the sandpaper is worn down too much I plan on just putting more pads on top until its too many then remove them with the scapel. So if you have an old toothbrush around give it a try. Hope this is helpful to someone just another of my crazy ideas.
Colin

[mpounders]

I had considered doing this also, but I was too embarassed to ask my wife for on of ours! Be sure and keep us updated on how you like it.

[Simplyme]

Oh Oh, there goes all the toothbrushes in my home.

[SlowMover]

An excellent idea...since I don;t have an old electric toothbrush (well, not one old enough to replace) I think I will make one of those out of a regular toothbrush..should be usefull at times even if it is people-powered.

[kdispoto]

Pretty cool ideas - I'm going to have to go through the house to see what else I can use - oh wait - there's my wife's mixer!

[Gulf Coast Handyman]

Great idea Colin!

Dave

[Grayhorn]

That's what this site is all about. Putting everyone's head together to see what come's out. Right on Colin..

[Timberwolf]

Great idea Colin.

"Homemade" always gets my attention as that's how I roll.

Feeding 5 kids kinda cuts down on tool purchases.

[minowevie]

Hay, this is funny. because I have 3 of these tooth brush sanders going now. I did the same as you. sanded off the bristles. then glued some Velcro on them and have different grit sand paper on them. cool thing is. you can change the heads.,, on one I cut the top off. the round part. and only use the bottom part for going back and forth, then on a other. I cut the bottom part off. and only use the top round part for orbital, sanding . I have also used those electric powered erasers to change the eraser and put in a dowel. and tip it with sand paper. works great. funny how like minds think the same. your friend Evie

[Ron T]

Originally Posted by minowevie

Hay, this is funny. because I have 3 of these tooth brush sanders going now. I did the same as you. sanded off the bristles. then glued some Velcro on them and have different grit sand paper on them. cool thing is. you can change the heads.,, on one I cut the top off. the round part. and only use the bottom part for going back and forth, then on a other. I cut the bottom part off. and only use the top round part for orbital, sanding . I have also used those electric powered erasers to change the eraser and put in a dowel. and tip it with sand paper. works great. funny how like minds think the same. your friend Evie

Hey Evie,

How are you? How is your horse doing? Is she fully recovered now?

I bought a toothbrush sander from a guy at a carving show a few years back. Same idea with the velcro. The electric eraser sounds like a good idea, too.