Sand-o-flex

[Doug Ridley]

For those of you who use a sand-o-flex type flap sander, here is a money saving tip.The refills cost nearly $18.00 each including shipping so in order to save a little money here is what I do. When a refill is worn down to where it is no good anymore, I remove the nubs of sandpaper from the cardboard center and cut 8 one inch strips of new sandpaper and staple them on. Voila! New refill. The cardboard centers can be used several times before you have to actually buy new refills. Stapling them on is a little tricky but it works and they are as good as factory made. Here is a pic with 2 sanding strips removed, ready to tack on 2 new ones.
Doug

[MHarnett]

Thanks for the tip Doug, I am almost ready to try it out!

[Claude]

Doug:
You might try contact cement - It holds pretty well. The sanding sleeves that came with my Dremel are coarse and medium. I use one of the old ones that has most of the grit worn off, and use contact cement to glue on a finer grit paper - I've gone down as far as 400 grit. Holds just fine at 20,000 rpm.

Claude

[Doug Ridley]

MHarnett--I cut a square stick that fits loosely in the cardboard and fastened a piece of angled aluminum on it and insert it to brad the underside of the staples. I just hit it with the staple gun and then used a hammer to brad it down tightly.Worked pretty good.
By making my own I can have them for a coupla' bucks each as opposed to around 18 dollars each.
Doug

[Donsexton]

Great idea thanks for the tip with a picture

[bmfore]

Wondering what "contact cement" is? I assume it is some form of glue? is there a brand or can I go to lowes and ask for "contact cement?"

[BobD]

Contact cement is a generic name for a type of adhesive. You should be able to just ask for it at Lowes. It is often used to attach laminate to a countertop or even veneer to the base wood.

It creates a strong bond, but the trick is to apply it to both of the mating surfaces and allow the cement to get tacky on both surfaces. But apply it carefully; as soon as the two surfaces with cement on them touch, it bonds immediately.

We attached a 5'-wide roll of cork board to an office wall here at Fox Chapel Publishing using contact cement...it was a bear to apply, but it's still stuck as solid as the day we attached it to the wall.

Bob

[carlinmo]

I have been using the 8" model of this tool for over 30 years to finish hardwood carvings of ducks and other birds.

I cut 1" thin-walled aluminum tubing for the center core and drill 1/8" holes in the center of each side.

I buy the rolls of refill from Harbor Freight. I then have a length of board that I can wrap the entire roll of abrasive around to give me the right length of refill. I drill a 1/8" hole in the ends of the 8 straps and POP RIVET them to the core. You can reuse the cores dozens of time by grinding out the pop rivet head with a grinding wheel. I have slightly modified the strap holder of the wheel to allow for clearance of the pop rivet.

Carl Korschgen