Re-Use, Re-cycle and save money

  

Some of friends laughingly note that I am cheap. I would rather think of myself as thrifty but either way you slice it, I hate to throw things away if they have any use or value left.


  Most wood shop folks send time sanding, maybe not as much as we should, but it still seems like sanding takes more time than building.  A common aid to hand sanding is a sanding block, blocks are available for sale or just as often are a scrap of wood more or less the correct shape.


  A while ago I made a sanding block that was a five inch disk and glued Velcro on it so that I could stick hook and loop sanding disks onto it.


  Recently I had to change the sanding pad on my random orbital sander, not because it lost its grip but because... well I'll show you.

  Something I was sanding, (an edge of something) caught and gouged the Velcro pad enough that it was tearing the sanding sheets to pieces.  I went and bought a replacement pad, installed it and was about to toss the damaged pad away when I got an idea.

  The scrap of wood is now screwed onto the back of the damaged pad and shazam, it makes a very flat, perfectly good sanding block. It is not cost effective to buy a new pad for this job, but as long as the old pads has grip, it is perfect.