A cheap strip sander

[Paul Montgomery]

It's been a while since I've been on this forum - I used to frequent it back in the old days. Looking forward to poking around here.

I wanted to share something I thought might be of interest here. I am making a bowl back mandolin and another friend from Iran is going to make the Oud. We both were in need of a sander that could get the staves down to about 2 mm or less and as I'm sure everyone here is aware of, a thickness sander is quite expensive.

I came up with a jig to attach to my belt sander that does the job just fine. My friend liked it and wanted one so I made one for him. I used to take a lot of photographs of what I was working on but recently I started making videos instead. It's not exactly a howto video, but I'm sure that the clever people here will figure it out easily enough (and possibly make it better!)

Anyway, here it is. Enjoy,

Paul M

http://openwoodshop.com/invention/sander2.php

[Bob Francis]

Very clever design

[Clay Schaeffer]

Looks like a well thought out and handy jig.

[Paul Montgomery]

Thanks. I have seen similar jigs but they usually use the flat bottom of the sander. I am just using the front roller. I think it causes less friction and closer simulates a large thickness sander.