Greetings,
Building segmented vessels has produced the need for yet another tool.
Using a 1/4" sheet of plate glass and PSA sandpaper works - but eats up a lot of time and energy, and the results aren't _quite_ perfect. The tiny segment edges tend to round over very slightly - even using a supporting jig/fence. I'm not certain if it's the sandpaper deforming slightly under pressure or the wood tilting slightly on successive strokes, but it was there nevertheless.
I looked at available Disk Sanders and their predictably poor Chinese construction, and built this instead. Not particularly difficult to build, but using a piece of perfectly flat plywood scrap is important.
The wooden sanding disk is held to a trued 6" faceplate by imbedded T-nuts and machine screws from the back. I don't trust wood screws enough to do otherwise. The T-nuts were then covered with a thin layer of epoxy/filler and lathed smooth. I placed an outer rim of hot glue around the disk/flange junction so that subsequent disassembly and reassembly would result in proper alignment. The glue doesn't stick to the cast iron.
Although I used a geared protractor to tune the platform to _exactly_
90 degrees to the face of the sanding disk, if you simply flip the opposite ring half over, they will mate perfectly even if your angles are off slightly.As always, use common sense using this or any other power tool. Shoving a piece of wood into the rising rear edge of the disk is liable to result in it flying across the room. Keep a firm hold on your stock and don't press too hard. Either way, I've not had a problem with insufficient power or the lathe slipping when sanding much of anything, much less small segments. It does produce massive amounts of dust, however. A DIY dust hood is in order.
Does in seconds what was taking _many_ minutes otherwise. The nicest thing about this setup is that the speed is variable, rather than being stuck at 1750 or 3600 RPM.
FWIW,
Greg G.