Thread: Hook & Loop disc

G'day mate,

If I'm reading your post correctly, you have some suitable velcro and are having trouble aligning it?

ie. getting it central on the disk?

That's correct I don't know where to start

I put one on a 300mm disc sander last week.
I was not certain if you meant the h & l disc that is attached to the metal backplate of the sander or the h & l disc
to the base. Firstly, you have to remove the platform at the front. Remove old disc that is glued
to metal base. Peel off (say 1/2) back of new one and ensure bottom of disc is aligned to the edge of the metal
base and gently peel upwards patting down as you go. This will give you the h & l surface to attach new sanding disc.
Repeat process. Start at bottom and make sure it is aligned with the edges as you proceed and pat down. Should be ok,
but you have to remove the platform and you said it was 30". I havent had experience with that size. Others might be better able to help with that size
assuming it was not a typo. Hope this helps, Drillit.

G'Day Drillit,

Sorry for the typo I meant 30cm (300mm), (big difference indeed).
Thank you for the info it's obvious that I'm a real noob concerning
woodwork.

I will try the method you have described.

Cheers

Haven't attached H+L to a fixed sander but used to regularly reface pads for 5 inch angle grinders ( 2 or 3 pads a week for a fleet of grinders), probably more sensitive to imbalance because of operating speed and being handheld.

We used to buy our material in 1m widths off the roll and cut a little oversize and rough. Sandpaperman sell the same product in sheet form, possibly precut off the roll.

Most important to clean all old adhesive of disk, then stick the pad on roughly alligned, and trim while rotating disk by hand. Simple, and unless you get it badly wrong, dead easy to get it perfectly aligned.

Can't help if you have purchased a cut to size pad.

Thank you malb for your suggestion buying larger size Velcro sheets seems to be a good idea just trim it around the faceplate .

Cheers

Originally Posted by Wombat_73

Thank you malb for your suggestion buying larger size Velcro sheets seems to be a good idea just trim it around the faceplate .

Cheers

We used to rough cut blanks about 15mm oversize then trim when mounted. By arranging the blanks to interleave on the sheet rather than arranging in straight lines, we got about 40% more blanks from a metre length. Might be harder to do with the disk being 2.5 time larger, but you might be able to get smaller pads for other machines from the offcut areas.

Also given the size of the blanks, beware if the material has been rolled at some stage as it will tend to reroll itself. At our size it could not get to the point where it bonded to itself (adhesive to adhesive), but it might manage it at the larger size. If it does, even if you can seperate it, the glue will be shot for part of the blank and you will have delam problems before the H&L is worn.

Hi malb

Thank you for your good advice never to old to learn.
I have ordered a Velcro sheet 300x 500mm from The Sand Paper Man I'll see how I go.

Cheers

Drillit's method works fine. I did mine a couple of months ago. As long as you remove the table it's very easy. If it's a 'Woodfast' DS300 from Hare and Forbes, as mine is, you also need to remove the front part of the dust extraction chute, from memory.

First remove the old adhesive disc and wash the metal disc off with white spirits and a scraper if needed. To remove any oiliness, I followed up with a good clean with metho and a scouring pad.

To fit the hook and loop backing/converter disc, peel back 1/2 of the protective backing, hold the 1/2 that still has backing in line with the disc and stick down the 1/2 that has the adhesive exposed, working from the edge toward the centre, then remove the remainder of the protective backing and 'roll' the rest of the disc on from the centre.

Next just work over the whole surface pressing firmly to ensure good adhesion.
Using that method you can't really stuff up. Only takes a minute.

It's good practice for when you change grits - follow a similar procedure with newspaper or similar covering half of the replacement sanding disc's velcro, to avoid the velcro catching before it's aligned. Some manage it with the table in place, but I remove it. Only takes a couple of extra minutes.

N.B. This process might be a little slower with a 30 inch disc.

Edit: I just thought I'd add that after changing to velcro you won't have quite as flat a surface as with standard stick-on sanding discs. The hook and loop combo is like a thin cushion. Mine sits very slightly higher in the centre and toward the edge, making it tricky to get a perfectly flat surface on the wood being sanded. It doesn't matter most of the time, but it makes it hard to do stuff like touching up mitred corners for boxes etc. (I don't know if others have noticed the same problem.)

Method I've seen used to put the sanding disc onto (and take off for that matter) the backing plate is to use a sheet of plastic.
You don't need to remove and decks to do it.

As you peel you push the plastic sheet between.
To put anther on you put the plastic sheet down, put the sanding pad in front and you can move it around anywhere until it looks centred.
Then pull the plastic sheet out slowly and push the pad to the backing.
Makes changing grits a lot quicker which most don't seem to do because of the pain before.

Originally Posted by _fly_

Method I've seen used to put the sanding disc onto (and take off for that matter) the backing plate is to use a sheet of plastic.
You don't need to remove and decks to do it.

As you peel you push the plastic sheet between.
To put anther on you put the plastic sheet down, put the sanding pad in front and you can move it around anywhere until it looks centred.
Then pull the plastic sheet out slowly and push the pad to the backing.
Makes changing grits a lot quicker which most don't seem to do because of the pain before.

I tried that method, using newspaper, but after peeling the first bit and sliding the paper half under, the remaining half of the paper got in the way of rotating the disc to do the other half, so I gave up and removed the table. (The dust extractor chute covers the bottom half of the disc, so the paper/plastic can't be slid all the way under without rotating.) Much easier, in my opinion, and only takes a few minutes.
I've only changed grits once since fitting the velcro system, and plan to go back to standard glue-on without velcro next time, for a flatter surface. The velcro really makes a difference in that respect. It defeats the purpose of having a perfectly flat disc.

The plastic sheet I use is also cut round.
Got those 4 cutting board things from aldi that are maybe half millimetere thick.
Used one of them.

Originally Posted by _fly_

The plastic sheet I use is also cut round.
Got those 4 cutting board things from aldi that are maybe half millimetere thick.
Used one of them.

If you were to take one of your discs and cut it in half it would work on mine, otherwise when it's half-way in, you couldn't rotate to get to the other side, because half a disc would be sticking out and couldn't get past the table's tilt pivot pin.

G'day all

Thank you very much to all for your suggestions, more than I hoped, and sorry for the typo.



Cheers