Recently I puchased a belt and disc sander as I was fed up using the lathe as a sanding accessory.
I looked in the IAP library for ideas for a jig to square my blanks and also Peter (Penpal) posted his version for ideas. (Thanks Peter)
In both cases these jigs used an old mandrel to put the blank on to allow the blank to offered up squarely to the disc face.
The only problem for me is that generally I make pens with a larger brass tube than the slimline so therefore I would have to make sleeves to accomodate each tube size
When i squared my blank on the lathe I had a sanding disc mounted in the headstock and a chuck with the correct size transfer punch in the chuck and this would square off my blank perfectly so I set about making a dedicated one for by belt and disc sander.
Photo 1 shows a mitre bar fitted to the underside of an MDF sled which slots into the sanding machine mitre slot allowing the sled to traverse parallel to the sanding face.
Photo 2 shows the top side of the sled which has a piece of angle iron fastened to it and a chuck bolted to the angle iron, The chuck is accurately set at 90 deg to the sanding face.
Photo 3 shows the jig in position with a transfer punch in the chuck.
Photo 4 shows a blank on the transfer punch ready to be squared off.
