Sanding Pad Holder: Laser Cut

CNCROi.com was very much overdue for a sanding pad holder, I just couldn’t find anything that had the “features” I wanted so I just made my own using my laser and some MDF.

There are a million and one ways to design something like this, my goal was to make something fast that worked and I’ll refine the design, if needed down the line, for a better usable sanding pad holder.

I have a lot of MDF in the shop in various thicknesses, as a result, that was my go-to material for this project and it happens to work perfectly for this sanding pad holder design.

A design using only glue with interlocking parts is plenty strong for this application, it really has no real stresses in the application of this design, as a result, I just used quarter inch MDF as the base and eighth for the rest of the sanding pad holder design pieces.

Laser cutting MDF is a very straight forward process, we do a lot of it at CNCROi.com, as a result, the end result is very easy to be

MDF is a man-made material that’s mostly saw dust and glue that is fabricated using heat and pressure to form very uniform sheets, hence why it’s used for a huge variety of applications from kitchen cabinetry to sanding pad holders!

Our CNC laser can cut up to 3/4″ MDF, so anything less is no problem for out machine, our routers can cut just about any thickness of MDF as well, so there were lots of options when it came to making this sanding pad holder design in real life.

MDF is a very cost-effective material and is plentiful, which is why it’s used for a wide variety of projects at CNCROi.com.

Now that the bottom quarter inch MDF is laser cut, it’s time to cut the sides, which will be just glued into place, followed by the free floating inserts that will divide-up the grits of sanding pad holder.

MDF also loves paint but CNCROi.com won’t be painting this one, there is no need and it will come-off on the inside just from the abrasive grit that would rub against it during transporting in various areas of the shop where this sanding pad holder will be in use.

I also use MDF in the shop to do carving, it’s a lot of fun to do this type of work but the production times are atrocious.

Laser cutting and engraving MDF does produce soot and sticky smoke, as a result, having a powerful extraction system and compressed air shooting down on the work as it’s being made is very important to limit the issues that this can present inside of our machine.

The bright light you see during production of this sanding pad holder design is the result of the laser hitting and cutting through the material, not the laser itself, which is completely transparent, if you could see it, you’d see a line going from the right of the machine to the laser head and then straight down in the image below.

Once both sides are cut, you can get an idea of the slot-together design I made for this sanding pad holder, this plays a huge role in keeping things together and the glue is literally icing on the cake, thus, no screws or hardware is needed to finish the build.

Modern glues are amazing, their hold is incredible and I go through a lot of it for my other business SandboxRanch.com laminating various hardwoods together into slabs that I then make custom banks out of.

MDF laser engraves great by the way, so it has it’s uses, for in the shop at CNCROi.com, I don’t really need to spend the extra time and energy to make something nice, I just need something functional.

You can see the same tab approach used for the inside dividers of the sanding pad holder, these, unlike all the other pieces you’ve seen thus far, are not held-in by glue but just the slot that keeps them from moving – these are obviously put into the finished holder after all the glue is dried, otherwise, these would stick to everything else rather permanently.

Below you can see one of the two end-caps that slot both into the quarter inch base and the sides, this is what locks everything together, with glue, to make a very stable and plenty strong sanding pad holder.

I decided in the last minute to actually laser engrave the grits of sand paper right on the dividers, in hindsight, I should have done this using whiteboard material that I can mark with a sharpy but that’s something to deal with another time at CNCROi.com.

There is no such thing as too much glue! Apply it liberally and things always go well.

Once the glue dries, the entire sanding pad holder assembly is incredibly strong, overkill even for this application, which means it will last a very long time and if it ever needs replacing, I have more than enough MDF down the line with a laser to cut a fresh one out.

Here’s a project I designed a few years back and cut with this same laser – and material.

When it comes to these sanding disks, the new system is a massive visual improvement as now I know immediately if I need to order some more in as I’m running short, which was definitely not the case before at CNCROi.com.

The dividers move up and down as they fill and empty with grit sanding pads, as depending on the project, I either need a lot or not so much of these, this way, they all remain vertical and I can squish them up to the front as needed.

Want custom designed stuff? Contact CNCROi.com!