{"id":1891,"date":"2021-10-11T19:26:00","date_gmt":"2021-10-11T16:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodiswood.com\/?p=1891"},"modified":"2022-09-07T12:00:35","modified_gmt":"2022-09-07T09:00:35","slug":"can-i-use-a-drill-to-sand-wood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodiswood.com\/can-i-use-a-drill-to-sand-wood\/","title":{"rendered":"Can I Use a Drill to Sand Wood?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Woodworking requires a lot of tools, some are more important than others. Then we also have multipurpose tools that are a do-all, with a drill being one of them. It should always be a part of a woodworker’s arsenal due to the versatility it offers. But what is the extent of its versatility? Can you use a drill for sanding wood?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In short, yes, you can use a drill to sand wood. You can purchase either sanding drum bits, a sanding disc attachment, or create your own sanding disc from scratch. But that is not all, you also need to make a jig to fix your drill for stability. You can sand without a jig as well, but it will be really unstable and hard to control.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A drill is a motorized tool, just like many others which are used to work on wood. Woodworkers can take advantage of this fact by making various jigs for drills. These jigs convert it into a disc sander for sanding, lathe for woodturning<\/a>, and bandsaw for cutting. The versatility of the drill is only limited by the power of its motor. If the drill isn’t powerful enough, it might not perform heavy-duty tasks.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is Needed to Sand Wood with a Drill?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

You might need to purchase a few attachments that we mentioned above for sanding wood with a drill, which more or less you can easily find either in your local store in the drill attachments<\/a> section on Amazon . But the most important thing is constructing a jig. A jig will help with stability by holding the drill in place while sanding wood.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This section will teach you the different attachments and the jigs required to use the drill to sand with them effectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sanding Drum Bit for Drill<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

If you are unfamiliar with the sanding drums, these are basically small circular drums on which you slide on a sanding sleeve. If you have ever seen or used a Dremel tool, they always have a smaller version of these included in the kit. In fact, most rotary tools have these pre-included in their kits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First up is to work on a jig for the sanding drum bit, which will allow you to control the motion of the drill. Sanding drum bits are easy to purchase and can be found on the internet, we\u2019ve covered the best one available online in our product recommendation section. You can use these as they are, but with the help of a jig, sanding will become much easier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Making the Jig<\/em><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

For making a jig you will need ring clamps, nails, adhesive, and two planks<\/a> of wood. One plank has to be a 3\/4 length of the drill and 3-4 inches wider than its overall thickness. The other plank, which will serve as the base, can be 6 inches in length and width.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So first up, you need to attach both these planks together at a perpendicular angle. Use an adhesive first to attach these after which you can use small screws to fix these together tightly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once that is done, you now need to make slits for the ring clamps. These ring clamps will hold the drill in its place firmly. So place the drill on the wood and mark the areas that need to be slit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Use a jigsaw for making the slits and pass the clamp rings through them. You can do without the slits as well, but with the slits, you are making sure that the drill is fixed in its place tightly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now you can fix the drill outwards facing down toward the screws you have used to attach the planks. Adjust the drill in such a way that the sanding drum bit is exactly 90 degrees in angle to the base. If it is off-angle, use small wedges or wood chips to adjust it for a right angle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is a really good tutorial on how to make this jig and how to use it to sand wood:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=1NUqS9-LweU<\/a>