Custom sandpaper files
Instruction
Modelmakers and craftsmen often need a variety of small files and sanding blocks of various sizes and grits. Here's an easy way to turn some of your plywood or MDF scraps and offcuts into some useful tools.
This is really more of a design prompt than a project that requires you to follow these specific details, honestly. Make them of the size and width that will be useful to you. These ones take strips from a 1/4 sheet of sandpaper and are 3/4 inch wide. The hole in the handle lets me hang them ready for action on a nail on the backstop of my bench.
These sandpaper files can be made of any sort of scrap plywood or MDF, and to whatever length and width you would find useful. These ones that I made are ¾ inch wide and are long enough to fit quarter-sheet sandpaper.
The trick to cutting out sandpaper on the laser is to cut it from the back side to get through the paper backing.
If you want to set up a future supply while you've got the laser warmed up, you can use a setting that just scores the paper instead of cutting all the way through and make up a sheet of blanks ready to be torn off as needed.
A regular, office-supplies glue-stick works just fine to adhere the abrasive to the sanding stick. You could put different grits on different sides if you want to, even.
A variety of different grits from coarse to extra fine can be useful. Aluminum oxide paper works great for wood and plastic. The silicon carbide wet/dry paper can be used for steel, and even for sharpening. If you are using MDF, you can also make an extra blank one to charge with honing paste to use as a strop. Even an X-acto blade can be kept as sharp as straight-out-of-the-package if you learn how to hone with a strop.