Over the years of this blog, we have shared a number of shop-built power sanding devices including a drum sander for the lathe, and a drill powered sander for concave shapes . This month, we are dealing with how to get your sanding media working properly inside tight spaces.

Whether you are working with metals, plastics, fiberglass or wood, there will come a time that you need to smooth or grind away at the inside surfaces of a hole or other tight space. The obvious solution seems to be to wrap an appropriate sandpaper around a dowel or small stick. PSA sandpaper can be used, and regular sanding sheets can be bonded on with adhesive or double-sided tape. But these options do not always work well with power sanding, and changing grits is time consuming.

One of our favorite solutions is to use a piece of sandpaper roll with a section of dowel that is chucked into a drill. Simply cut a segment of dowel in a diameter that matches your project, cut a thin slot along the axis at the top, and slip a section of sanding roll into the slot. The slot should be cut to the width of your sanding roll, typically 1” long. We have found that both wood dowel and aluminum rod stock works quite well, so you can use what is at hand.

Slip the sandpaper into the slot with 1/4-1/2" exposed through one side, and wrap the longer end around so it traps the shorter end, holding everything in place without adhesives or clamps. The length of the sandpaper roll section matters as well; I have found that cutting it so that it wraps around the dowel 1-1/2 turns provides enough sanding surface while keeping the loose end close enough to easily move from hole to hole while working.

We have found that cloth backed rolls work well and are durable, but there is no reason that strips cut from wet/dry sheets or other specialty products cannot serve very well where needed. Try it next time you are working in a tight location.