Sanding Disc Caddy

A couple years ago, Lowe’s had some bulk packs of 5″ name brand sanding discs for about 30% of the normal cost so I bought several packs. Ever since then, when I’ve needed a new disc, I had to search to find the grit I wanted. With a little bit of scrap wood, I decided to stop fussing about it and just make a quick caddy to sort it all.

I had a scrap 24″ x 24″ piece of (terrible quality) 1/2″ plywood that wasn’t going to get used for anything else.

FREE PLANS are available at the end of this article.

After cutting everything to size, I created grooves using the table saw and moving the fence just a bit on each side until the 1/4″ plywood fit perfectly.

I went for a snug fit so it wouldn’t need glued in.

After this, I cut the main body into it’s final size. Cutting the grooves before doing this allows them to be perfectly lined up across from one another.

I then used a 1/4″ rabbeting bit on one edge of the two pieces I just cut. This was done on the same side that had the grooves cut into it.

A bit of glue, some brads, and finally clamps holds it all together.

Without adjusting the rabbeting bit, I went back and added the rabbet to the end caps. By waiting until the end caps are attached, the rabbet is now hidden instead of showing on the sides.

I squared out the corners with a chisel. Due to not much material remaining, I ended up with a bit of chip out and deformities on what was left but a little bit of extra glue on it in the next step took care of any issue.

I cut the 1/4″ bottom to fit the space created by the rabbets and attached it using glue.

Sometimes just piling a bunch of junk on top of a panel is enough pressure to ensure a proper glue bond.

The dividers were cut, taped together, and a relief cut was done on the bandsaw. Afterwards, the drum sander cleaned up any rough edges.

A friend gave me a few cans of satin spray lacquer over the summer. Having never used it before, a shop project is always a good time to try new things.

After sorting all of the paper into the proper bins, it fit nicely in my new Shapeoko 3 CNC Table & Cabinet

A free plan download is available for this project:  GoWoodwork Sanding Disc Caddy (2751 downloads)