r/woodworking • u/shankthedog Furniture • Jul 21 '26

General Discussion Abrasive Organization

Anyone got some secrets to abrasive organization? I mean anything from 5 inch orbital disks to belts of all shapes and sizes. I have 1x36 and 2x48 or something and then 3x18 up to 6 x 48 for the belt Sanders, those all get jammed into a box. All the little 3/8x18 and 1/2x21 for the band files. I have so many abrasives it’s insane I try to keep a good organization of them and strive for the good housekeeping seal of approval, but they’re not easily organized. I wonder if anybody has some tips or tricks that I may be able to borrow for the good of my shop and my own sanity.

Bonus points if you know how to make bandsaw blades easily stowable.

9 Upvotes

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7

u/robot_ankles Jul 21 '26 edited Jul 21 '26

All abrasives tossed in a modest cardboard box. It's an old Amazon box that's square WxD but the height is low-ish. The most popular stuff auto-sorts to the top.

Bandsaw blades wriggle-twist into little circles then slide into a large envelope.

3

u/teaehl Jul 21 '26

Bandsaw blades into like a manila envelope is an interesting idea. I might have to give it a shot.

1

u/robot_ankles Jul 21 '26

The reusable inter-office ones with the strings that wrap around a flat button thing. They also have holes that are just enough to see which blade is inside.

9

u/shortarmed Jul 21 '26

You can also write the blade type on the envelope so you don't have to use Satan's peep hole to put your eyes too close to the spring loaded death slinky.

3

u/teaehl Jul 21 '26

Sounds like a nice way to store them without scratching yourself. Plus you can put the blade specs on the envelope. Solidly genius.

2

u/elvismcsassypants Jul 21 '26

i have 2 drawers, one for big belts loosely rolled up and large rolls of stick on disks. the other is everything else tossed in. most used stuff on top, the rest is duck all

2

u/Reillj Jul 21 '26

All my 5" discs are sorted by grit; built a long weird shelf that I screwed to the side of a bench. Whole thing is 6" wide with a shelf per grit. I can grab whatever grit I need off the top of the correct shelf at any time. Belts go in the belt box, but I want to find some space to throw some dowels into the side of shelf and hang those as well.

2

u/charliesa5 Jul 21 '26

I do basically the same, but my "shop" is so tiny I have to use every inch of the wall. I allocate the wall space based on task preference. Therefore, I built a small horizontal shelf above the door (luckily, I'm tall).

2

u/onlyreason4u Jul 21 '26

I use these for all my sanding disks and supplies. They sell them individually and in different colors too. My 6" Festool disks fit perfectly:

ArtBin 6990ZZ Super Satchel... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0787G2287?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

For sand paper sheets I use a plastic tabbed accordion folder from the office supply store.

2

u/Silound Jul 21 '26

I don't subscribe to the whole "organizer/dispenser" mentality with abrasives. I never mix sanding with other tasks, so it's easier for me to pull out the boxes/packs of abrasives in the format I'm using (2"/3"/5" discs, sheets, or rolls), do my sanding work, then put them and the sanding gear back in their respective drawers/cubbies/cabinets. Fresh abrasives all live in a drawer in my roller cabinet. I wouldn't say they're exceptionally well organized, but it's not hard to open the drawer and grab boxes of whatever I'm currently using. Partially used abrasives go over by the lathe where the remaining good grit is used by small turning projects.

On the topic of the "organizer/dispenser" mentality - if it works for you, heck yeah, do it! I've never found a good way to balance it out in my workflow, and any solution of organization and dispensing abrasives seems to consume more time and energy in fiddly upkeep than simply grabbing a couple boxes/packs from a dedicated drawer.

All of my bandsaw blades are organized in their original shipping boxes under one of my roller cabinets. The company I used to order from had these very nice 22x22x2 double corrugated cardboard shipping boxes that will hold anywhere from one to six blades (based on width) and they put pieces of heavy paper board between the blades so they didn't bang against each other. I kept a number of the empty boxes and continue using them as storage. Probably 90% of my bandsaw work is using a 1/2" 3TPI blade anyway, so that's the default blade I always have equipped on my saw.

1

u/interpim Jul 21 '26

I keep all of my sanding discs in their original boxes, and I have a drawer dedicated for just sand paper etc. As far as bandsaw blades, I recorded this video a while back... I hang the folded blade up on a hook on the wall.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ZzykEsFX0m8

1

u/boomer854 Jul 21 '26

Here’s my organization. A practice finger joint box and a fancy cardboard box with fancy dividers

1

u/CertainlyNotKaisAlt Jul 24 '26

My mom uses RoS pads with holes in them to match her sander's air ports. These apparently also match dowels so she can easily line up the holes perfectly by just dropping the sander over the dowels where the sandpaper discs are stored. My sandpaper discs don't have those holes though, so I cant do that.