Hey All,
I’m looking at the potential to use a sanding attachment on my shapeoko 5 Pro 4x4 with water cooled 80mm water spindle. My process requires sanding which I have various other methods I can use but I’m wondering how I can try to remove the manual aspect to it where possible.
The main one that I can see online is this one linked below:
@Tod1d given your experience with CNC sanding, I’d be interested in your thoughts on that monster of a sanding attachment 
Lol it doesn’t need to be this specific one if people got better alternatives. It’s just so we have a product to centre around so you know what I’m talking about 
There is also:
The reference being made is to:
Very cool… I like the idea of sanding using my machine but since I’m in the garage doing my projects it would be hard to keep the dust from covering everything. If I have a lot of sanding to do I usually step out the back door of the garage and do it outside. That’s a problem in the winter here in southern ontario since the weather can be all over the map. I use my leaf blower at the end of the day to blow out the garage and it’s amazing just how much dust I blow out the garage door even after running my shopvac over my workbench and floor…
I do kind of wonder if there’s an opportunity for better fine dust control specifically for sanding on the CNC.
A dust boot like the sweepy is great and all but the fine dust definitely gets through the bristles.
Given that CNC sanding is probably flat surfaces, the design constraints are actually pretty loose compared to what the sweepy has to deal with.
Imagine a vacuum boot that has something like a sponge material around the edge that can compress and stay in contact with the workpiece, creating a fully enclosed sanding boot 
One could even do something like a drip feed of non-flammable liquid on the sponge to keep it moist, pop the grain, and further reduce airborne dust.
2026 might see me making a tiny version to test on the nomad 
Ooof I imagine it’s also super dry in the Ontario winter. Maybe avoiding static electricity and fine dust inside a shop is just generally a good idea in that case 
The issue there is not enough flow from your dust collector. If your brush strip does not have any big gaps in it, and you’re still getting dust escaping, that is because your dust collector is not moving enough air through your dust shoe. This could be due to an underpowered DC motor or really long hose run. The spiral hose is really bad about reducing flow due to increasing the static pressure (resistance) through it.
Ultra fine particles being pushed out, or escaping from the bristles typically means that your air-cooled spindle or router is pushing more air into your dust shoe than what your dust collector can remove.
I designed and printed a 4" dust shoe to replace my 2-1/2" dust shoe to cut down on dust escaping.
Yeah it can be but we get wide temperature swings so the humidity can be all over the place too. Last week it was -16C and snowing but yesterday was +9C and a lot of rain. Today we are hovering around 0C with a mix of rain, freezing rain and snow… brutal 
And after watching the video I completely forgot about the sweepy since the sanding attachment shown was much bigger than what a sweepy would cover. 
Guys, guys - we’re getting distracted here LMAO.
Advice of on the CNC Sander attachment and anyones experience with them they wanna share?
Doesn’t look balanced to me. I would be pretty nervous trying to spin that thing 8000 RPMs.
Might shake the machine off the table, if not worse.
I have 2 of the 2" sanding discs left up for grabs, just cover shipping.
That example looks really sketchy to me on the cnc…. I have a plethora of sanding implements for sanding, I just don’t see me using the cnc for that. If I can put it thru my drum sander, in it goes!
In the video they said it’s balanced from factory, no adjustment necessary…now, how long will it stay balanced without adjustment…well that’s another question
Just keep in mind that the minimum RPM of the VFD spindle is the maximum RPM of the sander attachment. If there’s too much friction and you heating up the pad, you’ve got no options other than taking a lighter pass and going faster to make sure you don’t linger too long in a spot. This is right at the edge of what’s safe and sane for this particular combination.
Yeah, I understand where you are coming from.
By the way, the linked is a RANDOM orbit which is why it’s got that big block half way down the shaft and it talks about being balanced at the factory.
However, the things I’m trying to sand are 100x100mm and there are many of them. I’ve got a new random orbit 6inch sanding setup as my go-to, and a drum sander to test a jig idea for it as a half way automated idea between manual sanding and the CNC sanding;
but I wanted to see what ya’ll thought of this CNC sander attachment considering, in theory, something like this would work well for these small items as I have a CNC surfacing jig for them already to clamp each individually and flatten them before I sand, and something like this would reduce my workload by simply switching out the attachment to then sand them.
Questions:
I’ve wondered about using this Arbortech RO sanding attachment made for an angle grinder. It’s good to 12K rpm. I have one already for sanding turned bowls, so that makes it an attractive option for me.
I’ve been thinking about an application where I’d want to sand inside a recess, so a small diameter sanding disk might be appropriate.
