I needed a disc sander to clean up some edges on several wood working projects I was working on.  I didn’t have a bunch of money to spend or more space in my shop for another tool so I decided to fabricate what I needed out of scraps for my Atlas 10″ lathe.  I started by using a backing plate for the lathe I had around.  I drilled several holes through on my drill press about halfway between the edge of the plate and the through hole.  These holes were later used to join the plate to a 9″ round 3/4″ MDF disc I cut out on my bandsaw.  Why 9″ around instead of 10″?  Because standard sandpaper sheets are 9″ wide and doing something larger would require cutting down a larger paper disc or would leave gaps at the edges.

The backing plate was affixed to the MDF disc with some 3/4″ Wood screws and mounted on the lathe.  I sprayed the back of a sheet of 100 grit paper with some 3M spray adhesive let it set and attached it to the cut MDF sanding disc.  A utility knife was used to trim the edges of the paper.  I now had a basic sanding disc but no table/rest.  I found some 6″ wide scrap wood in my scrap bin.  I cut some thin strips of scrap to fit the ways of the lathe glued and tacked it together.  Now in 45 minutes my Atlas lathe is now a decent disc sander.  I plan on adding some dust collection to it as well by blocking off the left opening and making a hole for my shop vac.