Cut Sandpaper to Size With a Hacksaw-Blade Jig
The Problem
Every sanding session starts with mangling a full sheet of sandpaper — folding and creasing it, sawing at it with scissors that instantly dull, or tearing it freehand into ragged pieces that don't fit the quarter-sheet sander. It's a small annoyance that repeats hundreds of times over a shop's life.
The Technique
An old hacksaw blade becomes a permanent tear-off station.
- Screw a hacksaw blade flat along the edge of a board or bench, teeth facing out, with a washer under the screw at each end — the washers lift the blade just enough that a sheet of sandpaper slides underneath it freely.
- Mark reference lines on the board at the sizes you use: the halfway mark for a half sheet, again for the quarter-sheet sander size, and one size smaller for hand-sanding pieces.
- To cut: slide the sheet under the blade up to your line, hold the blade side down, and tear up against the teeth. The serrations give a clean, straight tear every time.
- Rotate the piece and repeat to break a sheet down to whatever the job needs.
What You'll Need
A worn-out hacksaw blade, two screws, two washers, and a scrap board — the whole jig is shop-drawer leftovers.
Pro tip: Batch it: tear a whole sleeve's worth of sheets down to your standard sizes in a couple of minutes and keep the stack by the sander. Half the friction of sanding is stopping mid-job to fight a fresh sheet.