Label Sheet-Good Offcuts
Writing dimensions, thickness and material on plywood and melamine offcuts at the saw, so the storage rack can be read instead of unpacked.
Cut Sandpaper to Size With a Hacksaw-Blade Jig
Screw an old hacksaw blade to the edge of a board with a washer under each end — sheets feed under it, tear cleanly against the teeth, and a couple of marked lines turn every full sheet into perfect halves and quarters.
sandpaper dispenser, rip sandpaper into quarters, easy way to split sandpaper sheets
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.
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