How to Build a Toothbrush Sander
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For my homemade sander, I bought an Oral B rechargeable toothbrush at Target for about twelve bucks, and a package of two additional heads for about five bucks. This is what the finished sander looks like, along with a set of replacement heads that I am going to use in this How-To.
You can use any kind of cheap electric toothbrush actually - you aren't limited to just Oral B! Just be sure that it is 1) inexpensive, and 2) rechargeable (batteries get expensive and defeat the whole purpose of point 1!)
To begin, take a pair of needlenose pliers and pull out all of the bristles on the toothbrush head. Note that the bristles are in clumps - slide your pliers in between a set of clumps, grasp firmly, and rotate the pliers around an axis perpendicular to the bristle stalk - don't pull or the nylon bristles will slide out and you'll say a bunch of dirty words!
For the pack rats among us (you know who you are!), you can save the bristle stalks for future use. When painted they could make clumps of grass for that badass diorama, or individually as eyelashes for your ultra-detailed figure kits!
The bristles are held in place with these little metal inserts, which are pushed down into the holes and can make the bristles very difficult to remove. The white ones come out fairly easily, the blue ones are moderately easy, and the turqoise ones are a b*tch! This will take a while, so don't get frustrated if it doesn't happen in five minutes. Note that you do NOT have to remove the inserts (unless you want to, of course!)
Cut out several discs of varying grits of sandpaper using a circle template sized to fit the round part of the toothbrush head. Since I use different grits, I label the discs so that I know what I'm using.
Stick one of the discs to a piece of foam tape (I use 3M foam tape for everything, including sticking parts to skewers and chopsticks for painting!) and cut around the circumference of the disc.
Peel the other side of the foam tape, apply to the toothbrush head, and voila! An instant, cheap, rechargeable sander!
The nice thing about this sander (as opposed to a Dremel, for example) is the low torque and vibration. In addition, the foam tape allows a LOT of flexibility and give when working complex surfaces. (Note the inverse seam along her leg in this shot. This required a lot of careful - and judicious - sanding so as not to ruin the contour of the shapely leg!)
