Sandpaper Cutting Device

I used to try to fold sandpaper and then tear it along the folds. That doesn’t work real well, and it is difficult to get nice straight tears.

A long time ago I made a simple device which allows me to cut sandpaper sheets into halves or quarters. It is simply a few small pieces of wood or plywood that has a hinge on it. It also has a 14 tooth hacksaw blade mounted so that the paper will tear easily. See the picture below.

When the hinged piece is moved back so the table is flat, I can place the paper against the hinge pin and it will cut the paper in half across the short side, as shown below.

Shown below is a sheet cut in half, or rather, torn in half, if you prefer to put it that way.

Now I can fold the hinged piece back up so I can cut the halves the other way.

The small hinged piece is sized so that it will produce the correct size.  Now I have a sheet of sandpaper torn neatly into 4 equal pieces. See below.

This is the easiest way I have found to accomplish this little task.