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Motivated by Arnt Rian's recent post, I've today finished knocking together a jig to thickness my heads and make a handstop/volute. This is mounted on my belt sander's end table. I will also use it for brace ends and bridge wings. Previously I just used a wooden block for these operations, but it was tricky and difficult to adjust.
It is adjustable for thickness of the head and alignment with the idler wheel of the sander by 2 screws through barrel bolts which bear on small nuts recessed and CA'd into the jig. These work against spring tension. I'll try some pictures.
Thanks for the push Arnt!

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Yes, I have something similar on my little Delta 6" x 36" sander. Based on the unit John Mayes used in his voicing videos. Works great!

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Hi Colin, that should work! I believe we have the same sander... One thing to though; the idler drum is crowned to ensure proper belt tracking, and on my sander this means it will not sand at a right angle to the table. If yours is the same way and your jig does not sand parallel with the drum, you could try shimming it from the table until it has the correct angle (but you may have already adjusted for this?).

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

Hi Arnt
Yes, idler adjustment affects the vertical alignment and will vary slightly from belt to belt, wear, maker etc, so I tried to allow for this.
If you look at the end view there is a screw vertical on the outer edge of the base, half way between the four springs, which tilts the whole upper part of the unit on hinges to align it with the idler "wheel".
I did have to shim up under the back of the jig "baseplace" due to the endplate not being horizontal front to back, but this should remain constant.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Ah, I see the hinge now! That should do it.

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin