Home built drum sander

[Kyle Barbour]

I have gathered most of the costly parts to put a drum sander(woodgears plan) together for about 30 bucks (motor, pillow blocks, 30" shaft). Worked on the mdf cut outs that will make up the drum today. I started thinking about the motor rpms. Seems that drum sanders of this size run the drum at about 1500-1600 rpms. My motor runs at 3450 rpms. for you engineer minded individuals, does this sound like a good speed to be shooting for? The motor is 3/4 hp which may be a little undersized, but it was free so if the sander works well but needs a little more power I won't mind putting out the money for a decent motor.I will try to post pics as I go but I'm not shooting for pretty, just functional.

kyle

[Dave Bagwill]

I look forward to seeing it, and to your first attempt at using it. I may have to try to build one.

[Ray Ussery]

It would seem to me that you should consider reducing the finial drive speed of the sanding shaft with your pulley sizes to achieve a sander speed close to 50% of that of the motor speed or about 1750 RPMS. That will sharply increase the power of your 3/4 HP motor as well as bring the sander speed within the norm.
Here's a calculator and some information that will help.

http://www.csgnetwork.com/pulleybeltcalc.html

Quite interested in you project and the final results.
Good luck!

Ray:)

[Kyle Barbour]

Thanks I found the calculator earlier. Also got some input from another forum. Seems like a 6" pulley on the drum and 3" pulley on the motor will get me close.

[Ray Ussery]

Thanks I found the calculator earlier. Also got some input from another forum. Seems like a 6" pulley on the drum and 3" pulley on the motor will get me close.

yup, that's what I get too! Cool!

Ray :)

[Ken Hundley]

I built one too, and works ok....I'm having a hard time with a level roller. I have had it trued up on its shaft on a lathe (I used plywood) and it still isn't true....maybe the plywood is shrinking as it ages, and unevenly at that. See what I did at http://nocturnalguitars.com/Nocturnal-G ... Sander.php

One recommendation: I have been using the stickyback rolls of sandpaper....they are a real bear to change out. The adhesive really melts and sticks once the roller heats up. Go with the hook & Loop style.

A 3/4 horse won't be enough. I have a 1 horse, and will eventually put in a 1.5 or 2 horse when I can afford too. It bogs down, and I can only take off about .010" at a time if I am lucky. That's a lot of passes to reduce something from 1/4" to .090", especially when doing multiple pieces.

Not having a belt-fed table can be tricky. The key is slow and steady pressure, sometimes sending it through once, then turning it around and sending it through again. If it pauses, you will get a divot.

I may change the roller out for a PVC Pipe style roller and have that trued up on the lathe....I am thinking less rotational mass and higher stability might fix the issue. We'll see how it works out. Good luck!

I saw a version that a guy did where, instead of a single crank elevating a hanged table, he had the table connected to a threaded rod at each corner. Each rod was connected to a sprocket, and a bike chain under the table was connected to a crank. He turned the crank, and the entire table went up and down totally level. Was very cool....I'd love to try it that way sometime. Maybe when I can afford the 2 horse motor, I will just build another one.

[Kyle Barbour]

Lets try this post again. Don't know what happened with the first one. I finished the sander today! I will post some pics when I get access to the computer that has the pictures on it. I'm quite happy with its performance, mind you I have no experience with drum sanders. I ran a couple of peices through and it sanded in a fairly uniform thickness. If i lull for a moment it will leave a ridge so I have to be sure to feed it through at an even pace,not that difficult. It will keep me happy for the two guitars a year I build.

kyle