Home built drum sander

[TonyinNYC]

Congrats on the sander!
If it is leaving ridges if you feed too slowly, you might want to take off less per pass through the machine. Just a thought, but it might help. On my last pass, and mind you I have a store bought machine, I will send the wood through two or three times to make sure the wood is no longer being sanded and I am at the thickness I want to be. I also spin the piece 180 so it is getting sanded evenly on both sides. Might be overkill, but it makes me feel better!

[Kyle Barbour]

thanks tony. Idid notice running it through a couple of times before changing the setting helped. I will make sure I spin it 180 also and see how that goes.
kyle

[Ray Ussery]

Can't wait to see the pics Kyle. Good for U!

Ken H. You may want to consider black ABS rather than PVC schedule 40. It has a much higher heat rating. I would keep my size down to 3" and have at least 4 Plywood OR? discs in the pipe to keep it straight and divide the load. One at either end of course to anchor the pipe to the shaft and two evenly spaced towards the center. Just an idea :)

Ray :)

[Ken Hundley]

Good thinking....I hadn't thought of abs. There's a chance I can get some pretty solid delrin too, not sure. I'll think about it. I am just wondering if my shaft is not thick enough, or may even be out of round. It is certainly not a Thompson Bearing Quality Shaft, but I would hope it is round enough.

[Kyle Barbour]

Ken I used a 1" precision grond shaft. I got a tip from somewhere that folks tend to use steel rod which isn't quite as straight as the other stuff. Steel rod will cause more vibration which tells me that something is out of balance or not true. With a 1" shaft and mdf disks for the drum mine runs fairly smooth. I trued up the drum off of the table using a peice of mdf covered with 80 grit paper. Doing that I'm within .005" on either side. If I flip the sides around this is usually worked out.I can live with that.

kyle

[MGB Guitars]

Just a few weeks ago I finished building a drum sander using a 3/4hp motor. It is constructed out of a 24inch by 3inch stainless steel roller that I picked up at a local scrap yard. It came complete with heavy duty bearings. The only thing I had to do was to take off the crown on the roller to make it perfectly flat.(rollers have crowns on them just like band saws, to keep the belt/blade centered) I use Velcro sandpaper and it works great!

In using it I find that the process of turning it 180deg is really helpful. Sometimes I turn it 90deg and sand it sideways to get rid of any ridges.

The machine even sands down bone and Corian saddles. Removing bandsaw marks on a saddle in one or two passes.

A neat trick I have is that I have several pieces of vinyl siding samples that I got from HD. These are used to push the wood top or saddle through the sander. They are thinner than anything I would have to sand yet strong enough to push the material through without bending. They are about the size of two and a half business cards. This vinyl card keeps my fingers out of the roller!

I also use a cheap plastic digital micrometer that can be bought for less than $10. I reads both in inches and mm and is very easy to use for referencing anything being sanded.

When I first designed the machine I was worried about the drum diameter, as most builders were using 5 or 6inch drums. My 3 inch drum works so well I'm sorry I worried about the size at all.

I'll try and get some pictures up for you. It is really a worthwhile effort with great, long lasting returns.

Good luck top building one!!

Michael Butler
Caledon, Ontario

[Dave Bagwill]

Very cool, Michael. Please do share with us, a lot of us are interested in that concept.

First post I've seen from you, Welcome to the Forum!