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+-- Thread: Homemade Drum Sander? (/showthread.php?tid=7346446)
Homemade Drum Sander? - MarkSLSmith - 02-14-2019
Has anyone tried to make a drum sander attachment for their lathe? For examples, search youtube for "lathe drum sander" and you'll see what I mean.
Obviously, I'm thinking about trying it and am looking for tips and advice. I'd like to use it with home-made veneers.
Mark
RE: Homemade Drum Sander? - SceneryMaker - 02-14-2019
I did this on my 1953 ShopSmith 10ER. My first drum was a piece of 3" PVC pipe that did not work well. When cold, the drum was concentric and smooth but if one spot got a bit warm, it would expand, making it stick up, making it sand harder, making it get warmer, making it stick up more...………. What ran smoothly when cold could be 1/8" out of true in a few minutes. Replacing the PVC tube with a piece of 3" OD steel hydraulic cylinder tubing fixed that problem. I made a plug for one end of the cylinder with a center point for my live center and I grabbed the ID of the drive end with a scroll check and the right sized jaws.
I made the table top from MDF and the frame that clamped to the bed from 2x4s. I raised and lowered the table with the screw that ShopSmith used to raise and lower its table. That part worked well.
In the beginning, I just pushed my glued up segmented rings under the drum by hand but had a hard time keeping a constant speed and therefore had an easy time sanding divots in the rings. I found a good deal on a surplus conveyer for a real drum sander, making flat rings a much easier task.
All told, I probably would have been better off just buying a commercial sander as all of them will be much more rigid and smooth than my 65 year old ShopSmith with a home brew table. Will I scrap what I have and buy a good sander? Probably not.
RE: Homemade Drum Sander? - jteneyck - 02-15-2019
(02-14-2019, 04:47 PM)MarkSLSmith Wrote: Has anyone tried to make a drum sander attachment for their lathe? For examples, search youtube for "lathe drum sander" and you'll see what I mean.
Obviously, I'm thinking about trying it and am looking for tips and advice. I'd like to use it with home-made veneers.
Mark
You can buy a used 16 or 18" open ended sander for around $500. How much will you save making one that works as well?
John
RE: Homemade Drum Sander? - MarkSLSmith - 02-15-2019
(02-15-2019, 10:46 AM)jteneyck Wrote: You can buy a used 16 or 18" open ended sander for around $500. How much will you save making one that works as well?
John
I upgraded to a nice lathe a couple of years ago. I still have my old Delta 1460, which is not being used much.
I think I literally have enough scrap/extra stuff to make this without spending a dime. Including some roles of sandpaper in the bottom drawer.
So this is an upcycling project using completely surplus stuff. The own thing of value is my time, which I don't want to waste if the concept here is completely bogus. And believe me, this wouldn't be the first time I got sucked into some published great idea that turned out to be fictitious.
I was going to make the drum from wood. Hydraulic cylinder tube is a great idea, though, perhaps I'll see if I can find some.
Mark
RE: Homemade Drum Sander? - Peter Tremblay - 02-15-2019
(02-15-2019, 01:25 PM)MarkSLSmith Wrote: I upgraded to a nice lathe a couple of years ago. I still have my old Delta 1460, which is not being used much.
I think I literally have enough scrap/extra stuff to make this without spending a dime. Including some roles of sandpaper in the bottom drawer.
So this is an upcycling project using completely surplus stuff. The own thing of value is my time, which I don't want to waste if the concept here is completely bogus. And believe me, this wouldn't be the first time I got sucked into some published great idea that turned out to be fictitious.
I was going to make the drum from wood. Hydraulic cylinder tube is a great idea, though, perhaps I'll see if I can find some.
Mark
Whatever you come up with, Mark, keep us informed.
I'm really interested in this project. I've wanted a drum sander for rough flattening of panels after glue up and this is a great idea.
Being able to afford the sander as well as the floor space is tough for me so this is an idea that I am very interested in.
I think my lathe would work for this.
Thanks,
RE: Homemade Drum Sander? - jteneyck - 02-15-2019
(02-15-2019, 01:25 PM)MarkSLSmith Wrote: I upgraded to a nice lathe a couple of years ago. I still have my old Delta 1460, which is not being used much.
I think I literally have enough scrap/extra stuff to make this without spending a dime. Including some roles of sandpaper in the bottom drawer.
So this is an upcycling project using completely surplus stuff. The own thing of value is my time, which I don't want to waste if the concept here is completely bogus. And believe me, this wouldn't be the first time I got sucked into some published great idea that turned out to be fictitious.
I was going to make the drum from wood. Hydraulic cylinder tube is a great idea, though, perhaps I'll see if I can find some.
Mark
Your biggest challenge is going to be figuring out how to feed the work at a constant pace past the drum. SceneryMaker talked about this issue and ended up buying a used drum sander conveyer. Trying to feed the work by hand is just about impossible, especially if the piece is short or it's veneer like I sand the most of.
You also have to figure out how to incorporate hold downs on both the infeed and outfeed sides of the drum, as close as possible to the drum, to prevent snipe. Look at commercial sanders. This is not a trivial undertaking.
John
RE: Homemade Drum Sander? - castguy2003 - 02-15-2019
(02-14-2019, 04:47 PM)MarkSLSmith Wrote: Has anyone tried to make a drum sander attachment for their lathe? For examples, search youtube for "lathe drum sander" and you'll see what I mean.
Obviously, I'm thinking about trying it and am looking for tips and advice. I'd like to use it with home-made veneers.
Mark
I once though of making a small one from a scrapped out lunch box planer. Never did it though. I still think it would work.
RE: Homemade Drum Sander? - EricU - 02-15-2019
(02-15-2019, 02:34 PM)jteneyck Wrote: Your biggest challenge is going to be figuring out how to feed the work at a constant pace past the drum. SceneryMaker talked about this issue and ended up buying a used drum sander conveyer. Trying to feed the work by hand is just about impossible, especially if the piece is short or it's veneer like I sand the most of.back 20 years ago, most luthiers that made acoustic guitars also made their own sander since there were so few available for reasonable prices. A lot of those were hand fed. I have most of what I need to make a wide belt sander, but i'm torn between my philosophy of never building if I can buy and not really wanting to spend that much money.
RE: Homemade Drum Sander? - ®smpr_fi_mac® - 02-15-2019
I have, some where, an older Wood Smith that has a DIY drum sander plan in it, but it's powered by the table saw arbor. It shows how to build a hand-cranked conveyor. I'll try to find it and post it up.
RE: Homemade Drum Sander? - jasfrank - 02-15-2019
Somewhere I had seen where someone made a table for above a drum sander roll, with a slot. Hand feeding would be pretty easy with that sort of configuration.