U Can still call me carzy, but it works!! (Making of a drum sander part II)

[bmyers]

I've been working on my drum sander from Shopnotes. I have put some shop time into it and some figuring time, and some "adjusting" time. Now I'm sure it's time well spent. I've been able to run a board through just to make sure I got everything right.

Trued up the drum, finished the conveyor and height adjustments. Had to noodle with the drums pillow blocks to get things lined up the way I wanted it to be, but it works. It works really quite well actually.

It's hard to convey just how flat a board is with a picture. This one is pretty flat. It's within .005" on each side near the edge. You cannot feel the seams of the glue-up with your fingers, you have to look real hard to see them. I'm happy. Time to build a dust hood and button 'er up now that I know it's going to work correctly.

Gory Details: http://billswood.blogspot.com/

Bill

[Thom2]

lookin' good there carzy!!!!!!

keep us posted on the progress!!!!

[LCHIEN]

Bill that looks great.
Guess you didn't need the spring(s).
Loring
Special Consultant

[JimD]

Looks great. I have a spare 1 hp induction motor laying around..... How does the sandpaper stay on the drum? How wide is it?

Jim

[Wood_workur]

Nice. Maybe you could rig some kind of self-powered duse-extraction devise.

[bmyers]

Dust collection will be of the top of the plastic cover seen here (attached)


1 HP might be a little weak for wide panels. It really drags down the BT motor rated at 1.5 HP with a 10 inch wide board of pine.

This is an exact Shopnotes build so it's a 16 inch wide version. You could easily scale it up. You have to base it on the conveyor width so common ones are 16",22",25",etc unless you have one custom made.

If I did it over again, I may not make it wider, but I might add a second drum. That way you can have one course and one fine drum or even two course drums if you're in a hurry. It would take a much larger motor I suspect though. But hey, that'll be V 2.0..

The sandpaper stays on the drum via locking wedges that screw into the drum on either end. Pretty simple but works fine.

I'm on the home stretch with this one. It should end up in Finished Projects soon. No more wood to cut, just paint and hinges at this point.

Gory Details: http://BillsWood.blogspot.com


Bill

[jgrobler]

It looks neat. Really like your improved idea on the discs. I was also thinking to make a drum sander before my next major project.

[JimD]

Bill,

Thanks for the tips. Looks really nice. I used the 1 hp motor on my last table saw and it seemed to have about the same power as the BT3100. Hp ratings are really a bit silly. I know the 1 hp induction motor will flip a 15 amp breaker which is also the rated draw of the BT3100 which is another indicaiton they are similar in power. I thought it would be plenty but you correctly point out that adequate may be more like it - maybe not even adequate.

Thanks again.

Jim