Anyone ever build a drum sander?

[chopnhack]

With the prices of everything getting absolutely ridiculous, has anyone on this site built a drum sander? I have seen some interesting plans and was wondering if any of us had first hand experience. Check out this site :
http://www.rockslide.org/drum%20sander.html
It looked very doable. Any thoughts?

[jgrobler]

Quick answer, NO, I haven't. Not yet, anyway. But I've been contemplating this very model among some others. You can found quite a variety of home-made drum sanders on the web. On this site, from Charger1966, http://www.bt3central.com/showthread.php?t=36870

[chopnhack]

Awesome, thanks for link, I did a search but didnt see this one on our own website. TY again.

[leehljp]

Thanks for the post. My mind is whirring. I like the links to the past threads that link to the auto feed sander.

[bmyers]

I did once... Once...

It was a ShopNotes project. It works great and runs off my BT were I have a speed controller on it. Here's the blog about it.



http://billswood.blogspot.com/2006/08/done-for-now.html



Bill

[chopnhack]

Me too Lee! I just couldnt fathom the high prices of some of these machines and I have a jointer but no way of creating a parallel opposite side so this would fill the need.

Bill, what did you use for your conveyor belt? It looks like a commercial sanding sheet for a drum sander.

[dbhost]

Daren from woodworkingtalk.com's wide drum sander build was something I had seen on this subject before. This buildup looks very doable, and effective... I bet dust collection from this is a nightmare though...

[bmyers]

Yes it's a belt for a much large drum sander. Works great. The Shopnotes article has all their hardware parts and suppliers in it. What you see in the pictures is the bone stock version as printed with no "improvements". Its really not expensive and less money than some "kits" I've seen around that include the drum and you do the rest.

If you have a band saw, it's real simple to make the drum.



Bill

[drumpriest]

There is usually a hood over top of the drum for dc, the dc on my performax is really quite good, so I'm sure something could be setup easily enough. My biggest concerns with Daren's designs would be...

1. Power feed, you really want/need it, I think. Sounds as though he's going for it.
2. Flex in the PVC sanding drum.
3. Even at the high prices of drum sanders, how many man-hours goes into making one of these?? If you are jazzed about making one, then I'd say it's worth it, if you are making one purely for the functionality, and would rather be making furniture, it's probably still worth the $$$ to buy over build.

chopnhack, you probably don't wanna use a drum sander as a planer. Drum sanders take VERY LITTLE off per pass, and it takes a long time to get a true parallel edge from a jointed board. Planers are also much cheaper than drum sanders. If you need a planer, I'd look at craigs list a bunch before buying a DS to work as a planer.

[TV]

I actually just finished putting mine together this morning...

Like many, it is based on the shopnotes plan, but with a bunch of modifications to use parts I could scrounge up (flange bearings, C Frame Motor, etc.) and to include it's own motor rather than mounting on the tablesaw. I also made it a little wider and the platten a little longer than the plan called out. I kept it small overall so it could be set up on a bench because I just don't have a lot of room in my shop. The pictures tell the story, let me know if you have any questions!

[L. D. Jeffries]

I havn't built a "drum" sander but did build a surface sander a couple of years ago. Got the parts from; "Stockroom Supply" an outfit in Canada. Including the motor I think the price was around $150 +- for an 18", not counting the wood for the box. Works really good! The name is the URL address. You might want to check it out. A ;ot cheaper than the "SandFlea".

[chopnhack]

Serious Keith? I thought they used the thickness sander for just that purpose. I guess then, with what your saying that it only takes off a smidge at a time? Is this then reserved for work that is already somewhat trued up? Or is it a misnomer and the d.s. is really only for sanding? I'm a little confused on your statement.
As for building one, its just a hair-brained scheme at the moment. I would love to, just for the shear enjoyment of making a w.w. tool. Since this is a hobby for me, man-hours making a tool vs man-hours making furniture are equal in my eyes. Besides, if you saw the furniture I've made, you would understand chop-n-hack
LOL

[drumpriest]

Yeah Chop, sorry, Jet and Performax really try to push it as a viable thicknesser, and you can get 36 grit paper for them, but that more gouges the wood than anything else. There was a bit of a discussion on this at the wood whisperer forum recently as well, and Marc over there seems to agree. I use mine primarily for thicknessing veneer, which is to say that with several passes through the sander I bring my band sawn 3/32" veneer down to 1/16". You certainly cannot take 1/16" off at a time with a drum sander, more like 1/64" at most depending upon the wood. The new oscillating 22-44 from Jet looks like it'd be better, more efficient sanding anyway, without the ridge lines you can get from the other models. I typically keep 80 grit on there, and then have to hand sand through all of the steps anyway when done to get rid of the sanding marks. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE this tool, but it's no planer. It serves a different purpose in the shop.

Now, as to making a tool, you've hit upon my very point, if you will really enjoy the making of the tool, that's awesome, if you doing it specifically to save money, I think you should consider the man hours vs value. It is the same with jigs, some guys here LOVE to make jigs. I love to make furniture projects, so my jigs are often 1 offs, or as simple as need be to get the job done. It's really just about what you do and how you enjoy it. For me, I wouldn't want to build a DS, but I will probably have a go at a japanese hand plane.

Back to the sander, they can true up a glue line, good at that, they true up band sawn stuff for me, like edge banding and veneer, they do a great job for end grain thicknessing, where a planer is somewhat scary. (cutting board, butcher's block). They won't chip out really curly materials. I use mine for all of these things, but I wouldn't want it to be my primary thicknesser. If you are looking to buy 4/4 rough stock, you need a planer. I typically do 2 passes through my DS at a given thickness, then lower it between 1/64-1/128, depending upon the wood, if it's burn prone, for instance.

Hope this helps, and certainly if there are differing opinions out there, let's hear them...

[chopnhack]

Cool, TY Keith, that does makes sense. I will have to decide when more space is cleared in the garage.

[bmyers]

It took me about 30-40 hours to build I'm guessing. Two weekends and a few week days. When I build things for other people I make a crib or a chair. I didn't want a crib or chair but wanted to build something for me. It ended up being this thing.

Are Performax or Jet type 22/44 sanders over priced? At $20/hr my sander would cost $800-$1000 with parts if I had to pay myself. But luckly I work pro-bono when it comes to wood.

It was interesting to build. Not complicated but challenging. It serves my shop well even years later. For the things I do, it's a must have. I make inlay stock and small boxes, oftens times using a micrometer to check my work.

I already had a jointer and a planer and used them for what they are good at. A thickness sander couldn't replace one of those tools, it's an excellent addition to them though.

Bill