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I have decided I need a thickness sander. I have been thinking about building the one that is featured in ShopNotes #86. When the article came out I know server people were building them, but never really heard of any long term satisfaction stories. There were some threads on MIMF back in the day, but it looks like those are in line waiting to make it to the Library. I do get that by the time I am done I can probably find a used one, but for one reason or another I think that I’m more likely to actually end up with a sander if I start making on myself.

My plan is to make it wider than the one in the article. I have the pieces for a drum that Jim Womack cut up when he was working on making one. He stopped when he picked up a used sander. The parts I have allow me to make a drum that is 25” wide. I also plan to make it free standing using a dedicated motor rather than running off of the table saw motor. I’ll probably add a power feed to the table in the future once I get it going.

I have a couple of questions before I jump into this one. The plans are available from plans now. I don’t have the original article or the plans. When you buy plans from plans now, do you also need the article or is it basically just a reprint of the article?
http://www.shopnotes.com/plans/thickness-sander/

For those who have built one, or started to build one, are there things you have gained from your experience that I should consider while working on this?

Thanks for the tips,
John

John,

I built one of these a while back. I guess I have mixed feelings about how it came out. Knowing what I know now, I would try to find a used thickness sander on Craigslist or the like. The design is pretty sound but you have to really pay attention to the details to get it to be accurate enough to work correctly. The caveat to all this is that at the time that I built this my woodworking skills were still pretty weak which didn't help. If you do decide to build it spend a lot of time going through the design before you do anything. Understand how it all works before you get going so you understand what has to be done precisely and what doesn't. Here are some comments on my experience:

1. The table design is pretty finicky. The rollers they use are shop built out of PVC and the tracking system for the belt is somewhat of a bear to get to work right. You really have to get the rollers true (or better yet, find a production roller that you can use like an old conveyor roller or something), and everything has to be square to make the tracking work. I never did get it to work right (the belt would eventually loose tracking and bind) and trashed it and went to a flat table with no belt feed on a piano hinge design (pretty common on most of the other shop built sanders).

2. The table height adjustment allows for sanding a large range of thicknesses. If you are building this primarily for guitar building I would set it up for the thicknesses that you will be doing. You can reduce the height of the overall design making it much more rigid. Again, by allowing all that adjustment, you have to get all those holes aligned just right to keep the table and the drum parallel to each other. There is no means of easily adjusting the parallelism of the table to the drum. Again, I ended up trashing the adjustable table height and going with the table fixed on one end with a piano hinge and a simple threaded adjustment on the other end. This limits the thickness of material I can process to about 3/4" max. but I use mine primarily for top, back and side thicknessing so its not an issue for me.

3. While using power take off from the table saw works fine, I have a router table on my table saw which makes using the sander somewhat awkward as I have to reach over the table to feed the stock. Just something to think about.

So, for myself, between the time spent getting the materials, building it, tearing it apart and rebuilding it, if I had to do it again, I would buy a commercially built one.

YMMV but I hope this provides some insights based on my experience.

Ron

Thanks Ron that is exactly what I am looking for.

I can see where the adjustment of the table would have to be exact for each of the levels it allows you to set for thickness. It looks like you true up the drum on one setting, and then if you move to the others you will have to live with whatever error you have between the new setting and the one you trued the drum at. So you have multiple parts with this design to worry about having everything square. I have been toying with the idea of modifying the plan to use the Ted Davis screw adjustment for the height, but still, I tend to over complicate things.

It sounds like you have modified yours to eliminate the belt feed system and fixed the table height so it only uses the fine adjustment. You can sand between 0 and ¾”. This sort of puts the sander on par with a lot of the home built sanders I have seen. The features that make the shop notes plan attractive ended up being too problematic for success and you went ahead and scaled it back to suit your basic guitar building needs.

Do you think that if you had just started with what you have now, that you would be happier with the sander?

John

I ran across this article a while back by Edwin Hackleman
http://woodworkstuff.net/EDTSander.html
in which he documents building his, including at least 10 improvements he made. May be of interest.

_________________
Dave
Milton, ON

I built one of them. And love it!!! I highly recommend giving it a try.
Here are some shots of making it and what it looks like now. Sorry for all the pictures...









It's made of cherry scraps, a 1/4hp motor, 3/4 rod, laminated MDF table with formica top, cheap pillow blocks, misc switches/outlets, and some misc hardware for the adjuster. I can't seem to find the design I based it on but I did made it wider and setup up an extra outlet that powers on with the sander so I don't have to turn the shop vac on too.

Hit me up with any specific questions. Go for it!

_Mike

_________________
_Mike Tracz
MCT Guitars
https://www.instagram.com/mustcreatethings/
https://www.youtube.com/mustcreatethings

John,

I guess if I were to put some more time into it (which I may at some point) I would likely end up with something very similar to what Mike posted pictures of above. A sturdy base, non-belt feed table, dedicated motor and threaded height adjustment. That's pretty nice Mike!

Ron

Mike, if you ever find the plans, let me know where they can be found. That setup looks perfect and is probably just as nice as an $600 grizzly (minus the feed).

Steve

Thanks for the kind words. I've never used another sander but it is very accurate and easy enough to use. If I were to do it again and had more room I would build it tall so I could stand and use it. But it tucks away nice as it is, maybe I'll make a stand for it someday...

Here are the plans I modified. It takes a bit to download, print it out so you don't have to ever wait again... ha.
http://www.rockslide.org/Images/drum_sander.pdf

And the site of a very generous woodworker that documented their build of the their interpretation.
http://www.rockslide.org/drum%20sander.html

Good Luck!

_Mike

_________________
_Mike Tracz
MCT Guitars
https://www.instagram.com/mustcreatethings/
https://www.youtube.com/mustcreatethings

Mike,

Thanks for the pics of your sander and the link to those instructions. I may try following this approach. The ShopNotes sander looks like it has everything you would want, but adds to the complexity of the home made machine. This one looks so simple.

I have a few questions:

How wide is your drum? If you made it wider that the 12 inches in the pan, did you do anything differently to accommodate the extra for the drum?
How are you attaching your paper to the drum?
Did you use epoxy to glue the blanks together for the drum?
For the frame assembly it looks like you doubled up ¾” thick boars. This looks like an easy way to approach the lap joints. Did you only use glue and wooden dowels to secure it as the plan suggests, or did you use screws?

John

John,

The drum is about 21" wide and the table is about 20" wide. I didn't do anything special but if I were to do it again I wouldn't use the particle board it cracked and I had to use some epoxy and clamp it back together. I may make a new drum at some point. I staple and tape the ends of the paper, and it seems to work just fine. It seem a little loose but it will be and doesn't effect performance. Yes I double up a bunch of 3/4 scrap to make most of the joints some were cut on the table saw. I put it all together with glue and screws and once dry I removed all the screws, countersunk the holes, and plugged with dowels. I didn't like the look of screws but they are easier than a bunch of clamps.

Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any other questions along the way.

_Mike

_________________
_Mike Tracz
MCT Guitars
https://www.instagram.com/mustcreatethings/
https://www.youtube.com/mustcreatethings

I mounted mine on an old barbecue stand. Its movable and around working height.

I used 6" dia. PVC sewer pipe for a drum with five disks of 3/4 partical board to connect the pipe to the 5/8"dia shaft.
I have found that a third horse motor is marginal power for guitar plates. I am considering one horse for my next one which will be in the 24" to 30" width.

I hope to start the new sander in March.

Bob

First of all, THANKS for all the pics!!! Nice looking machine.
Does the table actually travel? Sorry if this is a dumb question and if so do you fasten the workpiece to the table? (ya know, like with double sided tape)
thanks
pvg

that gets the creative juices going but there are a few things I don't quite understand about it either. That adjustable table looks like a great idea, but how do you feed the board through? Is it enough to just push it? The Performax and others all have those conveyer belt like set ups that appear to be necessary. Maybe I missed something.

_________________
"Preoccupation with an effect gives it power and enhances the error"
from "Your Owner's Manual" by Burt Hotchkiss.

A very worthwhile investment for the home-built drum sander is a thick-walled aluminum tube for the drum. I purchased a 4 inch diameter, .250 wall 6061 T6 ( hardened) by 24 inch piece-ebay. I cannot recall the cost but it was not frightening. I then used three 3/4" thick BB plywood discs at each end for the axle bolsters inside the tube. The tube is very true and it dissipates heat better than solid wood. Threaded rod adjuster, manual feed.

What I now actually use is a Jet 10-20+ that I got at a promotional price during the Jet/Performax transition.