Official Luthiers Forum!

As I said, I have finally finished my drum sander. Believe it or not, it actually works! As you can see if you follow the links, I took advantage of my (circa 1958!) Shopsmith. I can remember when this was delivered! I was 3!

While my dad is gone, the 'Smith remains. Comments or questions are welcome.   

http://members.buckeye-express.com/sfbrown/Thickness Sander -Underside-resized.jpg

http://members.buckeye-express.com/sfbrown/thickness sander 3-05 - vacuum system.jpg


http://members.buckeye-express.com/sfbrown/Thickness Sander 3-05 -papertiedown-motor end.jpg

http://members.buckeye-express.com/sfbrown/Thickness Sander 3-05 021.jpg

http://members.buckeye-express.com/sfbrown/thickness sander 3-05-covered drum.jpg

Regards To All,

Steve Brown

Looks great Steve. Have you given it a good tryout? Just curious if the shop vacuum is enough to keep up with the sander. Be sure and wear a mask anyway.      

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Don Atwood
Arlington, VA

I have asthma. Yes, I do wear a mask. The shop vac is their largest and pulls as much as a small 2 bag system. I was very surprised. It's also very quiet (a nice surprise, indeed!).

In my small shop, I really don't have the room for a dedicated dust system which is why I settled on this. From what I can tell, it picks up about 90-95% of the dust but more importantly, it allows almost zero into the air, just some on the wood itself. I can live with this until I can either convince my wife to buy a larger basement (unlikely ) or I get a divorce (almost equally unlikely! ).

Thanks for looking,

Steve Brown

I'd like to see more details. I don't know if it's cause I'm not wearing my glasses, but I didn't see how you were adjusting it or driving it. Could I use my lathe to do this?

Apparently there is some way to make your links live, but I didn't see it on my profile.

Steve,

Looks good! With your manual feed, be sure that you keep a firm grip on your wood lest it become a projectile. Don't ask me how I know this     I now use a couple of thin push sticks to push it clear of the drum when sanding.

BruceH

Now that I stared at it longer, it looks like I could use my lathe like that. I assume you have hinges on the back? What did you use for the drive? You just shove the wood through there?

In the one pic of the underside, you can see a hand crank. This controls the depth of cut.

What I found is that since the wood attmpts to push back into my hand, there is very little chance of it getting away from me. I will, however take the suggestion to make push sticks to avoid having to reach over and pull.

As for using a lathe, I have heard of people doing this and I almost built the sander to fit on my lathe. The deciding factor though is that I couldn't be sure that the drum would stay centered on the face plate or whatever method of attachment I used. I've done a lot of wood turning and use a rather expensive chuck and it STILL gives me fits when having to reattach a piece. Personally, for the sake of greater precision, I would avoid using a lathe unless you can do what I did and not rely on the chuck as one of your bearings. If you can have the chuck drive an independant unit (similar to what I did), then I would say, "Go for it."

Thanks again for the critiques, Steve Brown

PS although noone has asked, the "dust hood" is an inverted 24" long window sill flower pot available at Best Buy.

Steve to make a link live click on the little globe button (fourth from left) enter a name for the link, click OK, then enter the link address in the next box. Hey presto, hot link!

Colin

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

Thanks for showing us this. I've seen a setup like this in one of the GAL books, but hadn't thought of it recently. I just bought a batch of woodworking equipment including a lathe -- package deal. If I use it for this, it might not just sit in the corner.

I'm thinking of doing what you did with pillow blocks and using the lathe motor through some kind of linkage. Is that white thing that you're using to drive the drum is shopsmith specific?

[QUOTE=EricKeller]
I'm thinking of doing what you did with pillow blocks and using the lathe motor through some kind of linkage. Is that white thing that you're using to drive the drum is shopsmith specific? [/QUOTE]

Hi, Yes, the white linkage thing is made by Shopsmith. It is their equivalent of a spacer coupling. It allows for increased distance between the driver and the driven. Using some inexpensive Lovejoy (3-jaw) couplings, you can fashion your own. Buy 2 complete couplings making sure that 2 of the halves have appropriate bores for the motor and the drum shaft. The other two halves can be something convenient to match a short piece of shafting (ie 5/8" or so). Put a coupling half on each end of the jackshaft. Attach the other coupling halves. Insert the spiders and bring the unit close enough to "trap" the jackshaft. Tie down the drum sander so it cannot move and PUT a GUARD OVER THE COUPLING. This will accomplish the same thing.    

Regards, Steve Brown