Thread: Making a home made spindle sander

Paul, while you wait for answers Google "home built spindle sander" and a lot of info comes up including several youtube videos.

Can I pull up a chair and watch to see this "play out". I have been mildly contemplating making one also. I have made a 600 mm wide drum sander

Hi Paul,
I look forward to what you come up with. Maybe a simple solution for the spindle part is to use the chuck on the old drill press and attach those drum sander units, like this?

Cheers,

You could run a secondary belt off the motor to a large pulley connected via a crank to the DP quill handle and turn it into an oscillating bobbin sander.

Hi again,

Thanks for the fast feedback. That link that Andy put up, is exactly what I have in mind. I actually have one of those smaller outfits which I attach to my drill, then of course you have to use it freehand. I'm looking for exactly one of those spindles but much larger, to fit the larger sleeves I see advertised, I think from about 110mm to 140mm in height/length.

Bob, I dont really follow about running a secondary belt. The motor I took from my old smallish drill press has 5 pulleys in one. It's a 1/3 HP motor and seems to still run pretty good after 16 years. I intend to somehow make it to run the shaft from the drill press which will now of course face upwards with the chuck still in tact, in order to hold the spindle (when I find one) on.

I'm away from home at present, down in sydney, heading back home tomorrow. Just about to start googling as BigShed suggested. I am thinking when I start all of this I better start taking some photos along the way.

Sure I seen bought ones in the high $200's, but I have a motor and pulleys going to waste that needs to be utilised.

Paul

Hi Pauls
I have made a bunch of spindle bobbin sanders that I use on my lathe.
DSCF4929.jpg
I turned the bobbin from timber then attach cloth backed sanndpaper in a spiral manner with masking tape.
DSCF4930.jpg
Made them for a particular item that I make lots of in various sizes and they do the job just fine.
I understand you want to use an old drill press and therefore you can probably only hold from one end.
Got an old shopsmith kicking around here that has got one of the types of bobbins you were describing.
DSCF4932.jpg
I have seen this sort of thing for sale recently(that are suited to drill presses), they are available with 3 or 4 different sized bobbins and the sanding collars are available separately (although they seem rather pricey). Reckon you'd find em at Hare and Forbes or some other specialised joinery shop.
Cheers

Originally Posted by Pauls321

I'm looking for exactly one of those spindles but much larger, to fit the larger sleeves I see advertised, I think from about 110mm to 140mm in height/length.

This them?

https://www.carbatec.com.au/sanding-...and-sets/drums

Also my version of a spindle sander,

https://www.woodworkforums.com/showth...93#post1247393

Some very ingenious ideas here fellows, giving me some great ideas.

Thanks again,

Paul

Originally Posted by Pauls321

Bob, I dont really follow about running a secondary belt. The motor I took from my old smallish drill press has 5 pulleys in one. It's a 1/3 HP motor and seems to still run pretty good after 16 years. I intend to somehow make it to run the shaft from the drill press which will now of course face upwards with the chuck still in tact, in order to hold the DP spindle (when I find one) on.

OK see if you can follow this diagram - I now realise that a belt and pulley alone is not going to do it as the rotary motion has to be turned through 90º to get it to line up with the DP spindle (green circle) lowering/raising mechanism.

The right angle turn could be done by something like a a power drill right angle drive as there is not a lot of load on it.

The secondary belt/shaft and right angle gear box will drive the Red wheel which connected to the DP spindle by two (blue line) crank/levers.
The blue lever from the red wheel is free to rotate at both ends whereas the blue lever connected the green wheel is firmly fixed point on the outer perimeter of the the green circle (think standard DP lever handle) and only free to rotate where it connects to the other blue lever.
As the later has a larger turning radius than the red wheel the green wheel will not turn 360º but just oscillate back and forth.
The extent of the oscillation can be varied by changing the lengths of the cranking arms.

Yes its a lot of work - I also have a complete DP top end that I could use and would do it for the challenge - but oh yes, no time !

Or this
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Spare-Rep...item5d420bc726

Will take some engineering though.

More thanks fellows, much appreciated. And Bob, wow, how did you ever design that. I'll have to try and get my head around all that, it does seem very complicated.

I'm back home now, arrived home from Sydney late this arvo. Will have to get my brain into gear over the next few days and make a start on this,

Thanks again,

Paul

Made a bit of a start today, to early for photos yet, but I am going to see how close I can build this to cost me zilch, nothing, just using bits and pieces I have laying around in my shed, plus of course the old motor and shaft from my old discarded drill press.

Not sure if I will worry about the oscillating,that seems rather complicated. I'll be happy just to get a few different size sanding spindles, for the small amount of internal concave sanding that I do.

Got a few things on in the next few days, bowls championships and tournaments etc but stay tuned..!!!

Paul

Just an update here, spent all morning working on this, very happy to where it is up to now. So far I am within my budget of zero, but I might have to buy another small piece of white laminated chipboard for the top, when next in Coffs at Bunnings, as I don't have any more laying around. And I want a nice looking top on it, after all the work so far. I scrounged around my shed and found everything I used up till now. So what I have done so far, is pull my old discarded drill press apart. I kept the motor with the 5 pulleys on it, plus I kept the chunky cast steel casing for the drill shaft etc. Had to scratch my head as to how I was going to fasten that piece to my box. I drilled into the sides of the cast steel and tapped a 1/4 inch thread into it. In 4 places. That allowed me to put a threaded rod through my 42x19 timber struts to then give me something to screw into, to suspend all of this. I fastened a piece of steel onto the motor, which was pretty simple to attach the motor then.

5 speeds, run really nice and smooth. Got the original drill chuck facing upwards. (that was why I scrapped this old 16yo cheapo drill press originally, the chuck kept falling off. didn't help I guess when I was using a router planing bit in that drill press to bore out cavities in guitar bodies, jumping all over the place).

Easy to change the speed just by laying the outfit on its side and changing the belt on the pulleys.

Now I need to make a few sanding bobin/spindles, got that idea in my head after doing some googling about.

Hope these pics are ok, they do make the side of the box look curved, but, it is very straight.


Paul