Thread: Need ideas for a (very-) small-parts drum sander

Not sure, but maybe a vibratory tumbler? With the right media should clear up the burrs without damage.
If you have a lot of discards you could try it out to make sure they stay flat.



Russ

I'm not sure that would take the spatter off though.

Does this need to be belt fed or manually fed, something like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYVuI_TMKGw
recess the size of the components could sunk into the disc/table and then rotated under the drum, some extra safety my be appropriate

Absolutely not even considering something like that, sorry. It's fine for a guy in his shed, not a commercial workplace.

I need this to be as plug-and-play as possible; we don't have time to be building machines from scratch. I'm trying to take existing equipment and adapt it to the task.

What about a small Blanchard grinder with a magnetic rotary chuck, if the stone is too aggressive it could substituted for a abrasive disc or scotch brite disc

That'd work, but I suspect somewhat out of the budget :/

How about a cheap carbatec or similar drum sander drill small stopped holes in the belt and glue rare earth magnets in the holes to hold the discs, on the exit side install a blunt knife across the belt at the roller
to slip under the disk and allow it fall into suitable container

Hmm now we're getting somewhere. I'll keep that in mind

Could you use a pedestal drill, put an abrasive pad from an ROS in the chuck and invent a holder clamped to the table.

Could a quick sand blast do the job?

You need a NooB grinder with the optional sliding magnetic holder. https://www.artisansupplies.com.au/p...c=22783a5940ef

Use a fine belt. It's very accurate.

The other option is a surface grinder with magnific hold down. They easily give you the accuracy you need. One can be obtained that is desktop right up to Soviet era monsters. They are sold second hand all the time.

https://www.machineryhouse.com.au/Surface-Grinders

Even the nastiest el-cheapo off AliExpress would work fine for this job.

You could do 20 at a time with this. You can even get spare magnific plates (they use twist lock magnets) so one dude can load it up while the other runs it through a skim. You'd do thousands in a day.

Knife makers use this gear.

It'll make this job a piece of cake.

Why not just get the guys making the encoder disks just provide them smooth?

These cost what? Ten cents each?

Originally Posted by russ57

Not sure, but maybe a vibratory tumbler? With the right media should clear up the burrs without damage.

Originally Posted by elanjacobs

I'm not sure that would take the spatter off though.

just on using a rotary tumbler ... Lie Nielsen uses rotary tumbling to clean up the casting dags and polish the bronze components of their hand planes

Originally Posted by elanjacobs

I'm not sure that would take the spatter off though.

Depends what sort of abrasive is added to the tumbler and how long it is run for. When SWMBO uses her tumbler with a coarse abrasive and running for about half and hour it fair hacks into the glass pieces she works with. However I don't think this is a solution for you - its messy and takes time.

The surface grinders etc proposed are probably outside your budget?

My experiences are that anything that uses a flat belt is going to slightly round the edges no matter what you do.

I reckon China's idea is the one to start with. However, instead of using abrasive paper on the drums I'd be looking to use a scotchbrite type abrasive as it removes far less metal so young need need any sort of thickness control but it will still remove spatter and you might not need to polish them afterwards.

First thing I would try to see if this works is to hold the workpiece in a 50mm wide x 0.8mm recess in a piece of hardwood with a second hole in the middle for CHina's magnet holder and use a scotchbrite wheel on an angle grinder and see what it does - that way for just a few $ you will know if it works, how much metal is removed and how even the thickness is. If it works, then progress to a drum setup.