Thickness Sander Ideas

[DarrylF]

Got the jig making bug lately, and I've been thinking of a thickness sander.

I've been thinking down a slightly different track to most of the home made jobs I've seen. The idea is to build something specifically for smaller boards, using a belt rather than a drum wrapped in paper. 6" belts are not difficult or expensive to get, and I figure they clog much less readily and last longer than paper on a drum.

I figure 6" wide is going to do most work, and open-ended will handle up to 12". Should make for a pretty compact machine too - and perhaps would even remain useful if I bought a larger thickness sander later.

So what does everyone think of the idea?

I could buy a 6" linisher to use as the basis for the machine - perhaps cheaper than buying the bits. The thought against that would be that the rollers and likely to be crowned slightly to help with tracking - and one roller dead straight is kind of a prerequisite for this idea :) The belt change mechanism from a commercial sander would probably be handy though.

So, what would be the perfect roller? Rubber coated? Timber?

Perfect feed belt material? Reinforced neoprene maybe? How do you join that stuff?

Any other ideas guys?

[ozwinner]

Why not get a cheap commercial belt sander, and put a dru/roller on it to determine the thickness.

Put the roller over the belt, and adjust it to the required thickness some how.

Al :cool:

[junkboy999]

Hello
I have made 2 drum sanders in the past both for smaller boards ( 1" - 10" ), and just used the Drum meathed. I tryed to mount my hand powered belt snader, and raise and lower a platform under it for a thickness sander. I shot the first peice of wood across the shop. I had fun shoting a few more pieces at the wall befor I took the jig apart. This type of sander would of work if I had a way to hold the wood tight on Infeed/outfeed, maybe two rubber rollers like an old ringer washing machine.

There is realy a lot of aera of a belt sander touching the wood at one time. a lot more then what a drum would be 3x as wide. More heat and more hold down force need to hold wood.

Hand belt sander are tuff but most ( cheap ones ) have bushing and not bearings. If you need a sander that can sand at least 9" and the paper is easy to get Try one like this i made for 40$ and it uses a single sheat of sand parer. The crappy wooden stand and motor I use for two other jigs, the sander part just hanges on the wall when not in use


http://members.cox.net/yoterry/pics/IMG_1005.jpg

I can post more pic as soon as i figure out how to do the thumnails and post a few at a time. I aslo started a new sander what will do 33" and uses a power feed table on it. I will be making a new thread just for that one.
Let me know if you need a break down of how this little one is built and I can post a drawing and steps of what I did.

[DarrylF]

I'm thinking more of using a linisher than a handheld belt sander. One roller would be in contact with the board being sanded, the other clear of the board (either above the main roller or offset).

I've been thinking the feed mechanism could be the interesting bit. I saw one homemade job that used a wide custom-made sanding belt as a feed belt - which looks interesting. The other option is feed rollers either side of the belt - but either option means the drive motor needs reducing in speed and preferably some method of varying speed, which is where it gets a little interesting.

[echnidna]

The belt feeder will give less hassles than rollers.
If you use a universal motor for the feeder its relatively simple to vary the speed. You could consider a variable speed drill as the feeder motor.

[junkboy999]

DarryIf
I was not sure what a Linisher sander looked like, so I looked it up. I prety sure you'll find that the Drums on both ends have a slight dump in the middle. I have two rollers off a broken Delta/Rockler and two new rollers off a smaller one I ordered off the Net. This is the Delta and the New one. The new one is going to be a home made sander Like the Linisher just got metal and bress.


http://www.members.cox.net/yoterry/pics/SN001.JPG

http://www.members.cox.net/yoterry/pics/SN005.JPG


All Belts type of sanders that I have worked with require a raised rollers. I was hoping that a biger belt would not require roller like this for tracking , I'm having problems making this monster track even at slow ( 11RPM ) speeds.. I'm using PVC and ruber raped around it. Next one is going to be turned wood rollers with a bump in the middle. :)

http://www.members.cox.net/yoterry/pics/SN004.JPG


Once I get this monster tracking right, I gonna make a stand for it. It will pivet on one end and the other will raise and lower for adjustment.

[Zed]

how about buying a whole bunch of 3 or 4 inch GMC belt sanders for $39 and setting them up on a jig from a common mains board ? it wouldnt be too hard to build a metal frame that would hold all the sanders at the same height.. especially since the sanders are all identical and would use the same mounting mechanism ; and if you need to go wider buy another sander!

it would be a noisy bastard though.... :)