Drum Sander

[Babylon5]

After reading about a couple of other forum members success with building their own drum sander, I decided to try my hand at building one also.

I thank steve b for the idea about using a Kart axle for the shaft. Picked up a cheap secondhand axle from a local Go-Kart spare parts store.

Creating the drum was based on Sturdee's chipboard discs methods. Using Liquid Nails to join the discs together and also to secure against the shaft. Actual width of Sanding drum is 50cm.

Picked up a scrap bit of kitchen laminate bench to use as the flat surface. I used a Tail Vice Screw bought from Carbatec to adjust the height. It can't be clearly seen in the photos but a U Bolt tightened around the threaded shaft of the vice acts to stop any vibration movement.

The motor is around 2.5 HP and was rated at 2800rpm. Ended up using a 75mm pulley on the motor shaft and a 150mm pulley on the drum shaft to reduce the speed. Did have a 1:1 ratio but that was just spinning at such a high speed the whole frame started to vibrate and move along the ground.

The clear plastic cover is wedged into place and held by the pressure of the flex in the plastic. I will be getting a DOL electrical switch box installed in the next week.

Just have to do some more sanding of the wooden frame and it will be all finished. Have tested it already and it goes like a charm. The motor is very powerful and if I had a choice I'd go with something a little smaller. But as an added bonus, it takes alot to try and stall the motor.

[Babylon5]

And the other pictures

[woodbe]

Looks like a neat job,

Not ever having played with a drum sander, how do you use it?

I guess the bottom of the drum is spinning towards you, and you push the work against the direction of rotation, but how do you manage the little end, with push sticks or what?

I think the units I've seen in the shop have had some sort of drive on the table because it was finished with a non-slip surface.

woodbe.

[Bodgy]

That puzzled me too, Baby.

There seem to be some obstructions at the rear of the table which prevents the work travelling thru.

Please explain

[Ironwood]

Babylon,
its looking good, how do you go feeding by hand, do you need 2 people, ie; 1 at the front to push it in, and 1 at the rear to pull it through once the tail end gets too short? i'm thinking it might be too hard/dangerous for 1 person. i'm asking this because i have been pondering building one myself for a while now, and i think it would be much easier to build one without a feed mechanism

[Babylon5]

Looks like a neat job,

Not ever having played with a drum sander, how do you use it?

I guess the bottom of the drum is spinning towards you, and you push the work against the direction of rotation, but how do you manage the little end, with push sticks or what?

I think the units I've seen in the shop have had some sort of drive on the table because it was finished with a non-slip surface.

woodbe.

You have guessed right. The drum spins towards you and the items are pushed through. I tried to use push sticks but they were not reliable so I ended up using a flat piece of mdf which is used to push the work. The mdf is not as thick so it doesn't come in contact with the drum.

The infeed and outfeed sections are roughly equal in length.

[Babylon5]

That puzzled me too, Baby.

There seem to be some obstructions at the rear of the table which prevents the work travelling thru.

Please explain

No Obstruction, just the angle of the photo. I have two pieces of wooden that have a trench, which allows the plastic cover to slot into and rest. In some of the photos I have the plastic cover resting at the back of the sander so that I could take clearer photos of the actual drum. Once in operation the cover sits directly over the drum and doesn't obstruct anything.

Shane.

[Babylon5]

This gives a better view of the outfeed table. It gives me enough room to feed the wood past the drum and safely lay clear on the other side.

I made this drum sander mainly for sanding end grain butchers blocks.

Shane.

[Auld Bassoon]

Looks good Babylon!

Several Qs arise from your description and the pics, plus some accolades!

Qs first:

1. Why did you limit yourself to 500mm drum width, as most kart axles are +/- 1000mm, so it's just a question of making the table and cabinet to suit. Mine has an effective sanding width of a full 850mm (actually closer to 880mm)

2. The plastic D/C top is open at the ends; I'd suggest closing this off. Similarly, there's a lot of open space either side of the sanding table, so I suspect that there will be a fair bit of dust fly-off there. I have two 100mm D/C intakes set just above the drum, attached to a 2HP DC, and that's only just sufficient. I tried it without the D/C running - but not for long :eek:

3. How do you accommodate belt tensioning? On mine the motor is mounted on two sprung parallel plates with bolts running through the top plate, coil spring, then bottom plate: this enables me to tighten the belt whilst still achieving a shock-absorbing capacity.

4. I think that you'll find that the power of the motor is about right, so I'd suggest leaving it as is.

5. I also tried using hose clamps (aka "Jubilee" clamps), but switched to staples as the clamps were difficult to tension sufficiently.

Accolades:

1. the use of a vice clamp is much better, I suspect, than the screw jack that I used. I had to have four corner mounted vertical posts to avoid racking, and some corner mounted locking clamps to hold the table when set.

2. Your setup looks a fair bit simpler than mine, and simple is good! (mind, you might find that a cabinet will be a good idea!)

All up, a top effort. Seems to be a growing trend amongst forumites to make these beasts. Sturdee, Al, Cagey (did he finish his?), you and me.

As Sturdee found, and I have also learned, use cloth backed paper. A bit more expensive, but eliminates many of the "wrinkling" issues attendant to common-or-garden rolls of paper.

Let's see some pics of your beastie in action!

[Babylon5]

Looks good Babylon!

Several Qs arise from your description and the pics, plus some accolades!

Qs first:

1. Why did you limit yourself to 500mm drum width, as most kart axles are +/- 1000mm, so it's just a question of making the table and cabinet to suit. Mine has an effective sanding width of a full 850mm (actually closer to 880mm)

Main use will be to sand back endgrain chopping boards. So the 50cm width is sufficient for that task. I will look at creating a bigger drum later.

2. The plastic D/C top is open at the ends; I'd suggest closing this off. Similarly, there's a lot of open space either side of the sanding table, so I suspect that there will be a fair bit of dust fly-off there. I have two 100mm D/C intakes set just above the drum, attached to a 2HP DC, and that's only just sufficient. I tried it without the D/C running - but not for long :eek:

I haven't decided to close those ends yet. I was planning on it but once I hooked up the D/C it was able to pick up the sawdust no worries at all. Maybe with only a 50cm wide drum, the one intake is sufficient.

3. How do you accommodate belt tensioning? On mine the motor is mounted on two sprung parallel plates with bolts running through the top plate, coil spring, then bottom plate: this enables me to tighten the belt whilst still achieving a shock-absorbing capacity.

That was a piece of luck and planning. The belt length is just short enough to create enough tension when i secure the motor to the platform. If i ever need more tension I tighten the coach bolts holding the motor to the platform.

4. I think that you'll find that the power of the motor is about right, so I'd suggest leaving it as is.

5. I also tried using hose clamps (aka "Jubilee" clamps), but switched to staples as the clamps were difficult to tension sufficiently.

Minimising movement of the sandpaper has been the difficult part. I may also end up switching to staples.

Accolades:

1. the use of a vice clamp is much better, I suspect, than the screw jack that I used. I had to have four corner mounted vertical posts to avoid racking, and some corner mounted locking clamps to hold the table when set.

2. Your setup looks a fair bit simpler than mine, and simple is good! (mind, you might find that a cabinet will be a good idea!)

All up, a top effort. Seems to be a growing trend amongst forumites to make these beasts. Sturdee, Al, Cagey (did he finish his?), you and me.

As Sturdee found, and I have also learned, use cloth backed paper. A bit more expensive, but eliminates many of the "wrinkling" issues attendant to common-or-garden rolls of paper.

Let's see some pics of your beastie in action!

Thanks, but my effort is really just a reflection on how much influence and help this forum has been. I end up doing alot of lurking and pick up such a wealth of information from fellow woodworkers that allows me to be able to create these projects.

Shane.

[Sturdee]

Great work Shane. I'm sure you'll get lots of use out of it.

Peter.

[Bodgy]

The last picture shows the outfeed better. Looks like a great device, wish I had one.