Thread: Pulleys

Originally Posted by Pauls321

Hey Hey Humphrey, No, havent really thought about how fast it will take me to change belts etc. I actually picked up a 40 grit belt, (2 metres) at Coffs Power Tools the other day, not sure if I will use it, also got a couple of metres of 180 I think...It's about $2.50 a metre, maybe 3 bucks.

That will be after I have trued my drum and attached the velco.

Regards, Paul

So, you are using hook 'n loop. I'll be especially interested to hear how it goes, particularly in terms of 'springiness', if you know what I mean.
My commercial unit uses a pair of clips similar to alligator clips. The clips are just inside the ends of the drum and there's a small slot near the ends of the drum that the paper goes into, leading to the clips. The front clip is fixed and the rear one is spring-loaded by another spring, so that when the clip is closed the spring ensures that the belt is under constant tension to keep it tight.

A little complicated, but not hard to change the belt. I'm getting pretty proficient at it - takes about 2 minutes.

I'm really looking forward to seeing how this turns out, since I chickened out and bought a ready-made one, (costing 2 arms and a leg).

Hi there everyone, and Humphrey, Happy New Year to all. I've had all the fam here over the Christmas Period, the whole 14 of us. But have now managed to "nearly" finish my drum sander I have been referring to in my earlier posts. It's been a pretty big project, all I need now is to buy some perspect next week up in Coffs Harbour, and it is totally finished. At the end of the day I am pretty impressed with the result. I've emailed Pat again over in the USA as to what belts he uses. He only uses 60...80....and 120 grit. 60 for the initial thickness, down to within 1mm, then the 80 to get close to the last .5mm, then the final sand with the 120.

All I had laying about was 180 grit which was obviously not the right one to use, but sufficed for my initial experimentation. I'll hopefully get the other grades next week also up at Coffs Power Tools.

Looking at Pat's youtube clipping which I put the link here before, when he turns his on, it seems to be rather noisy and I was expecting mine to be similar. However I was pretty impressed, mine is very smooth and rather quiet. Maybe its the 2HP motor I installed, certainly is not short on power.

Anyway, here are some photos, naturally without the perspect which I intend to have pretty much completely across the front of my dust cover. The dust cover acts as a very good protective cover also, specially for me, make sure I keep my hands/fingers/clothes well away. I havent drilled or installed an outlet on top of the dust cover yet, to fit the new dust extractor I purchased recently. Still have to work out a correct fitting size etc.

Here we go now.

Looking great, Paul.

You've done a good job.
2HP is a nice, gutsy motor for the purpose, too.

I found 120G to be a little coarse, still leaving faint lines, so also got a 240G belt, for a nicer finish. See how you go - depends on what you're making, I guess.

What's your height adjustment/timber thickness range, out of interest?

Just one point - you might need to add a drive belt tensioner. The belt looks slightly loose and might slip a little under load when it wears a bit. (Might not, too.)

Apparently these things make quite a mess without a dust extractor, but I found that with one attached, this is the cleanest machine in my workshop. The only dust it produces is a tiny bit falling off the end of the conveyor. It has a 2 1/2" dust port. I've heard of some guys enlarging them to 4", but in my case it would be a waste of effort.
The (planned) perspex/clear acrylic cover is a nice touch. Don't forget to get yourself a belt/disc cleaning stick, if you don't already have one. Keeping the paper clean helps heaps.

Edit: Another thought - if anyone else is likely to use it, an arrow indicating feed direction isn't a bad idea, either, so the timber is always fed against the rotation of the drum and not with it.

hey there Humphrey and thanks for your kind comments. I put a lot of thought into the tension of the belt, so hope it doesn't slip. When I made that top pulley myself, I left it rough (not sanded) as it come off the lathe, which of course helps the non slipping.

The thickness of timber I could put through it would be from zero to about 45mm, which is oodles for me. I really only want to thickness/sand timber in the 6 to 12mm range. Mainly just for making small jewellery boxes and similar.

I trued the drum initially on my mates lathe, so had it pretty true and did the final trueness after it was all installed etc, with 40grit then 60 grit sandpaper the full length of my drum (485mm).

The velcro works a treat. After getting the angle of the sandpaper correct to start it, then spiralling it on, I am guessing the changing of my paper will take only about a minute.

The floorspace it occupies is 680x450mm, pretty good really. The total cost blew out a bit, mainly due to that new motor, not being able to pick up a second hand one, but I have to admit, its an excellent motor. Total cost is around the $400 mark.

Regards, Paul

Originally Posted by Pauls321

hey there Humphrey and thanks for your kind comments. I put a lot of thought into the tension of the belt, so hope it doesn't slip. When I made that top pulley myself, I left it rough (not sanded) as it come off the lathe, which of course helps the non slipping.

If worst comes to worst and the belt does slip in the future, it's easy to add an idler-wheel style tensioner.

The thickness of timber I could put through it would be from zero to about 45mm, which is oodles for me. I really only want to thickness/sand timber in the 6 to 12mm range. Mainly just for making small jewellery boxes and similar.

That's not bad at all, especially the capability to sand thin materials. Mine goes down to 3mm, but many can only go down to 6mm.

The velcro works a treat. After getting the angle of the sandpaper correct to start it, then spiralling it on, I am guessing the changing of my paper will take only about a minute.

Much quicker than mine.

Total cost is around the $400 mark.

Less than half the cost of mine, and much cheaper for spares. Again, well done.

My final photos, it is now all completed. Just wanted to put up the final product of this drum sander project. Sorry if a couple of the pics are a bit glarey, very hot sunny day here today. Here we go

Regards, Paul

Congratulations Paul!! You have done a great job on that!!

Smooth.


Well done on the build and thank you for sharing. I could not resist the pun.

Thank you Gentlemen,

Yes, very happy with the outcome,

Regards, Paul

Good one Paul, well done.
It came out really good. Sure beats paying $800+ for basically the same thing.

Originally Posted by Pauls321

And then on top of that, my old bandsaw that the motor died on me, I took the motor up to Coffs Power Tools, hadnt heard back from them, got my son to pick up two of those motors in Sydney,...........called in to Coffs Power Tools on friday to bring my old motor back home, (needed the switch etc from it), it was repaired, needed a new capacitor $12 and $30 labour, 42 bucks,...geeeez. Now I have a spare brand new motor. Any suggestions on something else I can build with it down the track..?

Regards, Paul

Hello Paul,

Snap ! Have just finished building a drum sander very similar to this.

I will pinch your perspex window idea.

I have just bought a Triton style safety switch for mine - available at Kincrome for $45 part number CMA065

Am currently building the lathe from issue 73 of Shop Notes - and am looking at using the same motor as in the drum sander - should be easy enough to make them so that they can be fairly easily shifted from one machine to another. Like a bigger version of the concept behind some of the wireless power tools on the market nowadays where they swap the battery between the machines.

Anybody got any thoughts on efficient ways to do this ?

Check out the home made bandsaw at woodgears as a project for your spare motor

Homemade bandsaw (version 2)

Thats my next target after the lathe

This is a fabulous site and well worth a good look around all the other sections of it.

Found this thread by searching for pulleys - am looking at making wooden pulleys for the lathe - havent found the relevant bit in the thread yet so off to have another look now.

I have got hook and loop on the drum sander (from thesandpaperman.com.au) but I dont think it will work in the way described in this link below - which sounds very clever.

.: Stockroom Supply :. 18works

as the hairs on the back of my sandpaper are very short compared to the stuff I can get at Spotlight, which seems to be much more "hairy" and will therefore spring out a bit as the wheel starts to spin.

Am currently using it more as a "grinding" machine rather than the clever centrifugal machine described in the link above.

Regards

Bill

Hi there Bill, quite an interesting reply there. Couple of things, since I got my motor back and all repaired from Coffs Power Tools (I should get a commission for the number of times I use their name), it is going like a charm, purring over like a kitten. It's 30 years old, and some years ago I bought a different guide for it, to take really fine blades, I only even seem to use 1/8" blades now. Started using them for my bandsaw boxes, (the novelty of those has kinda worn thin). But I still keep that thin blade on. I've even busted the plastic guide on my bandsaw where the blade runs from the upper wheel to the lower wheel (away from the point of cut), a piece of timber flew outa my triton workcentre one day, an offcut that come loose and touched the blade, flew through the air and hit that plastic guide and shatttered it to pieces. Lucky someone wasnt standing there. I made a new guide from timber. I'll keep all timber bandsaw in mind, however whilst this old fellow is running smooth again, probably wont worry.

You were talking about that velcro, I bought it from Velcro Australia, the lady there was good enough to send me a metre x 30mm. Cost $44 plus $15 postage. Works amazingly well, grabs hold of my sanding belts really good.

That perspect is not actually perspect, think its called polyglass, (I think). It bends easy, and drills easy. Bloke in a glass shop at Coffs cut me off an offcut for $5.

Not sure about your idea on swapping motors over. I certainly couldnt keep swapping this motor over, its very weighty, seems a top motor. I dont have a lathe anymore, just dont have the room for one now. The stand I originally built for my lathe, I made it higher and turned it into a leadlighting table.

The switch on this drum sander was free, lucky my son is an electrician and was up here at Christmas time. Cut the lead in half from the motor and wired it through that switch mount.

Regards, Paul