Thread: Best way to true cheap sanding drums?

I have a set and they are not perfectly true but still work. I guess it depends how out of true they are. I have found the sleeve ones to be better than those you insert in a slot and wrap around. Sorry I cant help more than that.
Regards
John

Just guessing, but if you were to make up an L bracket with both legs a bit longer than the bobbins, and triangle braced to retain square, glue sone 40 grit paper to the vertical face and clamp the other to the drill press table so the bobbin was about 1mm from the paper, fire up the bobbin, then gently push the table sideways so it rotated around the pillar and bought the paper into contact with the bobbin, the high spots on the bobbin would be ground down fairly easily. Just be carefull not to reduce the diameter more than the fastening nut can expand it, or the sleeves will be loose on the bobbin.

I was thinking that too but was not game to suggest it to someone else as they may wreck the drum. On the other hand if it is so out of true as to be unusable then the decision is up to them. Is there anything to lose.
Regards
John

That's an idea I suppose malb, but it would have to be pretty sturdy as the thing is quite out of round.

The problem with half the cheap stuff (and not only the cheap stuff) around is that it needs so much work to be made usable that it's almost easier to make something from scratch yourself half the time...

Only thing I can think of is shaving tyres for racing... new one would be a lot cheaper
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiQ3vBT1Mh4&NR=1]YouTube - Amermac 1200R Tire Truer - www.tsissg.com[/ame]

I have a set of those sanding drums. I haven't used them in quite a few years, however, if memory serves me correct, they tend to distort quite a bit when tightening them up to hold the sandpaper on.

I'm wondering if any sort of correction to the drum is worth the time taken to do it?

Originally Posted by Harry72

Only thing I can think of is shaving tyres for racing... new one would be a lot cheaper

Harry, I didn't watch the clip but I used to do a bit of club racing. The class I raced was road registered, and slicks were not allowed. One of the things that some drivers would do was use a set of the "stickiest" tyres available and buff them down to almost no tread. This gave the effect of almost having a slick tyre, and was quite an advantage to them.

It was quite a costly exercise to do this. We were racing for a trophy that was worth about $4 to buy.