Thread: Custom Built Oscillating Spindle Sander -- A Features Wish List

Subscribing and coming back to this later

Hi, sounds like an interesting project.
Would say most of the specs you are asking for seem fine.
Not keen on the idea of the aluminium platen unless heavily cast with a hard annodised finish personally but cast iron will probably put it out of your weight range for portability unless you have a removable one for transport,Maybe a tilting table might be useful.

Like the idea of a variable speed as I wish mine had that to reduce burning that is occasionally a problem.

Needs a nice quiet motor mine is very noisy.2Hp seems more than enough.

I don't think a particularly large dust exctraction port is too important as the dust removal seems to work very well on these machines, a separate shroud for catching small dust particles sounds useful.
Mine works quite well with both workshop dusty or Festool vac.

I don't imagine it will be a cheap machine to make but suppose viability depends on how much you need a bobbin sander with the additional specs you are after.

Originally Posted by mark david

Hi, sounds like an interesting project.
Would say most of the specs you are asking for seem fine.
Not keen on the idea of the aluminium platen unless heavily cast with a hard annodised finish personally but cast iron will probably put it out of your weight range for portability unless you have a removable one for transport,Maybe a tilting table might be useful.

Like the idea of a variable speed as I wish mine had that to reduce burning that is occasionally a problem.

Needs a nice quiet motor mine is very noisy.2Hp seems more than enough.

I don't think a particularly large dust exctraction port is too important as the dust removal seems to work very well on these machines, a separate shroud for catching small dust particles sounds useful.
Mine works quite well with both workshop dusty or Festool vac.

I don't imagine it will be a cheap machine to make but suppose viability depends on how much you need a bobbin sander with the additional specs you are after.

Hi Mark:

Thanks for your thoughts. Hmm, I had assumed that a machined alu platen would be sufficient? As for the weight, my restriction is only limited by what I can easily lift from a cupboard and put onto a bench. Anything above 40kgs is getting pretty heavy for me which is why I put an aim of 35kg. That said, I didn't think about the fact that the platen would be removable, so it could be cast iron and moved into place separately. Thanks for the idea.

I would love a tilting table especially for the edge sander part, if not for the spindle part. Again, making something robust (i.e. commercial) but without the weight will be the challenge. However, I've set the bar pretty high so I might as well throw in the tilting table and see what Parken Engineering can do!

Parken has suggested using the same VFD control unit they use on their big drill presses, which (on the drill press) allows me to go from approx. 10-10,000 RPM (with pulleys and belt changes). I would like to avoid changing belts if possible, so am hoping that we can find a gear ratio which allows me to hit that sweet spot of 1000-2000 for the majority of use, but also slow it down more if needed.

Does your sander have spindles? If yes, do you like them, what brand are they, and how do they attach to your machine? The big Jet has 6" long spindles which seems a bit excessive, but I don't want to get 4" spindles if the extra length is desirable. That said, I have read (somewhere) that some spindles are reversible, so that they can be turned upside-down to use the fresh sandpaper at the top. Also, some spindles come with knurled nobs on top for tightening the washer down on the rubber -- which is handier than pulling out a spanner.

Parken has suggested using graphite sheet material between the platen and the sandpaper. I don't know the specifics yet, but I assume it will be similar to my Makita belt sander?

There will be a separate, small motor to control the oscillation, which certainly won't help the weight restraints...!

I have a lot of uses in store for this sander -- primarily to do with chair making. If Parken can make this for anything like a reasonable price, I'm going to see what they can do for a router table next. I'm shocked when I add up the fancy router lifts, phenolic tops, fancy fences, etc. And the price to get some of the gear from the USA is just going up and up considering the state of the Aussie dollar. Anyway, me gets ahead of meself...

Hi just to clarify, are we talking about a belt sander or a bobbin sander, you would use the graphite slip cloth with a belt sander but not a bobbin sander ?

I have a Sheppach, os-58 purchased from Hare &?forbes. It is quite a good machine for the money, a bit noisy is my only complaint, the oscillation is mechanical and not controlled separately, some kind of ingenious cam action!

Has a variety of drums and table inserts, the sleeves operate on the process of compressing an internal rubber drum to grip the sleeves.I purchased my last replacement sleeves from the Sandpaper man, but Hare &Forbes sell them and probably many other outlets too.

Wouldn't claim to be an expert on the table materials but cast iron will wear better and absorb vibration effectively.
Might be good to get a price from the manufacture to make a batch of machines as I am sure you could find some buyers if they can fit in all your specs for reasonable cost.Overall would be cheaper per machine than a one-off.

Originally Posted by LuckyDuck

Hi Mark:

Thanks for your thoughts. Hmm, I had assumed that a machined alu platen would be sufficient? As for the weight, my restriction is only limited by what I can easily lift from a cupboard and put onto a bench. Anything above 40kgs is getting pretty heavy for me which is why I put an aim of 35kg. That said, I didn't think about the fact that the platen would be removable, so it could be cast iron and moved into place separately. Thanks for the idea.

I would love a tilting table especially for the edge sander part, if not for the spindle part. Again, making something robust (i.e. commercial) but without the weight will be the challenge. However, I've set the bar pretty high so I might as well throw in the tilting table and see what Parken Engineering can do!

Parken has suggested using the same VFD control unit they use on their big drill presses, which (on the drill press) allows me to go from approx. 10-10,000 RPM (with pulleys and belt changes). I would like to avoid changing belts if possible, so am hoping that we can find a gear ratio which allows me to hit that sweet spot of 1000-2000 for the majority of use, but also slow it down more if needed.

Does your sander have spindles? If yes, do you like them, what brand are they, and how do they attach to your machine? The big Jet has 6" long spindles which seems a bit excessive, but I don't want to get 4" spindles if the extra length is desirable. That said, I have read (somewhere) that some spindles are reversible, so that they can be turned upside-down to use the fresh sandpaper at the top. Also, some spindles come with knurled nobs on top for tightening the washer down on the rubber -- which is handier than pulling out a spanner.

Parken has suggested using graphite sheet material between the platen and the sandpaper. I don't know the specifics yet, but I assume it will be similar to my Makita belt sander?

There will be a separate, small motor to control the oscillation, which certainly won't help the weight restraints...!

I have a lot of uses in store for this sander -- primarily to do with chair making. If Parken can make this for anything like a reasonable price, I'm going to see what they can do for a router table next. I'm shocked when I add up the fancy router lifts, phenolic tops, fancy fences, etc. And the price to get some of the gear from the USA is just going up and up considering the state of the Aussie dollar. Anyway, me gets ahead of meself...

Hi Mark:

Both. I'm planning a machine along the lines of the Rigid (sold in the USA, made in China I believe), which is an oscillating spindle sander which has a small platen that can be installed to turn it into a mini-edge sander. I would probably have a 20" platen which seems pretty standard which is removable so that I can add just a single spindle for the bobbin part. Hope that makes sense?

I hadn't thought about seeing if there are other buyers. I guess it really depends on the that final price, which I fear will be pretty bad. Anyway, I guess I'll see how the design develops, and share this with the forum, including the price/prices to go with it. We shall see!

Originally Posted by mark david

Hi just to clarify, are we talking about a belt sander or a bobbin sander, you would use the graphite slip cloth with a belt sander but not a bobbin sander ?

I have a Sheppach, os-58 purchased from Hare &?forbes. It is quite a good machine for the money, a bit noisy is my only complaint, the oscillation is mechanical and not controlled separately, some kind of ingenious cam action!

Has a variety of drums and table inserts, the sleeves operate on the process of compressing an internal rubber drum to grip the sleeves.I purchased my last replacement sleeves from the Sandpaper man, but Hare &Forbes sell them and probably many other outlets too.

Wouldn't claim to be an expert on the table materials but cast iron will wear better and absorb vibration effectively.
Might be good to get a price from the manufacture to make a batch of machines as I am sure you could find some buyers if they can fit in all your specs for reasonable cost.Overall would be cheaper per machine than a one-off.

Ok I have just looked at the machine, it works on a similar principle to metal linishers/notchers.
Intersting you are using it for chair making as I designed and built a contraption some time back that might have been perfect for that application.

I mounted the entire bobbin sander on a sliding carriage with a bearing attached that followed a template that I could fix to my bench enabling me to sand parts to an identical profile without needing to pin or tape it to the part I was shaping.In the end I took it apart due to its size and limited use for my purposes.

Originally Posted by LuckyDuck

Hi Mark:

Both. I'm planning a machine along the lines of the Rigid (sold in the USA, made in China I believe), which is an oscillating spindle sander which has a small platen that can be installed to turn it into a mini-edge sander. I would probably have a 20" platen which seems pretty standard which is removable so that I can add just a single spindle for the bobbin part. Hope that makes sense?

I hadn't thought about seeing if there are other buyers. I guess it really depends on the that final price, which I fear will be pretty bad. Anyway, I guess I'll see how the design develops, and share this with the forum, including the price/prices to go with it. We shall see!

2HP is probably unnecessary for a spindle sander that uses spindles up to 4" in diameter.
e.g.this one (weighs 145 kg) http://www.machineryhouse.com.au/W795 and only uses a 1HP motor.

A 2HP motor is also going to weigh about 15 kg which only leaves about 20 kg for the rest.
I suppose the rest could be done in 20kg of Al but there is a good reason why bigger spindle sanders weigh a lot and that is to keep them steady while being used.
In the case of lighter sanders they usually have ways of holding them down, so some sort of clamping mechanism would be needed.
The killer thing for me about not using Al on any wood machine tables is that they can mark wood quite badly.

I've never used one with a tilting table but I reckon that would be a useful feature to have

One thing I do know about them is that unless you are working on small items they need lots of space around them so they are not really bench machines and work much better as stand alone machine with space all around them

I presume you want it mobile to be able to put away?
Instead lifting 35kg in and out of storage I would consider a fully cast iron machine on lockable wheels so that it could be wheeled under a bench or into a floorless cupboard.

To aid in dust extraction I would look at a including a spindle surround plate insert that allows different size plates to be used with different bobbins so that there is always a deceit space around the bobbin for air to be extracted. Aside from this there will always be some fine dust heading upwards so some sort of overhead hood would be required if all the really fine dust these things generate is to be captured.

My Sheppach bobbin sander has a 1hp motor but is a very compact motor running at very high speed to generate the 1hp stated, it is compact but very noisy, A decent Induction type is probably better.
The Power of it seems quite adequate but a bit more power may be needed if a machine incorporated a platen design.

I haven't noticed any problems with aluminium marking the wood personally but my router table uses an aluminium insert and has not worn very well and has some grooves and scratches from use.If it had an anodisesd finish it would be much better.

I suppose the ultimate question is are you going to be getting any really useful extra features that are not already available on an existing machine ?

Originally Posted by mark david

My Sheppach bobbin sander has a 1hp motor but is a very compact motor running at very high speed to generate the 1hp stated, it is compact but very noisy, A decent Induction type is probably better.

I don't recall them being that fast, what model is it?
The Scheppach I have played with is the current H&F bench top unit which runs at about 2000 rpm which is a bit too slow for small spindles and may be too high for larger diameter spindles.

Hi Bob,
It is the Sheppach OS-58.
Maybe I am mistaken and the motor doesn't run that fast but sounds pretty fast anyway.
I did take mine apart some time ago but can't remeber whether it is direct drive to the bobbin or geared down in some way.
I remember being quite fascinated how the oscillation mechanism worked.

Originally Posted by mark david

Hi Bob,
It is the Sheppach OS-58.
Maybe I am mistaken and the motor doesn't run that fast but sounds pretty fast anyway.
I did take mine apart some time ago but can't remeber whether it is direct drive to the bobbin or geared down in some way.
I remember being quite fascinated how the oscillation mechanism worked.

According to the H&F website the motor on that one is 0.6HP and 2000 rpm.
It's been a while but I'm pretty sure it was that one I had a play on a year or so back
It probably sounds faster because it has a noisier universal instead of quieter induction motor.

Must be wishful thinking on my part, yes Bob it is 0.6hp (450w)just pulled it out and dusted it off.
2hp would definitely be overkill for a bobbin sander then.

The ability to turn off the oscillation and add a bearings at the bottom of the spindle would be nice option.

It will give you the ability to sand to a template.

Originally Posted by joez

The ability to turn off the oscillation and add a bearings at the bottom of the spindle would be nice option.

It will give you the ability to sand to a template.

Now that is a very interesting idea. Turning off the oscillation will not be a problem if there is a separate, and small motor. I guess adding a bearing at the bottom would mean custom spindles. But still its a fantastic idea. Thanks.