Thread: Wide Drum Sander

Mick,


That would make yours twice the size of mine as my effective drum with is 600mm. As such the motor you have is insufficient to run a drum that size.

The story of how I biult mine is here, and here is a thread on another and another.

Let us know how you get on building it.


Peter.

Mick, Your 1/2hp would be struggling to turn the shaft.
I have access to a wide belt sander (900 mm) ,the main motor is a 10 hp 3phase ,the feed motor is a 2hp.
nine fingers

Hey Mikm.


This is a good place for information on making a sander. That is what attracted me to this forum.

Sturdee beat me to it. I was doing to post a link to his thread on his drum sander,( he made a nice one.) and a link to my snader still in work.

A chap maned Ozwinner made one too, with a drum like you discribed. Here is part of his thread. ( his post is across 3 different threads but here is one with a few Pic's)
http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com...highlight=drum

Look forward to what progress you make.

Here is another link
http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com...highlight=drum

thanks muchly to all for your suggestions so far. what i love about this forum is direct access to so many cluey people, esp those who have been there and done that...

yeah (sheepish grin) i knew that id be pushing the proverbial with a pointy stick to think about using such a small motor - i was really after confirmation.

sturdee, i assume youre still using a half horse motor? given that, i suppose something approaching 1 or even 2 could be in the ballpark for me. i did have crazy ideas of using a 2400w (just over 3 horse?) power saw motor as the drive but im not sure it would like being used under load for extended periods of time. after having used your own machine and no doubt considered the others posted, would you have a gut feeling as to a length v drive power relationship, if in fact such a thing would be a linear response, or even practical to propose? how long is a wet piece of string on a windy day blowing from the northwest, by the way ?

cheers for the tip, ninefingers. (sounds like you must get around in pin striped suits and spats on your shoes. im a bit worried about how it ties in to working with machinery, though by the way, do you need a hole in your sock to be able to count now?) given the 10 horse, 3 phase drive, i assume the sander youre talking about is either commercial or otherwise intended to be used in a fairly entheusiastic manner? thanks for the heads up - it gives me some sort of perspective on where the ceiling is in terms of what ill have to come up with. having said that, as mentioned earlier, i would like to err on the side of the smallest practical size and be content with more passes with less bite. if anyone has any feeling on where this may be for a single phase unit, please fire away. keep in mind that the vast majority of the stuff i intend putting through this thing will be *much* smaller than full width - im only going with this size shaft because i got it for nothing.

thanks for your suggestions, junks. i actually had the pleasure of checking out ozwinners sander last sunday which is what has inspired me to use a wooden drum along the lines of his (can you tell? ). i was going to use a 100x1000mm metal roller i have laying around but decided against it after seeing how well a wooden version works.

thanks again, one and all. please feel free to keep it coming.

hmmm. i think ill have to do something about the length of my posts...

Originally Posted by mikm

.

Sturdee, i assume youre still using a half horse motor? given that, i suppose something approaching 1 or even 2 could be in the ballpark for me. i did have crazy ideas of using a 2400w (just over 3 horse?) power saw motor as the drive but im not sure it would like being used under load for extended periods of time. after having used your own machine and no doubt considered the others posted, would you have a gut feeling as to a length v drive power relationship, if in fact such a thing would be a linear response, or even practical to propose? how long is a wet piece of string on a windy day blowing from the northwest, by the way ?

No, the 1/2 hp motor died whilst I was trueing the drum as I increased the pressure of the table against the drum as it was taking to long. :mad:

I then bought a reconditioned 2 hp motor designed to run continuously from a small motor reconditiong/repair shop which works very well.

I wouldn't use an power saw motor as I don't think that they are designed for continuous work. That was partly the reason for my 1/2 hp motor burning out as it was an old washing machine motor and also not designed for continuous duty.

Not being an expert I can't give a definite answer on what motor to use, but I think a 2 or 3 hp motor would be enough as I don't think the length of the drum, bearing in mind that yours would be hollow and not solid as mine, would not be a major factor provided that it fitted with good bearings.

Others may know more about your motor needs and I would try a few engineering / motor repair shops for advice before starting.

Keep us informed as to how you go.


Peter.

Mikm, I dont know where you got the idea I wore pin striped suits and fancy shoes, bib and brace overalls and blunderstone boots are more my style.
With over fifty years using woodworking machinery ,I was only passing a comment about you pissy 1/2 hp motor.
As for the sock, I'll send you a smelly one to stuff between your teeth.
nine fingers

Mikm,

I have a sander thats 550mm wide with a 1 3/4 hp motor, the main complaint people have about these types of sanders is the lack of power.

I'd recommend you go for a 2hp+ motor, what I found was increasing the depth of cut really increased the HP needed for a pass.

If you cant get a larger motor just take lighter passes. Having said that I doubt you'd get away with less than a 1hp motor.

PS When running a sander like this you really need a good dust collector, probably about a 2hp unit at least.


Joe

Mikm

The bigger the better for the motor.

If you want to try to make it so you can take it apart to save space in your shop. try this ideal. I have two small drum sander that both just clamp to the top of a small stand I made. Make you motor hang under the end of your work bench, or make a small stand that is attached to the side of your work bench to hold your motor and just clamp the sander to the top. Then just run the belt up to it. when I'm done with the sander I just take it off the stand and hang them with all my Jigs. Here is a scatch of how my two sander work.




The top sander in the scatch only sand a board 3/4" thick and 9 " wide but that is all I need for my Dulcimers. This sander takes a single sheet of sandpaper and I change the grit alot in the making of a insterment. The secound can handle 4" thick but only 7" wide. This was really just a test ( the inflatable drum did not work so well ). The height adjustemt for both of these is so simple, just a threaded rod and a knob. It is just clamped to the stand when in use.

Just up scale yours to match your shaft, and you can have a table top Drum sander.

Here is a link to my photo gallery so you can see the two small sanders and the stand I use for both, and the threaded rod thingy. The Pic's are table-sand01.jpg - 03.jpg

http://photobucket.com/albums/b330/PbTerry/Drumsander

sturdee,
thanks for confirmation about use of non continuous rated motors. ill certainly follow your suggestion re: obtaining a 2 or 3horse unit from a specialist.
will keep you posted.

sorry figers, that was a bit cryptic on my part
"nine fingers" reminded me of those old gangster flicks where they all get around in pin stripes and spats. the sock was another sad gag. with nine fingers and a hole in your sock, you could see a toe and still count to ten. sorry mate, i just re read my earlier post and it does sound a bit off. it was a lame attempt at humor; i wasnt trying to take the pi55.

thanks again for your input on motor size. it puts perspective on how much power it really takes to drive these things.

Originally Posted by Joe Zerafa

Mikm,

I have a sander thats 550mm wide with a 1 3/4 hp motor, the main complaint people have about these types of sanders is the lack of power.

I'd recommend you go for a 2hp+ motor, what I found was increasing the depth of cut really increased the HP needed for a pass.

If you cant get a larger motor just take lighter passes. Having said that I doubt you'd get away with less than a 1hp motor.

PS When running a sander like this you really need a good dust collector, probably about a 2hp unit at least.


Joe

thanks joe, good advice.

nicy work, junkboy.
what sort of (if any) alignment issues do you have with a de-mountable roller? do you find that you need to confirm its parallel to the table each time, or is your setup forgiving enough to not need this?
i like your power feed too...

MikM

The sanding drum pillow blocks are attached to 2 upright, that are attached to a hard flat base. This forms a big wide " U " chanel. The sanding platform attaches in side the U. None is this comes apart so there is no need to adjust anything each time it is used. The only problem I had is I clapmed the jig to the stand by the uprights, this bent the bottom of the jig a little, because the top of the stand was smaller then the bottem on the jig. In the pic above, I drew it with a small leaf on both sides for the clamps and when claped to a table top this fixes the bending problem.

If you built a big one like this . Make a base using a top and bottem with ribs in side to keep it strong and true.


My power feed should be finished soon. I gonna try to use the height addjust pivet pin ( or a seprate pin ) to swing the power feed down out of the way, and make a stand that folds in to itself. for space saving

Chuck a 253 on it mate, get a bit of V8 grunt up it. She'll be right - just let me watch when you start it up.

Better you than me doing this - I'm still too scared of power tools to get into them. I've got good scars already.