Make your own cylindrical sander

[rsser]

There are drum sanders around for drill presses but you can turn your own sanding spindle for whatever diam you want on the lathe for the lathe.

Basically it's just a hardwood MT2 ended cylinder with sandpaper wrapped around it.

MT2 dimensions are
2 7/8" long
narrow end: 37/64"
wide end: 23/32"
(volunteer to convert to metric and post welcomed!)

The cylinder is whatever diam suits your shaping/sanding task. Wrap a strip of good quality paper (c. 2" wide or maybe less) tightly up it in a spiral and tape at both ends. Support the end with the tailstock.

This is useful for shaping legs on bowls or facets on all sorts of turnings.

(Not my idea: ack't to Guilio Marcolongo)

[baxter]

Hi Ern

My trusty Instant Metric Reckoner book - printed over 30 years ago - gives these conversions

27/8" = 73.025mm
37/64" = 14.680mm
23/32" = 18.251mm

Your sanding tip was actually listed amongst the tips posted by Don Nethercott in the Bandsawn Box thread a couple of weeks ago.

Don's tip was that longer strips of sandpaper could be wrapped lengthwise around the cylinder to give a broader section for sanding. He included the caution that the paper has to be wrapped so that the overlap is not coming towards you on the lathe or all hell could break loose.

Regards

[rsser]

Thanks John.

Not sure I understand the last tip:

The version I saw Guilio use had the paper edges butted against each other as the strip spiralled up the cylinder - so no overlap and consistent radius.

Am I missing something?

[baxter]

Ern
The paper can be a part or whole sheet wrapped around the cylinder and overlapping - tape at both ends - but with the overlap going away from you as the cylinder rotates. The width of the overlap is not sufficient to affect sanding in normal circumstances. Could affect final sanding but this is probably not a technique that I would use at that stage anyhow.

OK

[Salty]

Baxter?? still I suppose you could say Salty??? too

[Yanki]

Turning your own sander sounds like a great idea. Could you post an image of one off the lathe and another on the lathe? It would be easier for me if I saw an image.
Thanks

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

Hmmm... on a similar note, if you mounted a sanding drum on the lathe for use as a thicknessing sander, (ie. adding an adjustable height table to the bed) wouldn't you have to either be running a reversable lathe or feed the timber in from the back side of the bed?

[RETIRED]

nope, between the bed and spindle. We use big pneumatic ones (oh dear ) on ours.

[rsser]

nope, between the bed and spindle. We use big pneumatic ones (oh dear ) on ours.

MT3 ?

[rsser]

Sorry Yanki. Haven't done it myself.

The post was the product of a slow-everything day so I thought I'd do my bit to clog up folks' bandwidth.

[Don Nethercott]

Here is a piccy of my sanding setup on the lathe. I use a piece of dowel of whatever size, but you could turn your own.

Not my idea, came from Alan Williams in one of his bandsaw boxes caurses at Grafton Artsfest.

[hughie]

Ern,
here you go a simple but very effective conversion software. All things always......well....nearly

http://joshmadison.net/software/convert/

[rsser]

Thanks Don.

And thanks for that link Hughie ... lol, 'wasting time online since 1993'.

[edit: but how do you enter 37/64"?]

[hughie]

but how do you enter 37/64"?

Decimal 1/64 = .015625'' x 37 =.4218'', umm! 1.071372cm.....I think
hmmmm thats some fancy turnin'

[RETIRED]

MT3 ?

No.

Wooden tapers that fit into the hollow ends of the drum.

Drive with a Nova scroll or you could use a spur drive and supported with the tailstock at the other end.