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I've not yet seen any yet that have pattern/template capability.
With that said, it seems that it would not be too difficult to accomplish this on most of the oscillating spindle sanders on the market.
Looks like a bushing to replace the table inserts used with the various diameter sanding drums would work.
The bushing would need to extend above the table enough to follow a pattern/template.
It could be shouldered such that the pattern size would be closer to the part size much like a router bushing.
This is assuming that the counterbored hole in the spindle table is reasonably concentric to the spindle/drum.

I thought that's why you have a router table? What kind of templates are you all talking about? Would a robo sander in a speed controlled router table work? Or do you need the oscillating fuction for this purpose? I pretty much use mine mostly as a small thickness sander for things like making binding and braces and even scooping the ends of braces but I do keep finding more uses for it as I go through this build as I didn't have one before. I can see uses for it in making necks that I used my 6 X 24 belt sanding staion for before I had the OS. I have used it to sand to the line on making a hardboard template. Are you all talking about making copy templates from an offset or undersizes template? If so I would think it shouldn't be too difficult to make a bushing like mentioned in the above post if you have a W/K router base

Good questions all, Chris.
I will try to get a mockup picture of the bushing setup.
Yes, I'm talking about "copy templates from an offset or undersizes template?"
The advantage of this over the Robo sander in a drill press for one would be that the spindle sander is designed for side loads.
The oscillating feature is what really seperates the two even tho there are drill press attachments to make the spindle oscillate.
The oscillation distributes the sanding action over a much larger area reducing/eliminating burning and clogging.
The oscillation drum, as I'm sure may others have found, will set there and chew away material like a dream.

This is a mockup showing a ring around the spindle/drum.
I like the safety of the spindle sander and absence of ear-piercing noise of a router.

"The oscillation drum, as I'm sure may others have found, will set there and chew away material like a dream."
I hear you there.
The only other option that I could think of would be to make it like an inverted pin router but that would just get too involved with having to make an adjustable table .
Are you wanting to make the templates from Plexi?
The collar would be much easier for sure.
You could make a one piece insert/ collar out of wood pretty easy with the W/K precision base router.

I think it was Kevin Ryan who wrote an article in guitarmaker describing pattern shaping on a disk sander. What he did was set a stop like in Nelson Palens post but exactly 1/4" from the disk. He then made full size templates out of 3/4" thick plywood and routed a 1/4" step in the bottom half, and thusly the routed rebate contacted the stop, avoiding the need to make offset or undersized templates. I hope that is clear. The same concept could work for a spindle sander, and i have thought about rigging up for it for a while.

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Jordan Aceto
Ithaca, NY

Now, there's an idea!

I was digging all over his site looking for a clear picture of it, not so much luck.

http://www.ryanguitars.com/theworkshop/shoptour.htm

in the wood shop section, picture #3 shows it, just not very well. There is an aluminum stop in front of the disk, and he has all kinds of jigs that go with it. Issue #34 of guitarmaker has him spilling the beans about all manner of cool tricks, with lots of clear pictures.

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Jordan Aceto
Ithaca, NY

This pattern sanding idea has my attention because I too would rather chew away than deal with a router.

Building on the excellent idea here check out these pics of the Rigid machine. There is a metal ring that acts kind of like a zero-clearance-insert. The different spindle sizes each have a dedicated ring to match.

You can see the recess that the ring sits in. Why could one not make a ring like Nelson's only to fit the recess in the machine and along the lines of what Jordan described that Kevin is doing?

Please excuse the big photos - I am trying to compete with Filippo for largest OLF pictures...

Voila !!!

Hesh, that sander looks cleaner than mine did when it was new.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

You just KNOW he put a new sleeve on for the photo!

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P A U L B U R N E R
Burner Guitars

I guess you can just use your binding machine to make the 1/4" or what ever groove on your template then. Since you really are just cutting a binding channel. Then you can bend some 1/4" binding around the spindle and glue it to the base for your collar. Prehaps see if a piece of PVC conduit has an inside and outside diameter that will work for you. As long as the OD fits it should work as a spacer since you can adjust the depth of the binding channel to what you need. Just a thought.

Ya, I've been thinking of the same thing. Making a ring for pattern sanding.

One nice thing that using a sander for pattern shaping is that you won't get any blow out or tear out when working figured woods. Router bits sure like to grab wood right at a grain line and POP! you now have two pieces of wood when you only wanted one (happened to me when pattern routing a bridge once. Sucked!).

Hesh, that's what I was thinking of doing too. Making a ring the same size as those zero clearance rings that come with the rigid machine. Actually, just double side tape what ever material to the ring and use the flush trim bit in the router table . It will work just fine. I think I'll make some out of acrylic.

Good ideas guys.

OK, the race is on. who's going to show a picture first.

The ONLY issue of course is weather the ring, guard and shaft are all concentric enough.

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Guys, this is getting way out of hand here.
While we're all thinkin' outside the box, could we purposely make the shouldered bushing eccentric by a few thou?
Don't want to keep things too simple, you know.
This would allow taking a little more material off the part or switching from a coarse sanding sleeve for roughing to a fine sleeve for finishing.
(The fine sleeves are slightly smaller diameter due to the grit size)
This would require keeping the point of sanding contact relatively perpendicular to the surface being sanded.
(Much like some of the binding router setups)
Rotating the eccentric sleeve or moving the part being pattern sanded to a different position around the spindle would accomplish the change in cut depth.
This is a radical departure from the KISS method, no?
Nelson

This is exactly why I raised the question. I was routing some Tele necks last week and had some "issues" at the headstock. I'm also looking at how to shape the bodies to a pattern in one stem. The sander following a template would do the trick. I looked a the robo-sander, and it can do the job, I'm concerned about the comments about how solid it it.

If I can turn the Rigid machine into a solid Robo-sander type of thing, then that's the ticket. I'm familiar with using a router template insert, so its just a transfer to the sander of the same methodology. What would be really great is if Rigid "improved" this sander with a simple template bushing at the base of the spindle. If it were wide enough, the travel of the spindle would keep the bushing in contact with the pattern. Then the pattern could be made to the exact size required without having to reduce it.

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Nelson excellent idea and being able to switch grits is really kind of important so I don't see your idea as making things more complicated at all. Adding a little bracket to the back of the spindle just outside of the removable ring with registration groves in the ring that the spring loaded bracket will click into might provide the two settings that would properly locate a concentric ring each time.

The sleeves are only available in two grits anyway so two settings is all we would need.

How would you make the ring?

Exactly Filippo - great idea and I'm in for a set!

If you are going to have them made on a CNC then I 'd have two bushing for each spindle size . One for each grit and stay away from an eccentric one .

The next issue with this is how much stretch those sanding spindles have and how much they may stretch when clamped down on the drum.

How much difference is there really between grits though? I would think less than 0.020" which might not be much of an issue really.

I have an idea of how to make this work. I'll try it out and post the results. Maybe we should start a new thread on it though. Yes/No?

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"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

New tread and maybe Hesh could move some of the post from here to the new tread. How about it Hesh buddy.
I'll see what you all come up with and see if I can us it for my HF OS.

With all this exciting chatter - I don't want you guys to miss the fact that I went out and purchased a new Rigid unit after work today - and they happened to have a set of the extra sleeves on hand so I purchased those too.

Can't wait to crank it up.

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P A U L B U R N E R
Burner Guitars

For those of you commenting on the Robo-Sander - I just want you to know that we had this exact problem - tear out (two pieces of wood when we wanted one) on a nice 7-piece Hanalei Moon neck. We were working on the headstock shape on our Robo-Sander and POP - OUCH!

Turns out the Robo-Sander wasn't in true "round" and was "chattering" on the wood - I suspect this caused the tear out.

Good news is that is was quite new and SM gladly let us return it.

The problem with the Robo-Sander was the reason I started this thread.

So - all is ending well - Robo-Sander returned and a new Rigid Spindle Sander purchased.

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P A U L B U R N E R
Burner Guitars

Way to go Paul

When one of us relieves his TAS, we all feel blessed .

Sorry to hear about your neck. Any chance you were able to salvage it, maybe glue the piece back on? If you have to, maybe you could put a veneer on the back of the headstock if you need to hide anything.

I like the idea of the robo sander, but they don't oscillate which can wear the paper in one spot (also why I went with the rigid).

We'll get this pattern sanding thing down soon and pass it on to everyone else.

Slightly off topic. I picked up some wood working magazines today at the library and saw an other cool addition to the OSS. The user made a jointer fence for the OSS. Take a piece of hardwood, or stacked plywood, ensure one edge is flat. Drill a hole slightly larger than the spindle diameter. Add a piece of arborite or counter top material to the out feed side of the wood and it's done. Now clamp it to the OSS table aligning the spindle with the out feed side and you have a jointer for you OSS.

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"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

I'm stroked that we seem to have a collective effort happening here to create a mod to an already great machine to make it even better for what we do! Pretty cool.

Rod and Chris if you guys want to start a new thread I can move the posts that concern a mod for the machine to the new thread and leave the posts concerning Paul's original topic in place. No prob - super moderator here, cough, cough...