Official Luthiers Forum!

Are there any plans out there for a home made drum sander?

I can understand building a frame and having a motor rotate a large drum (that you can glue ribbons of sandpaper to form a drum, I think).

But what about the height adjustment, either the whole sanding assembly, or the table itself?

How can I raise all 4 corners of the table at the same time so that they remain dead flat, at the turn of one knob or wheel?

_________________
Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

Hi Tai,

There are a number of versions floating around on the net which I have come across. I believe most individuals who choose to go the shop built direction use a design which has the table fixed at one end and swings up to the drum overhead with a vertical height adjust beneath the table. I have seen a couple designs where the entire table lifts flat rather than a fulcrum approach: one uses bicycle chains and sprockets on corner posts for the lift mechanism; another approach has the table mounted on a swing. I have also seen another design where the drum swings down to the table. I don't have access to my files from the office - when I get home I will share what links and designs I have collected.

Rick

_________________
Say what you do, Do what you say.

Tai Fu, if you have the money, buy a jet or performax or one of the other models out there. I built my own, and yes, it works fine, but you'll get real tired of hand pushing the wood through. If I did it again, I'd buy one with a power feed.

Find a cabinet maker or lumber yard with a sander that will sel you time or run your pieces for a fee.

If I can find them, I have a set of plans for a Kuster Drum Sander. I will scan them as a pdf file and post them. It will take me till next week to do this (if I can find them). Still working my rear end off trying to keep people happy before Christmas.

I have the sander that is in the plans. It works great. It uses powered intake and outtake rollers to move the wood under the sanding drum. And it works great!!!

Ken

These responses are all good, but I think two bigger questions are, first, how often you will use this tool, and second, do you think it will bother you to push the wood through by hand? Once you weigh those factors against the cost of a new tool versus the cost of your own shop-made tool or the cost of renting time on someone else's tool, you will find the answer that works for you.

Shop made with conveyor, no pushing. It did have a motor...but now I crank by hand.
Also, I tried to use a 5/8 shaft for the drum...now I have a 1" shaft.

Anyway it works great and I use it all the time.

SA

I have another Luthier in Taipei who has an open ended drum sander... I'm sure he wouldn't mind if I used it once in a while to thickness plates/sides. I already used his drum sander to thickness some fretboards and bindings.

Finding tools like Jet and Performax is tough though, because while alot of them are made here its really hard to find out which factories make them, and even when I do find them a lot of them are reluctant to sell to individuals. That luthier told me that most of those factories are in Taichung but I can't make a trip there if I don't know where the factories are, or whether or not they'll sell to individuals.

_________________
Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

Do some bartering. Offer some service to him in exchange for shop/tool time. Perhaps you could buy a few sanding belts for the machine... clean out the dust collector, or take his dog for a walk?

_________________
Jim Hansen

I was actually asking if I do it on a regular basis what would he charge as a fee...

_________________
Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

I built this ...easy its all here http://woodgears.ca/sander/plans/index.html

Hi Tai,

As promised, here are some files and links to add to your pile:

http://www.rockslide.org/drum%20sander.html This one is probably the most common type.

And another one http://www.4shared.com/document/NkGnParj/Drum_sander.html

In this version the table raises and lowers level http://www.hammerwall.com/Manuals/Kuster%20Mfg/Description/Dyna-Sand/Kuster%20Dyna%20Sand%20Assembly%20and%20Operation%20Manual/1402/

I have a Fine Woodworking copy of an early design by Grit Laskin but the file is too large to attach. You can PM me and I'll try sending that way.

This design by J C Jones has the drum lowering into a sliding table:

Hi Tai,

I had mentioned as well a table design on a swing. It's not actually used in a thickness sander but I think the concept has some potential. I saw it on the woodgears.ca site in a jointer he built. Here is a video of his design. The swing assembly appears around 0:59 into the video:



Good luck!
Rick

Bear in mind that I am not dong this for a living (not even close), but I'm very pleased with my manual feed shop built sander. A factory built unit would be much more convenient, but I'm sure glad I don't have to borrow time on a machine. I end up using it way more than I thought for various small tasks. Factor in the ridiculously low cost to build it and it is the perfect solution for some (my) shops.

_________________
Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

Scott,

Can you walk us through some of the details on your sander? It looks like you have the raise\lower mechanism for the table working at one end. Are you pivoting the table at the other end or are you raising the table at 4 points?

How wide is your drum?

I like what you have setup here with the feed belt for the table. What are you using for the rollers?

John

Untill you have a nice side piece jump up off your push board and fire right back at the handle and explode into a couple hundred pieces...don't ask me how I know this......

I know have a 16/32 and it was well worth the money after having a welded frame, steel drum, 24" wide drum sander with no power feed....

_________________
My Facebook Guitar Page

"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

For what it's worth, I built a 22" drum sander earlier this year, and it's quickly become the second most useful power tool in my shop, right behind the bandsaw. I actually use it more than my drill press at this point. Obviously, I'm using it for a lot more than thicknessing tops, backs, and sides. Since I built it myself, I've been able to adapt it for use with a few jigs too. Plus, it cost me about $100, and I enjoyed making it.

_________________
David Morris

Thanks for all the helpful replies. I might get this done in a few months, once more money becomes available. I feel the harder part is coming up with the space for it...

Given how hard it is to get medium sized machines here (In Taiwan, machines are either benchtop toys or something slightly bigger, or giant industrial sized machines (I mean bandsaw of at least 26", 30" wide belt sanders, giant drill presses, etc.) but not much in between. Prices are also at least twice as high as Grizzly for the same machine (the 3/4 HP 14" bandsaw that Grizzly sells for 400 dollars including shipping is at least 1000 dollars in Taiwan), so it looks like I might just go around making my own drum sanders, jointers, buffing machines, etc. Parts and supplies for machines are hard to come by too, since most stores will only sell parts and supplies for the toy machines.

_________________
Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

It's funny you mention those tools. I'm planning to adapt my drum sander to do all that. Because the 1" steel bar on which the drum is built extends beyond the ends of the machine, I hope to adapt those to other uses. On one end, I want to do what the Padma did, and mount a disk and a platform so I'll have a disk sander. On the other end, I'd ideally like to find some way to mount a drill chuck, so I can switch out a grinding wheel, a buffing wheel, and a cutting wheel. I also have plans to build a mountable platform to sit above the drum in the style of the Sand-Flee drum sander for sanding large objects beyond the capacity of my drum sander. I suppose it would work more or less like a jointer, and could be used for that purpose as well, if I'm right.

_________________
David Morris

These are temperamental machines. Borrowing time on your friend's machine sounds like your best bet for now, but you should go out of your way to make it a good exchange for your friend. #1: Watch the drive belt. These tend to wander, and when they've wandered far enough, they get chewed up. You may need to stop your work frequently, and recenter the drive belt.(Loosen tensioning screws, adjust, re-tension.) Or you could attempt to solve the tracking problem--big bonus points with your friend, if you succeed. (Even if you fail, you'll learn a lot about these machines.) #2 Take light cuts. Don't force the work. On my machine, one full turn of the depth adjuster equals 1/16th inch (1.5 mm). Don't take more than a quarter turn in one pass ( 0.375 mm ). #3 Use only your own sanding belts. You can cut your own belts from bulk stock very easily. Measure carefully, using a used belt as a template, and you won't have a problem. Cut a spare belt for your friend, and you'll be welcomed back. #4: sanding belts clog very easily when sanding resinous woods. Commercial oven cleaner (or any of the liquid belt cleaning products sold in the wood working catalogs) will remove the resin build up, and restore the sanding strip to (almost) new condition. Do this to your own strips to save money. Do this to your friend's old, clogged strips to cement your welcome.

David, is your steel axle permanently fixed to your drum? If not, I expect a machinist could turn one end of your shaft to a smaller diameter and then thread it for you. I think that would give you a more stable and versatile mount for grinding wheels, buffers, etc. Alternatively, the machinist could probably bore and taper one end for a drill chuck. I think for a large buffer, you'd want quite a bit of shaft sticking out free of the base. For a small buffer this probably isn't as much of a consideration. I would want my grinder to be pretty close to the pillow block. Ditto a sanding disk. If the drum is permanently attached, you might need to build a second machine, but you know how to do that now.

I don't think anyone would be comfortable with me poking around inside their machine, especially if they don't know me that well, so I would have to ask (I could ask where I can buy sanding sleeve/belt and offer to buy some for him, or use my own).

One thing though, where can I get a shaft? I know where to get steel or aluminum rod of various diameters, but they're extruded and I don't know of any machinist who can turn it into a shaft, and even if they can I am sure it wouldn't be cheap.

_________________
Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

I've never had any thing close to a kickback doing manual feed. I suppose I could just be lucky so far, but I think that if you are taking light enough cuts it shouldn't be an issue. I stand on the side of the machine and am easily able to push the stock through with my left hand. I always try to error on the side lights cut, partially because my motor is under powered and partially because the sandpaper lasts longer. Again, I am not on a tight time schedule so a lot depends on what you are after. . .

_________________
Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

It's been mentioned, but woodgears.ca is a great site to check out for "build your own" types. Pats thickness sander is there, plus a ton of other stuff.

_________________
Dave
Milton, ON