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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...

I was just thinking that a very simple mod would be to cut the sleeve shorter and add some sort of slippery sleeve at the cut off end. The pattern would ride on the slippery part of the sleeve allowing the pattern to be exactly the same shape as the finished piece. This would allow the spindle to still oscillate.

Sounds too simple, but just might work. Now, if the abrasive suppliers could just make the sleeve like this.

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The only problem with that idea is that the there would have to be a spacer between the work piece and the pattern the distance of the stroke of the spindle.
Rod , I'm having trouble picturing the jointer setup? Do you have any kind of pic? But then again I really slept in today and haven't finished my coffee yet.
Hesh, Do you need us to start a new discussion first? I'll start one now call Modifications for OSS.

It's optional Chris my friend the continued discussion can be in this thread or someone can start a thread more specific to the idea's being expressed here - your choice.

I'll do it. tThanks Hesh

Post your ideas and any modifications you have for a OSS.
Here's my simple setup for binding. A simple adjustable fence and I use two stacked 1/2" rare earth magnets to aline and keep the binding against the fence on both sides of the spindle.
Now back to the pattern making modification or anything else you all might have.

I was thinking if you made the template channel a set distance from the unsleeved spindle then you could cut a section off the sand paper sleeve, say 3/8" if your template is 3/4" (the bottom of the sleeve won't be sanding the template any how) and then back wrap the cut off around the collar and tape it 180 degrees from where you would be feeding it from and that would be your adjustment/spacer for the different grits if you feel it's an issue. Does that make sense?

Another thought to add fuel to the discussion:
A short pin, say 1/8" diameter, protruding up out of a hole in the adapter ring next to the sanding drum/sleeve.
This pin spaced a known distance from the drum, say 1/4" to the outside edge of the pin.
The 1/4" dimension to corelate to the 1/4" undercut in the pattern mentioned in a post above.
A thin sleeve could be slipped over the pin for rough sanding and then removed for finish sanding?
This might be a "quick and dirty" setup for pattern sanding?
Nelson

Nelson, I think that's sort of the same principle as a binding edge router if I'm understanding it correctly. The only problem I see with that is the same problem with an edge bearing on a binding machine and that is you need to be perpendicular to the spindle/router bit. And I think this could be especially difficult not to cut too deep when the pin/ bearing is smaller then the diameter of the spindle. I find it difficult enough to get a binding channel even all away around with an edge bearing and the bearing is larger then the bit. I think if you tried that pin you might be over sanding the line a lot. To me the collar just seems safer and I think would make it full proof to some degree. But I probably could screw it up.

This is what I had in mind.

Exactly, you might as well just do it free hand. As soon as you get it where it isn't perpendicular it will sand to deep either to the right or left of the pin . There isn't anything to act as a spacer before or after the pin as there is with a collar. Do you see what I'm talking about? I'm sorry if I'm not explaining well. If the pin were larger in diameter then the spindle as is the case with most bearings on a router edge guide (1/4" bit, 1/2" edge bearing ie.) then the work will be pushed clear of the cutter to a point say until past 90 degrees. That's why when routing a binding channel with an edge guide bearing I and most I'm guessing have to keep going over the channel touching up the depth. That's why the cutter and bearing set is on my wish list.

I have a General International benchtop oscillating spindle sander. http://www.general.ca/pagemach/machines/15220a.html

It's a decent, solid machine, though I wish I'd bought the Jet. Anyway, I recently made myself a fixture for pattern sanding on it. The spindle is nowhere near concentric with the hole in the table into which the inserts for the various sized drums fit, so the spindle and the inserts aren't concentric either. I puzzled over how to deal with that and decided to just make an auxiliary table out of 1/2" baltic birch ply. Originally, I thought I'd make the aux table cover the whole table and make a hole in the middle with a collar for pattern sanding. Then, I realized that I wouldn't be sanding from all sides of the spindle, but pretty much only from the front. So, I made the aux table cover only the front half of the table, and cut a semicircle out of the edge to go around the front half of the drum. My "collar", then, is semi-circular as well, made out of a section of polycarbonate tube. It is less than 1/8" thick and the inside of it nearly contacts the drum.

The way I cobbled the the fixture together isn't very elegant and could stand some design improvements, but it works well. I'd post a picture of it, but I'm on dial-up, and uploading pictures is problematic.

I don't know if the Ridgid OSS has a tall enough spindle to allow the use of an aux table and still have the height I'd want for pattern sanding some of the taller things I plan to use it for, so an aux table may not be the way to go on that machine.

I hadn't thought of or heard of the rabbet mod to templates that Jordan reported on. That's a great idea, and I will definitely make all my templates that way from now on. Thanks for passing that on, Jordan!

I also made a fixture that works similarly on my vertical belt sander. It's just an aux table (MDF) with a fence/stop (aluminum angle stock) that nearly contacts the belt. It has a runner that fits into the miter slot on the sander's table. Very simple. Also works great, and is the one I go to for pattern sanding convex shapes. Here again, though, I will henceforth put rabbets in all my templates.

I originally got ideas for these fixtures from Charles Fox, by the way.

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Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

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One thing I really love about the spindle sander is that it sucks the dust really well. So I used a table saw fence and clamped it with a distance of about .20 between. It worked really well to get the material down on a set of sides. I did one side really slow, then flipped it and did the other edge. If you go slow it worked pretty good. I've been thinking about making something to radius neck blanks. Any ideas

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Jason Moe
LaCrosse WI 54601

Very interesting ideas here! I have a Ridgid OSS as well.

I'd like to figure out if the oscillation can be "disarmed" and re-connected quickly enough to make the sander just a spindle sander when I want it.

With a very light touch, the lifting motion of the sanding drum doesn't grab and lift the wood, but if the wood has a bump or rough spot, then it can. For example, I'm surprised to see Chris Paulick getting away with sanding binding strips. It seems they would want to lift up with each upward stroke. In that particular case, a teeny horizontal shelf/fence above the 1/4" mark on the wood fence would probably handle that. It just seems like for some tasks, like sanding headstock shapes with a template, a spindle sander would work better than an oscillating spindle sander. Besides, if the spindle simply spun, then I could probably dispense with the outboard rub collar, instead sliding the sanding sleeve up 3/4" and maybe just put some duct tape or gorilla tape on the exposed 3/4" of sleeve, as the rub collar. As the sanding sleeve would get loaded/gummed/burned/worn out, you could flip the sleeve over once and after that you could cut 3/4" off the sleeve and be right back in the game. Anyone else think that idea is worth pursuing?

If the unit cannot easily be modified to quickly switch from oscillating to non-oscillating, then I'm all ears about the stationary outboard rub collar idea.

Dennis

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Dennis Leahy
Duluth, MN, USA
7th Sense Multimedia

Dennis, I guess it might depend on how much you are taking off at a pass. I have no problem as the 3" spindle has no problem removing wood from 1/4" high binding.

Jason, If you can make a table for your OSS then here's a jig . YouTube is a great source of info.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4ubNo3pS0g

I do have to hold it down as I pass it through but no big deal. I'll also sand them on the flat for height and sometimes put my little metal rule between the magnets to help hold it down if it should happen to want to jump up some. Like I said it's just simple but works and when you are using it you get other ideas if something comes along. I just don't want to be cutting into the fence as I use the fence for other things the that. Like scooping the brace ends be for gluing them on.