Official Luthiers Forum!

Guys I'm slowly building my own drum sander, and I've been thinking about the feed machanim and wondered if anyone had tried a drive wheel instead of the standard conveyor?

_________________
Formerly JJH

I learn more from my mistakes than my successes

No, but if you expect to only run tonewood through, why not just make a sled? I'll be faced with the same choice soon enough. Just got my drum mounted yesterday.

_________________
Expectation is the source of all misery; comparison the thief of joy.
http://redrivercanoe.ca/

Buy a gear motor (DC) and some printing machine rollers. Build a simple platten and you are in business. You will need varaible speed control too.

There is a neet plan for a thickness sander at Shop Plans that has a hand crancked belt and is driven by a pulley attached to the table saw. But a separate motor will work.

John: I have a homemade sander that works as Douglas suggested ,with a sled and one person power. Only use it for guitar work and find it works very well.The only thing you have to be careful of is to provide a constant and steady feed for the whole length of the workpiece.The more complicated projects are the more chance there is of something going wrong.

_________________
A person who has never made a mistake has never made anything!!!

Having a feed mech would be great...mine is all hand fed and getting the speed/pushing force right is a bit of a chore. Using rollers would be cool, but keeping the rubber 'sticky' and clean may be a challenge. Being a pro computer geek, I have seen good results with using a very lite moisturizer to keep the rubber in printers from drying out too bad when they get really old. I am sure there are better ways though.


On a similar note...
My biggest regret on mine, and warning for others, is to use the most solid materials and joints you can manage! If the drum is off round by even the tiniest amount the thing will shake itself apart.

I have a Kuster Sander. It has an infeed and outfeed rollor that works great. I have the plans somewhere. I will try and find them and send you a copy.

Ken

Those rubber rollers are plentiful and cheap. They sell them on ebay. I have two I will never use.

im going to run to my shop and take some photos of my sander....i had it built for me but it is the best money i have spent and it sands to the 1/1000th. hand fed, fixed on one end with adjustments made with a hand wheel, chain and screws. sounds weird but ill be back in and hour with photos

here are some pics of my sander.i love this thing. its an aluminum drum from grizzly.

Very nice sploughney (sorry I don't know your real name). Looks like it would work great.

_________________
Formerly known as Adaboy.......

Nice work. Are those solid sheets of aluminum for the platten?

Mike