Official Luthiers Forum!

So I'm scoping out a drum sander (General) and the specs say the minimum thickness is 1/4" which obviously will not meet the needs of lutherie. Is this standard? If so, how do you enable a lower cut? Do you build up the table under the belt? Other?

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Doug

Don't let fear or common sense stop you from trying to build something

mine will go to 1/32". most thickness sanders ive seen go pretty thin. planers on the other hand tend to not go so low. seems like you could use some sort of spacer underneath your work to keep it up high enough that you could get it thin....maybe

Use a carrier board under your work... or find a different drum sander. I've used my Performax 10-20 to under 1/32". I don't think it's intended for that, but it worked with no ill effect.

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sweat the small stuff.

I've thinned rims to 2mm in the 24" General, so I don't see any reason that it won't work for guitar making. If I need to go thinner then I use a carrier sled under the piece, this works well for sanding smaller stuff also. If I need to thin rims more (unlikely but...) then just stack the rims and send them through, first one side then the other.
~Cal

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Remember, there are no stupid questions, only stupid answers!

I have the same one. I'm not sure why they say minimum thickness id 1/4. I just did some purfling down to, I think, .050. If you get the paper sitting tight to the drum and you it's set up well you can go very thin. I've never tried a carrier board.

The machine is probably as good as it gets for drum sanders. You just have accept the fact that even with 3 HP it's not a wide belt sander.

Both my delta and Hausmann had physical stops on them. You could (and I did) just remove the safety stops to go thinner....

Flat 3/4" mdf carrier board for my woodmaster drum sander, no need to get too close to the conveyor belt.

I can get my Supermax down to about .025" with higher grits (120 or 180). I just have to be sure the belt is tight. But yeah like the others said above, a carrier board makes sense.

http://www.supermaxtools.com/products-s ... um-sander/

Thanks for the feedback. Very helpful.

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Doug

Don't let fear or common sense stop you from trying to build something

How well adjusted and flat the conveyor is, and how tightly wrapped the sandpaper stays sometimes determines how low you can go. The old Ryobi cantilevered design machine I use can sand to normal soundboard thicknesses, but not to veneer thicknesses without using a carrier board that has been presanded to account for the droop of the drum.

I have the General double-drum, and 0.050" is easy with no riser. I have taken veneers down to 0.012", using a 3/4" mdf riser, covered with 120 grit paper on both sides, for traction, and to keep the board flat. If you cover, or seal, one side of this stuff, you will get unflatness.

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Dan
http://www.acme-archtops.com