Lookin fer Wood

Fla._Deadheader · July 04, 2003, 10:28:10 AM

I'm ready to start building a 40" or so, Drum Sander. I need some hardwood that will make 3½" discs, that ,when stacked on a rod, will make 40"+ of thickness. Any ideas or suggestions??? This should make a good table slab sander???

Tom · July 04, 2003, 10:37:52 AM

Australian Pine!

I've got sweet gum, maple and hickory in the barn that most is destined to go to a bonfire if you want some. It isn't worth mailing but if you happen to be in the neighborhood, have your truck.

Fla._Deadheader · July 04, 2003, 10:42:27 AM

If ya cut 'em out and drill 'em for me, THAT would make 'em worth mailin!!

:D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

biziedizie · July 04, 2003, 10:50:00 AM

Fla_

That's gonna be wayyyyy to heavy.

My old man made one out of wood about 2' long. He glued it together then turned it on the lathe. It took a 3/4 motor to turn it but a 1 horse woulda been better. Use a link belt or direct drive to stop any vibration.
If I was gonna make one I would go down to a boat yard and get a chunk off a mast, like a nice stainless steel one. It would be lighter and you wouldn't need soooooo much power to turn it. 8)

Steve

Fla._Deadheader · July 04, 2003, 11:02:39 AM

Most boat masts I ever saw, were oval shaped. A piece of pipe might work though???

biziedizie · July 04, 2003, 11:09:57 AM

Check the masts on most day sailers as they are round. They are round as most of them are hinged.
I have a nice 16' mast sitting in the shop made out of D fir that would work great.

A metal shop could bend and weld you a nice one too.

Now if only you could glue a few pop cans together..... :D :D

Steve

biziedizie · July 04, 2003, 11:12:49 AM

Fla_ one more thing if you go with metal keep it thin so it dispearses the heat. Most sand paper that you can buy for drums is the glue down stuff and if it gets too hot it's a b@$#% to get off.

Steve

Tom · July 04, 2003, 11:16:38 AM

What's a Pop Can? :D

biziedizie · July 04, 2003, 11:25:14 AM

Oooops! :D
Sorry Tom I meant beer cans. :D :D

Steve

Fla._Deadheader · July 04, 2003, 03:20:18 PM

Thanks Diz. The plans I have call for sticky back velcro on the drum and fuzzy back sandpaper.?????? This is new to me??? I'm more a metal worker than woodworker. How about 3" schedule 40 PVC??? I could make 3 wooden discs to insert to keep it straight??? I Don'T plan on taking heavy cuts, just run it through a few passes to clean up the saw lines and small bumps from drying.

biziedizie · July 04, 2003, 05:31:02 PM

Fla_

The sticky back velcro is good but they don't last that long, you may find it to be a pain and they cost. I have them on my orbital sanders and some days I wish I didn't. ???
On the flip side they shine when it comes to replacing the sand paper and re-useing them.

  The PVC sounds like a good idea but what are the chances of it warping, ??? :-[
  Next time you see a gas fitter look on top of his van and you will notice that he carries his pipe in round metal tubes. Keep a blow torch in your truck and when he stops at a place to eat grab 4' of the stuff. :D :D

   Steve

D._Frederick · July 04, 2003, 05:36:50 PM

Fla_.,

Go buy yourself a scrap of aluminum tubing and cut circles out of some plate stock and hela arc them in. You can true them up on your lathe and then balance them. That is how the commercial ones are made.

Better yet watch for some shops going out of business and get a hold of a wide belt sander, they are a marked improvement over a drum sander.

Fla._Deadheader · July 04, 2003, 06:03:19 PM

Thanks for the replys. I have been looking into wide belt sanders. They are VERY heavy and costly, around $1200-1500.00. Belts are pricey, also. I just want a touch-up machine that I can move easily. I can get Alum. tube at the metal supply shop. My lathe won't turn a 40" piece. Too short. It's a toolmakers lathe that I "overuse" a little !!

Larry · July 04, 2003, 07:27:16 PM

For you application I would go with heavy wall aluminum tube or steel pipe. Laminate some 3/4" plywood or mdf together until it is around 1-1/2" to 2-1/4" thick. Drill your holes and mount the discs on your shafting. Put the shafting in a jig and turn the discs round on a router table or table saw with a dado blade. Most accurate way I have found with the tools I have in the shop. I have made all kinds of rollers using this technique.

What you going to use to feed your board through the sander? Might have an idea or two.

Walnut roller for the outfeed and infeed on my planer. Mdf rollers with insert bearings for a prototype machine I am building.

Jig for the walnut rollers. The mdf rollers were also turned on the router table but I mounted them on my shafting after the bearings were in.

Furby · July 04, 2003, 07:36:41 PM

If it was me, and I had your welding skills, I'd just try to make a piece of light steel pipe work.
If you want to go with wood, check out your home improvement center and look for wood colums. Look for decorative ones that you can cut the ends off, they also make PVC, and some kind of fiberglass ones. It may take a while to find round ones with no taper, but keep looking. Also check salvage yards for one. If you get a wood one in most cases it will already be hollow. Just make up a way to attach the kind of ends you want. They stay pretty straight because they are usually made up of several pieces glued together. Pretty much the same as a sailboat mast.
As far as power, if it's to heavy get a bigger motor. ;D

beenthere · July 04, 2003, 07:54:45 PM

A deceased friend of mine made a drum sander. He roughed out the wood laminated 'drums' and then mounted them in the sanding position without any sandpaper on them. Then he used a block of wood with sandpaper on one side to 'feed' through the sander (slow increments), thus truing up the rotating wood drum to be parallel with the feed table. He made several drums that would be wound with different grits of paper. He used rolled paper about 3" in width, and spiral wound it onto the wood rolls, using contact cement (I am pretty sure).

For a feed system, he made the bed (feed table) so it was tilted at an angle, thus letting the unsanded panels slide down past the sanding drum by gravity. Seemed to feed fast if very little was sanded off, and if there was some extra thickness, it slowed down the feedrate somewhat automatically until the 'hump' was removed.

Fla._Deadheader · July 04, 2003, 08:23:54 PM

Beenthere, Sounds exactly like the plans I have. Their instructions describe your friend's method.
If I didn't want it so wide, this would be a weekend project, but, y'all know I can't do anything "ordinary". :

:

;D

Furby · July 04, 2003, 08:27:31 PM

There isn't anything wrong with THAT! ;D

Don P · July 04, 2003, 08:32:27 PM

Remember diameter is cooling. I worked on a triple drum at a shop till we got the wide belt. The drums were 12" and still got very hot. They had essentially a gib for holding paper, sort of like a planer. There's a FWW article from back near the beginning on a shop built unit using ply discs. I think Taunton Press has those machine plans in book form now.
Dust collection is a must too, it doesn't take long to resemble the old flour mill...that blew

.

Fla._Deadheader · July 05, 2003, 05:20:26 AM

Thanks Don. Know whatcha mean about dust, blowin !!! Why did they go to wode belt?? How much wood was removed with the drums, at one pass ??
Larry, PM me on yer ideas, unless someone here wants the info. The downhill table might be a little tough, as, these slabs are up to 8' long ??
I am going to attempt to make a booklet-plans-photos thingy with this project. :

:

Probably will look like crap, but, I'm gettin too old to keep loggin and sawin and ??? Need a safer way to keep the bills paid.

biziedizie · July 05, 2003, 06:03:38 AM

Fla_
  What's this about being old???
  Growing old is a myth :D

  Hey have you thought about grabbing some of them gators and making boots out of them??? Now there's a good way to make some cash :D :D

   Steve

Don P · July 05, 2003, 11:18:59 AM

In a word, Production. There just isn't much comparison between a drum and belt when it gets to stock removal from what I've seen. Nothing makes me feel old faster than repeatedly picking up the same board to feed it through something one more time.
I have a hard maple tabletop glued up from scrap from a textile mill cart job. I passed the slab through the drum all one Saturday morning, removing thousanths at a whack. A wide belt with power to do abrasive planing, which I think is what your operation will end up wanting, can drop 1/8" without trouble. I can't remember HP on the 36" single belt. A 52" triple belt ran 75/50/50. That machine was set up with ammeters on the motors. We could watch the meters and know when we were dogging the machine and back off. I saw clamp on meters at a truckload sale for $30, cheap insurance. At a certain point you would have enough power to take off the same amount with a drum, but you would need to extinguish the fire at the tail end :D.

Aside from belt cost, tracking the belt on a wide belt is the biggest headache I saw. The triple had air tracking. The 36" had manual with a screw and handle. As the belt heats it changes so it was a pain, we welded the cover back together a time or 2, a 36" belt makes about a mile of spagetti :D. We took that off and put a small cylinder in and an air stream in front of the belt blowing on a sail switch behind the belt. It would track in till the belt let the air hit the switch then the cylinder would move the tracking bringing it back.
Last time I went by the machinery dealer we got alot of used stuff from I saw the pres had raised panel wainscot in the office. Asked him about it and he said my old boss traded the woodwork for some machines 8)

Fla._Deadheader · July 05, 2003, 12:25:34 PM

Good info again, Don. Thanks

Larry · July 06, 2003, 09:53:42 AM

Will a stroke sander work? That would be an easy machine to build with some advantages over the drum sander.

I ran a stroke sander a few times many years ago but my memory is fuzzy on how good it worked. Anybody have any experience with one?