industrial drum sander information

[CaseyJ]

hi all.

new here and first post, been in the wood industry over 35 years on and off in lumber mills and shingle mills on the west coast of canada.

I am looking for information on what is available for drum sanders, IE what drum diameter has been made, only need it to be 18 inches wide, and not needing a feed belt as I will be remaking what we use already.  we use a bottom sanded belt sander 20hp 3ph with 1700 rpm feeding 100 feet a minute.  what i want to build is top sanded drum sander.

can anyone direct me in the general direction of manufactures of this style equipment? if there is anything out there.

what type drum sanders are being used in your shop/factory.

thanks for your time and replies.

[tacks Y]

So you have a 18" bottom belt sander? And you want to add a drum on the top? Your 20hp seems to big for a 18" belt but maybe not for the speed you are running? I had a Grizzly 24" drum sander and the drum was 5-6" dia. Went to a wide belt and much happier. Most of my complains were the mach and not the drum. It left marks from poor hold down roller design, or you get what you pay for.

[CaseyJ]

hi tacks,

thanks for the reply, maybe i wasn't clear, i am drawing up new plans or ideas on improving how we sand currently and wanting to eliminate the bottom fed sander with a new flat top chain converour with low buckets to push/slide our products under a drum sander. this will eliminate the top push down unit that holds the pieces over the belt. (eliminating jamb ups and torn paper) (and down time) we run 30 grit paper at high speed in one pass to take off just under a 1/16 inch of wood.  the finish is smooth enough for what we need. the largest width we run is 15 inches wide of wood so all we need is 18 inch drum. however the 2 main things we need are speed of min 100 ft min and sanding depth.  20hp gives the 10 foot belt (folded for 5 feet) fiber backed sand paper the velocity needed to not bog down.

the drum idea will be run off a cam to give it lift and profile under the sander. there will be ample weight added to the drum with the motor and such to keep it stable.

we will not be using any of the sander that will come with a store bought unit.  it is the drum (s) that we are needing mostly as we are building a whole different design from whats out there.

with your drum would you say you would be able to take off under 1/16 inch of material with it under what i have descried?  using this with kiln dried soft red cedar.

this is why i am asking these questions  trying to understand how a drum sander will perform with what i want to build.

thanks for your time

[scsmith42]

Personally I've had better success with wide belts as opposed to drums.  Much faster to change grits or torn paper.

One of the largest N. American manufacturers of industrial sanders is Timesavers.  Check out the Industrial Recovery Services website for upcoming auctions of industrial grade woodworking equipment.

20 hp would be minimum for an 18" sander in a production environment, IMO.  More HP is your friend when it comes to rough grit sanding.

[tacks Y]

Casey, Sorry not much help for you. Never sander cedar, just red oak. Never ran that course of paper either. The drum did not like the heavy cut, only 5hp also. Not real forgiving on with starting the board in to it. Will this be cont back to back boards? That may help? Just reread your reply, the buckets hold the wood so not a cont board? Will you make the drum move left and right also? Still not a drum fan I had 2 of them. I do like my 36" wide belt, but had to reduce motor size to run in my shop.

[CaseyJ]

hi smith,

timesavers will be in touch with me, sent them letter,  thanks  IRS Auctions thanks for that also.! for us with torn paper or grits only run 1 grit so not an issue. we can get a month out of a belt if all goes good and no serious jam ups. run it on average 40 hours a month. you say better success with belts over drum,  in what way better?

tacks,

the pieces are only 17 inches long and they are separate as they go into the sander. no side to side movements.  the pieces are tapered from thin to butt as they go into the sander so they need to be gaps to allow for the cam changes of profiles.

just hoping that my new idea will work with drum sander.

cheers

[tacks Y]

So are you making cedar shakes? At 17" and tapered I see why you want a drum on a cam. Are you running these on a jig and sanding flat now? Are these just on a taper or is there a profile on them?

[CaseyJ]

hi tacks,

you are semi correct, yes they are cedar shingles not shakes  and currently they are made on a machine built in the 1950's. sanded from the bottom with a weighted pusher that holds the shingles down towards the sanding belt; sanding 100 ft a minute.  we want to update the machine and I wanted to see if a large drum sander will do it from the top instead of the bottom.

cheers

[CaseyJ]

took a picture of the sander running today.  the spool that has the paper is all that touches the wood above. the large looking twin metal plates are the holder/pusher for downward pressure, this is what got me thinking about building a top version with a large drum sanding instead. pressing the sander down instead of up.  hope this picture posts. first time trying.

cheers

 

[tacks Y]

So the plan is to run the drum with no jig for the wood just a cam to make the drum raise and lower? How do you plan to get the wood timed to the drum? Or these just boards now and you are sanding a taper into them? At 100' a minute timing seems troublesome. Go 36" wide belt with jigs and slow down the feed? Interesting project, good luck.

[CaseyJ]

 
this is top side pic. that double arm is released forcing the tapered shingle under the weight. this keeps a flat side down sanding 1 side. there are 2 drive chains you can't see on both sides and a bucket that pushes the shingle along. you can see a timing cam that lifts the pusher to miss the bucket and not driving it into the paper.  my idea is the opposite and will raise the sander to profile a tapered wedge 17 inches long and pushed by a small raised bar welded on the flat top chain. anything over 16 inches wide is a waste for the widest shingle is 14 inches. a 36inch belt would be not feasible being too wide to do any good.  can make a vid if you want to see it running

cheers  thanks for the ideas.
 

[tacks Y]

That looks like a interesting machine. The idea of a 36" wide would be more than 1 at a time. Are you tapering these with the sander? Or just finishing them?

[CaseyJ]

definitely an interesting process.  they are fed 1 at a time by the rest of the machine, so making the trough any wider would be more problematic than helpful.  they are already tapered and sanded one side. pace is 44 a minute, so 44X17=70 feet a minute roughly. cheers