How would you do this?

curiousgeorge · Post by **curiousgeorge** » Tue Nov 04, 2008 9:43 pm

I am in the process of making a drum sander table. I have started drawing the plans in Sketchup. So far I haven't added any measurements, but the table top needs a 2" wide slot on the top that has a 45 degree chamfer to the bottom to accommodate the sanding drum . Any suggestions as to the easiest way to accomplish a captured chamfer?

tom_k/mo · Post by **tom_k/mo** » Tue Nov 04, 2008 10:09 pm

George, I'd start with a rectangle as a cross section of the top, draw your champhered opening on it and then use push/pull to extrude the sides, then draw a closing polygon and extrude the rest of the way. Once it's all extruded you can erase the lines of the joining solids to make it "one"... Kinda like this if I understand you right...

curiousgeorge · Post by **curiousgeorge** » Tue Nov 04, 2008 10:22 pm

Tom,
I see what you are saying in Sketchup, but I guess I wasn't clear with my question. What I need are suggestions as to how to go about actually cutting the chamfered slot in the top. Such as; saber saw, table saw, router, etc., but thanks anyway.

tom_k/mo · Post by **tom_k/mo** » Tue Nov 04, 2008 11:03 pm

[quote="curiousgeorge"]Tom,
I see what you are saying in Sketchup, but I guess I wasn't clear with my question. What I need are suggestions as to how to go about actually cutting the chamfered slot in the top. Such as]

Sorry for the missunderstanding George, I think I'd be tempted to build it out of 4 pieces and dowel it together.

Bruce · Post by **Bruce** » Tue Nov 04, 2008 11:04 pm

Any reason why it has to be a chamfer? Why don't you just cut out a rectangle just smaller than the opening you need and then somehow lower the top onto the spinning drum so that it cuts its own opening?

reible · Post by **reible** » Wed Nov 05, 2008 12:10 am

This sounds like an interesting project.

Are you modeling this after the one Nick has in one of his books?

If you are planning to use this like the sandflee you may want to think of making the opening smaller.... If you have never seen my "sand almost free" it might not hurt to see how I did it on the cheap...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12199425@N02/sets/72157602596407239/with/1720436416/

Does sketch up do modeling or are these just sketches?

Sometimes it is very importain to make sure you really know what things look like to make plan of how to build it. Just for information purposes I did a quick mechanical drawing of a top and sander and put 5 deg steps as if it were cut in a straight line. I don't know if that is what you expected?? Trying to cut say a 45 deg opening starts making the opening have to be a lot larger then I think you want it.

[ATTACH]2321[/ATTACH]

I'm not saying this is a solution for you but here is another way to look at it. The following sketches show making a series of slices taken off around a phantom circle just larger then the sander.

[ATTACH]2322[/ATTACH]

Once the heights/depths are determined then one could cut as shown in order from 1 to X, shown is half of the cuts. In this case I used 1/8" cuts but again this is only an example.

[ATTACH]2323[/ATTACH]

The results would look something like this.

[ATTACH]2325[/ATTACH]

Ed

fjimp · Post by **fjimp** » Wed Nov 05, 2008 7:59 pm

Gentlemen I am impressed. I took the easy way out and bought a sand flee. I love it. fjimp

curiousgeorge · Post by **curiousgeorge** » Thu Nov 06, 2008 1:20 am

Hi Ed,

Are you modeling this after the one Nick has in one of his books?

No. Actually this is the 18" V Drum Sander kit from Stock Room Supply and it is their table top design. I do like your rounded out solution though.

Does sketch up do modeling or are these just sketches?

Sketchup is a 2D/3D modeling program. It is an amazingly robust program considering it is a free download from Google. A lot of woodworkers have started using it because you can model to scale and see your work from all different perspectives. Tom_k/mo has posted a number of plans he made with Sketchup on his site at http://vbwhiz.isa-geek.net/plans/ if you want to see what can be done with the program.

tom_k/mo · Post by **tom_k/mo** » Thu Nov 06, 2008 10:29 am

Does sketch up do modeling or are these just sketches?

As C_George said, SketchUp is a 2D/3D modeling program, not just sketches, and the models are as accurate as you want to make them. SketchUp is a pretty remarkable and robust application for a free app. Having been trained in multiple CAD systems I'm really impressed with ease of use and features in SketchUp for woodworking. I actually believe that it is a true solids modeling application, similar to Unigraphics is. Any 2D work you do is done and stored as a "sheet solid" (in other words, it stores length/width/depth values of everything, sheet solids just have a depth of zero). The advantage of this is that you only have one modeling base to design/draw/store/render any geometry, it makes coding more consistant, easier to maintain, and a simpler user interface. Dimensioning is tied to the actual geometry, if you dimension a part, then re-size it, the dimensions automatically update to the new, correct value. Another neat feature is the texture mapping, shading and shadows features, and the option (beneficial in architectural work) to see how shadows are cast on, or by an object at a specific time of day, on a specific day of the year at a specific geographic location.

reible · Post by **reible** » Thu Nov 06, 2008 3:48 pm

OK, the name "Stock Room Supply" brings to mind what you are building. Don't they offer a design already drawn and perhaps a top that you can purchase for another $80 or so??? Or are you adjusting to fit some thing like the shopsmith for power?

I think I may have tried sketchup maybe 6-8 years ago when they first started out. It was real buggy and kept crashing my system and when it was working it was really really slow. I never got far enough to see any benifits but I'm sure they have come a long way since then. It is also possible it was another free program??

The only modeling software I've used is Pro-E but that was limited to taking classes and playing with it... I ended up changing jobs before I ever got around to actual using it to design things so I'm a little weak on actual modeling software use.

If things get slow this winter that might make a good pass time. For now I do my own sketchs on paper and only draw up things when they have to go in to rotation or I need some angle that I don't feel like trying to use math for. It doesn't happen to have a sheetmetal package does it???

Ed