Does anyone have a drum style panel sander

[boostfan]

I have noticed these new large panel drum sanders hit the market like the one in the picture hit the market over the last couple years.



Something got me thinking that it really would be pretty easy to build an attachment to do a manual feed version on a Shopsmith.

Does anyone use these kind of sanders, they are certainly not cheap? Has anyone mad one for their SS? I know SS has the SandFlee for almost $600 does anyone have one of those?

[shipwright]

Hi Brad

I have this one. It's a dual drum generic identical to the General International. This one is sold here by House of Tools under their Canwood brand.

[ATTACH]10035[/ATTACH]

This is a shop made idea I saw on another site

[ATTACH]10036[/ATTACH]

Also Mark (mbcabinetmaker) has one.

They are invaluable for certain jobs but can be very temperamental and can burn up expensive sandpaper if you aren't very careful...even if you are. Also there are certain oily woods like cocobolo for instance that you just can't even think about. I use mine a lot in veneer leveling after assembly and veneer prep prior to assembly. Also great for tabletops etc. glued up from several pieces.

Paul M

[foxtrapper]

I have use of one (friend owns it). Nice tool. Don't know that I'd care to use a cobbed up one. Remember, that drum is trying awful hard to launch the wood, and the bottom belt is what's holding it in place. To do it by hand with a cobbed up one, you'd want very minimal force against the drum. Don't think you can get that fine a control with the shopsmith table adjustment.

[tdubnik]

If you use the adjustable stop collar on the table leg, you can get very fine control.

[JPG]

Interesting DC hose also!
http://www.shopsmith.net/forums/attachment.htm?attachmentid=10036&d=1281500714

At least a shopsmith was involved(one with a crank operated table height from below the table)!

[dwevans]

I made one which works fairly well for thicknessing acoustic guitar sides. I borrowed ideas from ShopNotes (tm) and Nick Englers sanding book. Here is what it looks like:


Just have to watch the exit as it does tend to want to through the piece. I limited that by adding a top roller on the outfeed to maintain downward pressure on the feed belt. That resolved 95% of that issue.

Almost forgot to mention, it's a full 18" wide. and just barely fits on the Shopsmith, but it will sand acoustic tops and backs that are already glued to size.

[hyRAMelu]

Do you have the custom plans from which you made your MkV mounted unit?

[reible]

Hi,

I have the Jet 10-20 sander which I got rather then a larger size because I don't have shop space for one of the larger models. You can read about it here:

http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=17140

It really works quite well for me and I'm glad to have it, if I would have had the room I would perhaps have gone for a larger size unit.

This type of sander works well for taking off bandsaw marks, even cleaning up after running though a planner, and works for odd grains that don't plane well. It will do thickness sanding but this model would be under powered for major stock removal... you would need to make many passes. One of the great things about these machines is the roller pressure is much less then a planner so it does a better job of making things flat.

As far as homemade projects I have two of them I've posted here. One uses a shopsmith 6" sanding drum and a small bit of woodworking to provide a version of an sander that works like the sand flee. It is dirt cheap to build and uses parts you might already own and scrap pieces of plywood. Thus the title "sand almost free" you can read about it here:
http://www.shopsmith.net/forums/showthread.htm?t=863

The next project was something I called the "sand-ed" and is larger being about sand flee size. A lot of details on the construction can be found at:
http://www.shopsmith.net/forums/showthread.htm?t=5342

These last two projects are a lot different then the drum sander I own, they have a different function in life and should not be confused. The sand flee type sanders are just cutting with the grains of sandpaper and are not made to remove large amounts of material. You may thing of them as being more like hand sanding but with even less pressure.

Ed

[scollins]

All drum sanding operations are meant to be light touch operations just like the random obital sander where you shouldn't try to press harder to get done faster (it just wears the tool out faster). If you are trying to do any serious leveling or material removal then use a hand plane, jointer or planer.

I have used the commerical drum sanders and they work great, but it is very easy to load up the sand paper and get burn marks. Some woods more so than others. I have also used my Shopsmith with a sanding drum and the table saw table. I found that was easy to control the thickness and very quickly got over my safety concerns about material being launched by the drum. You do have to hold on to the material as it passes under the drum, but that applies to all cutting and drilling operations which I would deem to be more risky than sanding with the table. You do need to keep a steady feed rate to avoid divets.

I have Nick's plans for a thickness sander, but have pretty well decided that I will design a dust collection port and use the drum in the lathe set up with the adjustable table. It doesn't require as much set up and definitely doesn't eat up precious storage space. The Shopsmith site has directions for building a sanding drum to use in the lathe set up.

My work tolerances are getting tighter and tighter. As I improve, I find that I am grabbing my hand planes and scraper more often as that is the only way I can get the 2 & 3 playing card tolerances or get the edge band perfectly flush with crisp edges.

[dwevans]

Do you have the custom plans from which you made your MkV mounted unit?

I pretty much followed the plans from shopnotes, issue 83 ??? not sure of the number, I then looked at how Nick had mounted his drum sander on the shopsmith, did some rough calculations and cut out a recess in the bottom to go around the way tubes and get the shaft to line up. I also modified the table lifting device to work off of a single screw. You can see it in the picture I posted.

It's not a cantelever device like the Delta 10-20, but it does the job, slow but steady. Notice the Paudauk does gum up the sanding belt quite a bit. Had to change the belt several times before I got to the proper thickness.

If you want more details, let me know. I'll have to go measure it directly.