Do you recognize this drum sander?

[edma194]

Picked up this drum sander at a low price. No idea who, what, when, where, or how it was made. It might be a one-off. It has certainly been modified from it's original form, how much I have no idea.

If you have ever seen a drum sander like this or know anything about it please let me know.

The sanding drums are about 6" diameter and about 14" wide, it came with 2 drums which is nice, but they aren't easy to change.
It has a 2HP 220V Dayton motor for the drums and a smaller 120V Dayton gear motor to power the conveyor.
The conveyor belt is new (not shown in photos, removed for safe keeping).
This thing is heavy, it's made out of 2X2X3/16" square steel tube, and various piece of 1/4" and 3/8" steel plate.
There are front and back hold down rollers.
The height adjustment is not original, there may have been another motor for that before, now it's an old tool wheel on an axle. The height adjust uses a chain going around 4 hefty screws.

It is not completely reassembled in the photos but the major parts are there.

In this view the clear plastic dust manifold is just sitting on top.

Front

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Here is the front with the dust manifold removed and the drum showing.

Front with drum

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The left side is rather dull. The control box for the big motor gets mounted to the metal plate part way up on the right.

left side

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Here's a shot of the motor. You can see the height adjust chain that wraps around.

motor

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A shot from the top with no drum

top no drum

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And one with the drum mounted

top with drum

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The right side shows the vertical axle for the height adjustment. That empty plate behind probably held something else for the height adjustment, maybe a motor.

[JPG]

Feed belt etc.????

[edma194]

The conveyor belt is removed so it doesn't get wrecked. You can see the front roller of the conveyor in the front and top views, it has green and black tape wrapped around it for some reason, maybe trying to make it crown there. The top views show that brownish laminated board the the belt rides over. That conveyor frame by itself must weight 40 lbs.

It was too heavy to move intact so it was disassembled to bring home and I just put it back together to make sure I had all the pieces. Now I have to take it apart to clean everything.

I'm not sure why it was made so heavy for a drum that is only 14" wide. Perhaps they were sanding huge heavy beams and originally had a much larger conveyor.

[JPG]

Do not knock 'sturdy'!!

[edma194]

Do not knock 'sturdy'!!

I'm thinking about getting this planer, want to come help me move it?

[BuckeyeDennis]

The drum sander looks like a home-built to me, Could be great, could be a headache.

But that Crescent planer looks awesome. Snipe? What snipe?! Although there could there be Babbitt bearings lurking in there. If so, rebuilding gets more complex ...

[edma194]

The drum sander looks like a home-built to me, Could be great, could be a headache.

But that Crescent planer looks awesome. Snipe? What snipe?! Although there could there be Babbitt bearings lurking in there. If so, rebuilding gets more complex ...

I don't have any more info about this particular machine. Crescent made a lot of heavy planers and a lot of them use Babbitt bearings. I have no idea what that beast weighs but machines like that get measured in tons.

[DOWeaver]

Looks to me like it may have been part of production line. Not used all the time or built to be removed for serviceing? What makes me think this way? The square clips maybe where used for outside covering . DOWeaver indy

[jsburger]

I would say it looks like it was home made. Look at the welds closely. They don't look like anything that would come from a commercial manufacturer.

[edma194]

I would say it looks like it was home made. Look at the welds closely. They don't look like anything that would come from a commercial manufacturer.

There's a mix of high and low quality welds. I think there was a lot of modification from it's original form. Still, it is probably a one-off.