Sand Flee

recurvearcher · Post by **recurvearcher** » Sun Aug 16, 2009 12:23 am

Thanks for the report on The V-Drum Sander. I've been very tempted to buy one. Has anyone given any thought to a V-Drum Sander powered by a MarkV?

tdubnik · Post by **tdubnik** » Sun Aug 16, 2009 5:49 am

I got my sander working yesterday and am very pleased so far. I bought the drum kit and made my own top. I used poplar plywood for the box and melamine faced particle board for the top because that's what I had avaiable. The box assembly was a piece of cake and the top wasn't too bad to build. I am concerned that I may be getting a little bit of flex in my top as it is only 3/4" thick as compared to the recommended 1 1/8". I will either add some stiffiners or build a thicker top.

On my test pieces the sander sands dead flat. Using a Starrett straight edge, my test piece flat enough I can't fit a .001 feeler gauge between the straight edge and the board. It does take a few passes but seems to do a very good job.

As an experiment, I took a piece of 2 1/2" x 8" x 20" rough poplar that had a distinct warp in it and attempted to flatten it. I changed the paper to 100 grit because that is the finest I have right now and started sanding. On the first couple of passes the piece was a little wobbly as there was no flat surface to register. After a few passes the sander created its own flat and further passes registered to that. It took a good many passes but it did flatten the board and remove the warp.

I believe I will be using this sander quite a lot from now on.

mbcabinetmaker · Post by **mbcabinetmaker** » Sun Aug 16, 2009 7:38 am

Tdubnik

I am glad that you are pleased with the outcome. With work still so slow I may give a shot at building one. I still have a thousand things to do to get the shop back in shape so I'll see how that goes. Do you think you could have sanded the surface of to warped piece without straightening it? That is my concern with this type of sander. Being able to surface sand and retain uniform thickness. The warp does not bother me, after it is glued and clamped to the cabinet box it will be straight. I go through the bundle and choose all the straightest stock for doors.

tdubnik · Post by **tdubnik** » Sun Aug 16, 2009 8:13 am

mbcabinetmaker wrote:Tdubnik

I am glad that you are pleased with the outcome. With work still so slow I may give a shot at building one. I still have a thousand things to do to get the shop back in shape so I'll see how that goes. Do you think you could have sanded the surface of to warped piece without straightening it? That is my concern with this type of sander. Being able to surface sand and retain uniform thickness. The warp does not bother me, after it is glued and clamped to the cabinet box it will be straight. I go through the bundle and choose all the straightest stock for doors.

I didn't straighten it, the sander did. I worked it pretty much like a jointer only a lot slower BUT I can now handle boards up to 24 inches wide. I don't know about maintianing thickness yet. The passes seem pretty consitent and the sander only takes a very small bite each pass. I turned the board end for end after each pass to try and maintain equality. I'll have to get out my calipers and play with it some more to see if I am creating any taper.

If you wanted to keep the warp, you could probably do it as long as you can press your panel down flat as you pass it over the sander. If the panel is not pressed flat, it will take down the high spots first until it makes it flat.

On my rough stock, my intent is to use very coarse paper on boards too wide for my jointer to get a flat enough surface to pass through my planer. I have no intentions of using it for thickness sanding. I will also use it for finish sanding of flat boards and panels. You can actually buy sandpaper as fine as 2000 grit, not that I will ever use anything like that. It seems that you could easily go fine enough to eliminate any visible cross grain sanding scratches on things like frame and panel doors, etc.

dlopeman · Post by **dlopeman** » Thu Jun 03, 2010 3:17 pm

ALrighty Guys!! I'm reviving a couple of these V-Drum/Sandflee retrofits for the SS threads!!!

Here's what I have not seen yet - someone powering the sander DIRECTLY (not using the link belt) from the SS head (maybe using the plastic coupler?)

I wanted to find some ideas but just haven't seen anyone doing it! Hello? Easy project with great returns. We have this great variable speed motor - seems like this machine is a great sander so far with my Conical disk! haha

you know how the planer is connected to the SS headstock? Well, why not this sander idea???

I'm going to keep looking - feel free to redirect me. If I end up building this thing, I'll post my plans and pix.

dlopeman · Post by **dlopeman** » Thu Jun 03, 2010 4:06 pm

I posted these inquires in 2 places - but didn't have "subscribe - instant email" set up to be notified when someone responded. Why isn't that DEFAULT in these opensource forum (vBulletin) softwares!?!? LOL

tomsalwasser · Post by **tomsalwasser** » Tue Dec 13, 2011 11:59 am

fjimp wrote:Yes it does a marvelous job of finish sanding. Yet I have used it successfully to remove extremely slight warps in surface. When I built my shop storage cabinet I discovered the plywood shelves were slightly warped. The sand flee corrected the warp. However it is not jointer nor is it a planer.

Hi Jim. Are you still using your Sand Flee? Any further comments? I'd like to find a better way smooth out the slight misalignment of boards in glued up panels, among other things.

Best,
Tom

fjimp · Post by **fjimp** » Tue Dec 13, 2011 12:16 pm

tomsalwasser wrote:Hi Jim. Are you still using your Sand Flee? Any further comments? I'd like to find a better way smooth out the slight misalignment of boards in glued up panels, among other things.

Best,
Tom

Tom,

Yes I do still use my sand flee. I like it very much. Recently I removed the finish from an old table top that the fellow who had it in a yard sale gave to me as he viewed it as unusable (badly warped) Once the prior finish was removed I used the sand flee to straighten it out. The table was too wide to fit on the sand flee so I reversed direction every five passes. It took awhile but the final judgement was approval. Just for grins I took it by the place where I got it. The elderly gentleman was thrilled to see it in good shape. It turns out is was his Mothers. I couldn't bring myself to keep it. I'll bet he smiles every time he feels that top grain. Two things about the Sand Flee. I never attempt to set the roller higher than the table. Even at slow speeds wood could become a missile. Secondly I considered purchasing a motor from Sand Flee so I could make mine free standing. They refuse to answer their phone and do not respond to email or web service requests. I now have it permanently mounted on a 520 so I can use it without lifting. I know I am a whimp. But my right arm limits my ability to lift. Yes I would buy it again. Fjimp