Using the V-Drum sander

tdubnik · Post by **tdubnik** » Fri Aug 28, 2009 8:03 am

Yesterday I got a chance to put my new V-Drum sander to practical use. I am building some box jointed drawers for a drawer cabinet under the workbenchI built.

I cut the joints so that the pins and tails would be about 1/16" proud and then I could sand them flush with the sides. Turns out that the V-Drum sander was just the ticket for this. A couple of passes on each side and the joints were perfectly flush. This process took less than 2 minutes per drawer.

This is what the joint looked like before sanding.

A temporary fence to keep things square.

Drawer poised for sanding.

Finished joint.

dusty · Post by **dusty** » Fri Aug 28, 2009 8:18 am

Nice looking drawers and joints. It seems that you have this process down pat.

Referring to a previous thread: If these box joints were cut with that over sized router bit it can not be detected in theses photos.

tdubnik · Post by **tdubnik** » Fri Aug 28, 2009 4:43 pm

Dusty,

These joints were indeed cut with the oversized router bit. As I said in my previous post, they look good they just feel loose. When measured with a caliper the kerfs measure .254 and the pins measure about .245 so the gap is .009 - .010. A little sanding dust hides the gaps a little.

I also found a new use for my sander today. I was ready to work on my drawer fronts and am using a white oak board 1 1/2 thick and 11" wide. This is rough stock so I needed to joint and plane it before resawing. I have the 4" Shopsmith jointer and the 12" Pro Planer so how was I going to do this? Previously I have used a sled for the planer but today I decided to try the v-drum sander.

I loaded up a 60 grit belt and started sanding the rough boards. The 60 grit turned out to be pretty aggressive and it only took about 6 to 8 passes before my 11" white oak board was completely flat on one side. Once I had a flat side, I fired up my planer and trued the other side. It worked perfectly. I didn't take any pictures of this today but I'll try to remember next time.

The sander can work just like a jointer as it will remove bows and twists and does its best to flatten everything you pass over it. The time and passes required will depend on the condition of the board when you start. Mine had about 1/8" of cup and 1/16" of twist.

It seems that I not only have a finish sander but a 24" jointer as well!!