home made inflatable sanding drum

peterm · Post by **peterm** » Wed Jul 20, 2011 2:32 pm

Near the end of this older thread, I show a "faceplate" I made:https://forum.shopsmith.com/viewtopic.php?t=7813

Today I finished an 3" wide inflatable sanding drum to mount on one of them, based on an article by Frank Gregg in American Woodworker of June 1997.
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It uses standard 3x21 sanding belts and a 2.80/2.50-4.00 lawn mower inner tube, quite clever of Mr. Gregg I think. I used a 5/8" center hole instead of his 1/2"; 5/8" MDF, so four layers instead of his five; and 1-7/8" dia. valve access holes. I am about to turn the inner tube seat in this photo:
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After turning it looked like this:
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I used a piece of 5/8" shaft to keep things lined up and for marking out:
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Here it is ready for the inner tube:
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A couple more photos are in the next message.

peterm · Post by **peterm** » Wed Jul 20, 2011 2:46 pm

You should hole saw the inner tube valve access holes last in the sequence of assembly steps, to keep the 5/8" center hole till no longer needed for centering. Here is the inner tube, bought at a local riding mower repair shop, installed. You can see the fill valve in the access hole:
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I cut off the protruding 1/4" bolts and screwed the floor flange based faceplate to it. I preferred to mount it on the same one it was turned on, but managed somehow to hole saw the inner tube valve access holes in the wrong half of the pieces, and the 1/4" bolts would not fit through the two holes in that faceplate, due to not drilling exactly perpendicular, so I used the floor flange one. All is ok in the end. It revolves reasonably smoothly and works fine as a sanding drum. I did not center the belt well for the photo below:
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I may cut the 1/4" plywood rims down some; they barely fit inside the 3x21 belt!

MikeG · Post by **MikeG** » Wed Jul 20, 2011 2:58 pm

Very interesting. Thank you for the post with photos. I want to make one.
What do you sand with it?

peterm · Post by **peterm** » Wed Jul 20, 2011 3:02 pm

Just completed it today, so no real use yet. I am thinking of trying my hand at intarsia, like you see here:http://www.sawbird.com/