Shopsmith Forums

I keep saying I'm going to build a thickness sander like shipwright's (https://forum.shopsmith.com/viewtopic.php?t=9382) but haven't been able to yet. This weekend I found myself really needing one for some small pieces, but was short on time. So I came up with an idea.

I still have the tube remnants from cutting my Mark 5 down to a shorty so decided to use one of those for the drum. I figured I'd just wrap that with some straps of adhesive sandpaper (cut from a 12" sanding pad), turn a plug for both ends, then turn the whole thing between centers (spur and live). I left the seam inside the tube thinking that, along with the pressure from the quill, might be enough to grip the wood plug to keep it from spinning.

We'll, that didn't quite work as planned and I had to refine it. The wood I chose was weak and/or had too much of a taper and/or was too short because it cracked after hammering it into the tube. So I tried a slightly different way. I used some harder wood and turned, not a tapered plug, but a straight plug that fit snugly with a little persuasion. Then, I drilled a small hole in the tube to put a small screw in to hold the plugs in place. On one of the plugs, using the center point made by the spur drive to mark the location, I drilled a larger hole in the end of the plug to accept a threaded insert. I decapitated a bolt and screwed it into the threaded insert. And finally wrapped some adhesive backed sandpaper around the tube.

I put the main table back on, installed the drill chuck on the spindle, tightened it down on the headless bolt sticking out of the threaded insert, extended the quill so the plug on the other end was held with the live center. And that was when my wife called me in for supper.

OK, so I did a couple of very quick tests after assuring her I'd be right there. And, pending further testing and experimenting, I'm pretty impressed! There is a very slight wobble, but if I hold the wood down to the table, and move it through slowly and consistently, the result is something I can work with. It will do in a pinch until I can build the shipwright model.

Hopefully I'll get pictures later.

Wait? You cut way tubes? Really?

If they were ER tubes I might be upset.
But, they'd probably work better!

Seriously, sounds good, Heath.

steve

skou wrote:Wait? You cut way tubes? Really?

If they were ER tubes I might be upset.
But, they'd probably work better!

Seriously, sounds good, Heath.

steve

Please explain.

Why would you be upset if someone who has 10ER way tubes was to cut them to make a mini or shorty?

Tubes is tubes, right??!

skou wrote:Wait? You cut way tubes? Really?

If they were ER tubes I might be upset.
But, they'd probably work better!

Seriously, sounds good, Heath.

steve

No, no, not ER tubes. I'd never do that! These were for my Mark 5.

BigSky wrote:Please explain.

Why would you be upset if someone who has 10ER way tubes was to cut them to make a mini or shorty?

Tubes is tubes, right??!

Not quite. The ER tubes are much thicker and heavier-duty than the Mark 5 tubes. Most importantly, however, the Mark 5 tubes are still being made. The ER tubes are no longer being made. Whatever is out there is all there is. Any time a pair gets cut, or destroyed or tossed in a landfill or whatever, that's a pair that is gone forever never to be replaced. There is a very limited number of them compared to the abundance of Mark 5 tubes. Before cutting a pair of ER tubes, I'd buy a pair of Mark 5 tubes off eBay and cut those instead.

Question:

Is a thickness sander an adequate stand-in for a thickness planer?

I know it sounds sort of silly to ask, but my need for a planer, or something that will work as well as a planer, is eating at me like the dickens.

My feeling is that so long as the thickness you have is near what you’re after a sander might be all that’s needed. That a planer is more about removing a relatively large amount of material from the original thickness from the board, beam or whatever. That good planing ahead of time might prove enough to evade need of a planer?

Zat so?

heathicus wrote:No, no, not ER tubes. I'd never do that! These were for my Mark 5.




Not quite. The ER tubes are much thicker and heavier-duty than the Mark 5 tubes. Most importantly, however, the Mark 5 tubes are still being made. The ER tubes are no longer being made. Whatever is out there is all there is. Any time a pair gets cut, or destroyed or tossed in a landfill or whatever, that's a pair that is gone forever never to be replaced. There is a very limited number of them compared to the abundance of Mark 5 tubes. Before cutting a pair of ER tubes, I'd buy a pair of Mark 5 tubes off eBay and cut those instead.

Does this mean that the going price for a set of 10ER tubes is significantly higher than that for a set of Mark 5 tubes? If so, maybe I should be buying up all of the 10ERs that I see. I might be able to recover the costs just in tubes.

idcook wrote:Question:

Is a thickness sander an adequate stand-in for a thickness planer?

I know it sounds sort of silly to ask, but my need for a planer, or something that will work as well as a planer, is eating at me like the dickens.

My feeling is that so long as the thickness you have is near what you’re after a sander might be all that’s needed. That a planer is more about removing a relatively large amount of material from the original thickness from the board, beam or whatever. That good planing ahead of time might prove enough to evade need of a planer?

Zat so?

A surface planer (or getting good with hand planes, which I am not) is the way to go and will be cheaper in the long run than buying all your lumber already surfaced to near final dimensions. Although the Shopsmith planer is very good it is also very expensive. There is an excellent planer made by DeWalt the DW735, which can be had new for less than a used Shopsmith planer.

idcook wrote:Question:

Is a thickness sander an adequate stand-in for a thickness planer?

I know it sounds sort of silly to ask, but my need for a planer, or something that will work as well as a planer, is eating at me like the dickens.

My feeling is that so long as the thickness you have is near what you’re after a sander might be all that’s needed. That a planer is more about removing a relatively large amount of material from the original thickness from the board, beam or whatever. That good planing ahead of time might prove enough to evade need of a planer?

Zat so?

It sort of depends. I have a thickness planer and I love it (it's an older Delta "lunchbox" type). But these were pieces too thin and short to go through a planer safely (about 1" wide, 1/4" thick, 11" long). They have one smooth face, but the opposite face was cut with a bandsaw and is rough and wavy. I need to glue some of the small strips together in a stack. I didn't trust myself to sand that rough face perfectly in plane with the smooth face, and keep the corners sharp and square with hand sanding. Hence the need for a thickness sander.

Of course, there might be a better way to do it that I either don't know about or am too unskilled to attempt (hand planing? I don't even have a useable plane).

BigSky wrote:Does this mean that the going price for a set of 10ER tubes is significantly higher than that for a set of Mark 5 tubes? If so, maybe I should be buying up all of the 10ERs that I see. I might be able to recover the costs just in tubes.

I honestly can't answer that. I have no idea how much a set of ER tubes is compared to a set of Mark 5 tubes. But the value I'm speaking of that ER tubes have over Mark 5 tubes is something that can't be measured by purchase price.

heathicus wrote:Of course, there might be a better way to do it that I either don't know about or am too unskilled to attempt (hand planing? I don't even have a useable plane).

How about using double stick tape to attach your short board to a longer carrier board. Then run that through the planer.