Fences for the Drum Sander
Posted: Tue Jul 12, 2016 1:02 pm
This is a continuation of my previous post regarding a Drum Sander build for the Shopsmith.
http://www.shopsmith.com/ss_forum/viewt ... 5&p=216409
Fences for the drum sander serve four basic purposes: 1) provides a stable horizontal support for passing stock over the drum, 2) provides a perpendicular surface to allow stock edges to be sanded square with the face, similar to a jointer, 3) provides infeed and outfeed vertical support for long stock and 4) holds the stock firmly down on the table as it passes over the drum. Using these requirements I choose to make two different fences, one for each side of the table where both would be used to support wide panels. On the right side I built a classical fence that has a solid perpendicular surface. Its primary part is a 2”x 4” x 36” piece of extruded aluminum offered by 8020 Inc.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/80-20-Inc-10-Se ... Swv-NWad~C
It is kind of expensive but offers very solid and square surfaces with T slots on all sides giving it a huge amount of flexibility. I used ¾” MDF and two magnetic switches to hold it down on the steel table. The Magswitches worked great and provide a very solid hold even on a highly waxed surface.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01B58UPXW?psc=1
The last parts are the two 3/8”x 5” x 10” aluminum plates used to provide infeed and out feed support for long boards. Actually I bought a 10”x 10” remnant and sawed it in two.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/3-8-375-Aluminu ... XQS6pRx1mb
I drilled holes in the plates and attached them to the bottom T slots on the fence so they can be adjusted. In the closed position they provide a full 18” of support at both the infeed and outfeed, 36” total. Fully extended they provide 24-26”, 52” total. That’s good enough for at least 6 foot long stock.
Lastly I repurposed the Jessem stock guides I have been using on my router table to firmly hold stock down on the table as it passes over the drum. They can be easily shared between my router and sander now. Pictures of the finished fence is shown below. The first one shows the support plates extended.
For the second fence on the right side all I needed was a simple but solid form of support. I choose to make it out of MDF but with ¾” x ¾” x 36” steel angle stock fixed to the business edge of the MDF. I employed the Magswitches and aluminum plates similar to the other fence. For the hold downs I repurposed the Board Buddies I use for my table saw. A picture of the finished fence is shown below.
A picture below shows both fences mounted for normal operation on the sander.
With this configuration up to a 23” wide panel up to 6 feet long could be sanded in a single pass. Using two passes, just one fence and flipping between passes up to 46” widths could be accommodated but you would have to use the Shopsmith extension and floating tables for support.
I could have gotten by with using just MDF, T-tracks and simple clamps for both fences and still functionally met all of my requirements for a lot less money but I was out to build a first class system. I guess it was the same reason I spent two days leveling the table to .002”. Besides I needed a better fence for my 18” bandsaw and these fences can easily be shared. I am still well below the price they want for a new Sand Flee.
Now that the sander is complete my next post will be about using it.
http://www.shopsmith.com/ss_forum/viewt ... 5&p=216409
Fences for the drum sander serve four basic purposes: 1) provides a stable horizontal support for passing stock over the drum, 2) provides a perpendicular surface to allow stock edges to be sanded square with the face, similar to a jointer, 3) provides infeed and outfeed vertical support for long stock and 4) holds the stock firmly down on the table as it passes over the drum. Using these requirements I choose to make two different fences, one for each side of the table where both would be used to support wide panels. On the right side I built a classical fence that has a solid perpendicular surface. Its primary part is a 2”x 4” x 36” piece of extruded aluminum offered by 8020 Inc.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/80-20-Inc-10-Se ... Swv-NWad~C
It is kind of expensive but offers very solid and square surfaces with T slots on all sides giving it a huge amount of flexibility. I used ¾” MDF and two magnetic switches to hold it down on the steel table. The Magswitches worked great and provide a very solid hold even on a highly waxed surface.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01B58UPXW?psc=1
The last parts are the two 3/8”x 5” x 10” aluminum plates used to provide infeed and out feed support for long boards. Actually I bought a 10”x 10” remnant and sawed it in two.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/3-8-375-Aluminu ... XQS6pRx1mb
I drilled holes in the plates and attached them to the bottom T slots on the fence so they can be adjusted. In the closed position they provide a full 18” of support at both the infeed and outfeed, 36” total. Fully extended they provide 24-26”, 52” total. That’s good enough for at least 6 foot long stock.
Lastly I repurposed the Jessem stock guides I have been using on my router table to firmly hold stock down on the table as it passes over the drum. They can be easily shared between my router and sander now. Pictures of the finished fence is shown below. The first one shows the support plates extended.
- IMG_0688cr.JPG (166.74 KiB) Viewed 7112 times
- IMG_0693cr.JPG (172.82 KiB) Viewed 7112 times
- IMG_0687cr.JPG (159.41 KiB) Viewed 7112 times
- IMG_0692cr.JPG (216.31 KiB) Viewed 7112 times
I could have gotten by with using just MDF, T-tracks and simple clamps for both fences and still functionally met all of my requirements for a lot less money but I was out to build a first class system. I guess it was the same reason I spent two days leveling the table to .002”. Besides I needed a better fence for my 18” bandsaw and these fences can easily be shared. I am still well below the price they want for a new Sand Flee.
Now that the sander is complete my next post will be about using it.
