Shopsmith Forums

Has anyone tried making a shop-built spindle sander out of a 2" dowel wrapped with sandpaper and stuck to an old 3/8" drill bit? That should work, right? I just have some pine craft boards that I need to sand a slight curve into the end grain.

No reason it won't work that I can think of.

Drill chucks aren’t designed for side loads. That said, I don’t know how much is ‘too much’.

I’ve used a large drill bit as a “jam chuck” in lathe mode, for very light hand sanding of a roughly 2” workpiece. That worked OK, but the workpiece was also supported by a live center. You can see a picture of the setup here.

If you don’t have a Shopsmith drum sander, or maybe a 1/2” router chuck and drill bit, I’d advise tightening the drill chuck really well (use all three chuck-key holes in succession), and using light sanding pressure. And anyway, unless you glue the dowel to the drill bit, very much side pressure may stop the dowel from spinning, and cause your bit to drill right through it.

Thanks. My plan is to glue an old 3/8" bit into the end of the dowel and use that to mount it to the chuck, very tightly as you suggest. It would only be for very light sanding. I like the idea of doing it in lathe mode, but I don't have a jam chuck. I'll try it in the drill chuck and let you all know how it goes.

BuckeyeDennis wrote: . . . (use all three chuck-key holes in succession), . . .

De Rigueur for ALL operations.

BuckeyeDennis wrote:Drill chucks aren’t designed for side loads. That said, I don’t know how much is ‘too much’.

Most drill chucks are attached to their spindles by a tapered fit, side loading can cause them to work loose . Shopsmith drill chucks, (with the exception of the very early 10e drill chucks*), mount directly on the spindle and are retained by the set screw so side loading should not be an issue.


* The early 10E drill chucks had an adapter to use a normal drill chuck with the taper.
photo copied from the Yahoo Shopsmith 10ER Users group

Drill chucks are not good for side loading because there are only three very small contact areas as seen with the green arrows in the image below. The rest of the area has no support. If you ever sat on a three legged stool you know how well that works........
Ed

Add very narrow 'foot' area to those three stool legs and make them 'vertical' rather than 'splayed' for a clearer more equivalent example.

Thanks for all the feedback. I guess I'll count this as a limited success. The idea was to take a 6" length of 2" dowel, put 100 grit sandpaper around the top 3" and 220 grit around the bottom 3", and end up with a 2-grit spindle sander that I could use to sand curves. I thought by putting the two different types of sandpaper on one dowel I could use the quill feed to raise and lower it through the table insert (I already have the drum sanding table insert - it came with my Mark 7) so that I could easily change from rough to smooth sanding. The success part of the project was in learning that it doesn't work (any time you learn something it's a success, right?). I checked to make sure the dowel was cut square before starting, and check with a level on the table before drilling, but somehow it still went in crooked. So now I have a wobble sander, not a spindle sander. A unique tool, but not as effective or useful as I would like. I think the real lesson is that I need to just drop the $50 and buy the 2-1/4" drum sander from Shopsmith. Anyone use one of those? I'm guessing they work a whole lot better than my wobble sander.

Hi,

Looking at your pictures it looks like you might have the shaper insert rather then the sanding insert. The shaper insert has a hole that is 2-1/4" and is too small for the shopsmith sanders which require a 2-5/8" hole insert.

If you get the sanders I would recommend that you get three of them, one for each girt. It is faster to swap them then change the papers each time. I would also say the 6" one is also a nice idea and you can do just like you wanted and use 2 short sleeves each with a different grit.

If you think you will be doing much of this work then the oscillating sander attachment is a nice addition.

Ed

kkoyle wrote:Thanks for all the feedback. I guess I'll count this as a limited success. The idea was to take a 6" length of 2" dowel, put 100 grit sandpaper around the top 3" and 220 grit around the bottom 3", and end up with a 2-grit spindle sander that I could use to sand curves. I thought by putting the two different types of sandpaper on one dowel I could use the quill feed to raise and lower it through the table insert (I already have the drum sanding table insert - it came with my Mark 7) so that I could easily change from rough to smooth sanding. The success part of the project was in learning that it doesn't work (any time you learn something it's a success, right?). I checked to make sure the dowel was cut square before starting, and check with a level on the table before drilling, but somehow it still went in crooked. So now I have a wobble sander, not a spindle sander. A unique tool, but not as effective or useful as I would like. I think the real lesson is that I need to just drop the $50 and buy the 2-1/4" drum sander from Shopsmith. Anyone use one of those? I'm guessing they work a whole lot better than my wobble sander.