Shopsmith Forums

Hi everyone,
I have search the forum and found nothing on this question so here we go.
I was wondering is anyone has built a thinkness sander similar to the one in the Power Tool Woodworking For Everyone book. I just bought a 3X3#12 in piece of maple was unable to find a piece longer that that. I want to try doing some segmented turning with my SS. Thanks in advance.
Jim

I built one out of Douglas Fir several years ago. You have to take very light passes with it and every time you hesitate it sands a grove. If you use it with the Adjustable Stop Collar 555937 you could take light enough passes it would work better.

If you have Nick's 'The Workshop Companion' series, there is a more elaborate version of a thickness sander in the 'Sanding and Planing' volume. It is an actual project at the end of the book complete with materials lists, cutting diagrams and instructions. I have been tempted to build it for years but have yet to take the plunge.

It appears to be comparable to commercial machines complete with anti-kickback, dust collection, micro-adjustability, etc., only in a much less expensive homemade format.

I would love to hear from Nick as to whether he has used this version much and what his thoughts are on it, or if it was just a project for the book.

'The Workshop Companion' series came as part of the package deal when I bought my SS, but I would highly reccomend it if you don't own it.

Let us know if you build one and how it works!

Not long after I purchased my 500 back in '83, I made the thickness sander as described in "Power tool woodworking for everyone". I made it out of Oak and used vernier calipers to help me in turning a true cylinder. I actually got it to within about 5 thousands over the entire length.

I used it on several small projects after resawing boards to approximate thickness. It works, but it generates huge quantities of fine dust. This quickly got my wife's attention, as my workshop shared space with her laundry area. The next Christmas she gave me a dust collector. Soon after that Shopsmith presented their planer, and I bought one of the earliest models.

The thickness sander has sat on the shelf ever since. I still have it, but doubt that it will be used again.

kd6vpe wrote:Hi everyone,
I have search the forum and found nothing on this question so here we go.
I was wondering is anyone has built a thinkness sander similar to the one in the Power Tool Woodworking For Everyone book. I just bought a 3X3#12 in piece of maple was unable to find a piece longer that that. I want to try doing some segmented turning with my SS. Thanks in advance.
Jim

Yep, made one of laminated poplar. Used it only three times. It is now in the trash! As said in this thread (and an earlier thread) I used an adjustable stop collar for control. The sanding generated a mess. The worst part was the sand granules that came off of the paper. The sand left scratches gauses and a couple of gouges in my table. Had to sand down the table to remove the gauses. Finally got the table back to good looking.

Some of the folks on this forum have used the SS in the drill press position and the SS sanding drums to do some "thickness" sanding. A good thickness planer will give you a surface as good- or better than sanding, plus the fact that you won't carry any embedded sanding grit to your other tools like chisels and saws.

I looked at making the one in Shopnotes about 3 months ago and adapt it to the Shopsmith headstock but when I looked at the cost and compared it to a Promax it was not worth it. IMHO to do it correctly you should start with a professional drum, Promax actually sells theirs as a spare part for about $85, this eliminates the drum issues and holding the sandpaper. I did not purchase one because I don't have the room for another full size tool, that was he attraction of mounting something on the Shopsmith.

Prior to purchasing my SS I had built a real decent stand alone drum sander, it lasted me about 6 months till we had very high humidity then the drum didn't check out to be true any more. I could have removed the hook & loop and trued up the drum but.....

When I got the SS something in my huge shop had to go, the drum is now part of my wishing well.

To remake anything like this again I would surely take Paul's advice and spend the $$ for a true drum!

Although I do enjoy the challenge of making anything I think I will leave the tool making of projects like that to the pros when it comes to accuracy and durability if it is accuracy I expect to have in the finished product, IMHO!

I too built one and it is sitting on the shelf. It wasn't true very long and you can only make a very small pass.

I made a thickness sander for our shopsmith about 10 years ago. Uses a 2-1/2 inch steel roller I got at a surplus shop. It works great and always has. We now have a 24" General Drum sander and we still use the shopsmith version for fine work.

If anyone is interested I can post pictures. I think it cost about $50.00 to make.

Rob Mcc

Thank you, I hear everyones advise unfortunately my funds are very limited.
Rob Mcc
I would love to see what your solution was for the mounting parts. It sounds like you may have a cheaper solution, I went to Delta Machinery site and found their roller part for their sander but it's cost was $91.