Drill sanding drum

[dannyr]

My old (Oakey?) foam sanding drums that I chucked on a small electric drill are knackered, and even the repair of winding foam around no longer works.

I know Black n D took over this product but the only place I can find it now is 'not available' from Amazon.

I'm guessing discontinued? Why? ---possible reasons - can't dust extract, selling 'sanders' of various types more profitable, some Brexit issue?

I always used mine outdoors and wore a mask, they are pretty safe otherwise than dust. I found these great for final shaping -eg some oval tool handles right now.

Anyone know where to get these? Note that these are the larger foam drums of about 160mm dia, 100mm width, not the little rubber backed items


Ps ---- Oakey sells itself as the fine old London brand of 200 years history, but is actually now French St Gobain, I believe. Still a fine product, but where's my sanding drum?

 

[Pedronicus]

Are these the sort of thing you were looking for?

 

[dannyr]

thanks, looks like it - wow, pricey, I hope they last well

 

[dannyr]

The price is high and I'm a cheapskate, but I see they just saw the need and went ahead making these last year because they were no longer available - so i'll support 'em - the belts are reasonably priced . The video is persuasive. They just need to make their site more searchable - my search engine didn't find them with the obvious keywords.

So thanks Pedronicus

 

[dannyr]

I bit the bullet and paid the high price - must say, good service and well made, of what seems a much higher quality of foam (time will tell) - along with my frazzled old ones, these should see me out. As you'll have guessed, I find them a very useful tool for freehand sander shaping - hand held or, usually, with drill in a mount and holding the workpiece, and much faster than most dedicated sanders.

So - recommended, and thanks P, for the link.

But, I repeat, no dust extraction poss - just now used mine outside in a breeze, no probs.

 

[D_W]

I bit the bullet and paid the high price - must say, good service and well made, of what seems a much higher quality of foam (time will tell) - along with my frazzled old ones, these should see me out. As you'll have guessed, I find them a very useful tool for freehand sander shaping - hand held or, usually, with drill in a mount and holding the workpiece, and much faster than most dedicated sanders.

So - recommended, and thanks P, for the link.

But, I repeat, no dust extraction poss - just now used mine outside in a breeze, no probs.

These kinds of ancillary bits change a lot over here, too. Once the companies are bought by a big conglomerate, they can just disappear or be changed and distributed elsewhere wiht a product that's also made somewhere else.

As for the dust, I have no formal dust collection, but do a lot of grinding (which is probably well worse than sanding because you add in the effect of the smoke). My dad got stuck cutting wood and sanding it for my mother for about 40 years and he never had formal dust collection. I remember him finding a window and just blowing the dust out or doing it all outside. I still do the same - if a shop vac with a cyclone or a box fan and open window or door isn't good enough, then ...well, I haven't found anything where that doesn't cut it other than burning things (not unhealthful, just more persistent smell).

 

[D_W]

By the way, as far as retailing goes - if you want to find out what's generally sold here, you can get on US Ebay (I use your ebay by pretending to be from the UK and then if something is interesting, just ask sellers if they'll sell stuff overseas....but that shipping part isn't what I'm advocating......

Everyone but amazon pretty much sells on ebay (even walmart does under some proxy names that don't look like "walmart"), and some amazon shipping service users will have their stuff listed on ebay and then delivered by amazon.

Point being, if it doesn't show up on amazon or on google shopping or especially, ebay, it's not available here. Most of us don't even know what the tool companies are. Sure, Craftsman is sold at Lowes now instead of sears, but (I think) in the dewalt PC stable of brands - what exactly is it? I don't know. Hand tools? Used to be made in the US by danaher and some other manufacturers, but what is it now? Don't know. Sears tried to market their tools as premium tools, but they've always been homeowner and mid grade, which PC/dewalt already had, so are they just outright junk now? Don't know.

It's nothing for a conglomerate to buy something like that, and then who owns the conglomerate if it's not public? It's not that easy to decipher. All of the businesses that were small privately owned a while ago when they change hands, it's not like individuals could afford them. So a conglomerate or private equity group buys them under a subcompany name (you probably wouldn't buy KKR sanding drums, but if they had a subcompany called "handtool competencies, Inc", maybe you would). If things don't work out, they've bought several hundred or thousand. If the sanding drums don't sell, no big deal, the top ten have been doubled in profitability and the bottom rung companies disappear. But what they don't do is remove the mom and pop brand name because the last thing they need is a bunch of long term customers just moving on.