Drum sander.. Help with the drum bit !

[Tvp30]

I am hoping someone can inspire me with an idea !

I am building a drum sander, everything is sorted with the exception of the actual drum. It needs to be 18" long, 4. Inch diameter, with a 20mm hole for the spindle. My initial plan was to make lots of plywood discs, glue them together.. Then finish it on the lathe, This worked to a certain point, but can't get it perfect.

Can anyone think of something I can purchase that will do the job? As makeing the drum just doesn't seem to be working for me.

 

[Grahamshed]

Not that I know about such things but how about a 4 inch drainpipe with something inside it ?

 

[Tvp30]

Thanks graham,
I have considered that, my concern with drain pipe is possible heat build up, and not being heavy enough. And metal drain pipe isn't perfectly cylindrical.

 

[Rob Platt]

Plastic pipe as Graham suggested turn your wooden discs down until they go tight inside the pipe then glue them in place. Don`t make it sloppy as then it `ll probably vibrate due to not being balanced. but slow speed it maybe ok if its tight.
I`ve done it by turning down coopered lengths of 2x1 for some cylinders i was making they were about 6" od
HTH
all the best
rob

 

[Rob Platt]

So how fast are you turning this drum sander?
all the best
rob

 

[Tvp30]

With the old lathe motor and gearing it will spin between roughly 700 - 1400 rpm.

 

[Gaz]

I like the idea of laminating plywood or mdf/hdf discs, set these rough on the shaft, bond some med grit paper to a flat piece of timber longer than the shaft so you can hold it safely then run the drum at reduced speed if poss and slowly apply pressure with the sanding timber until its smooth???

Gaz.

 

[Tvp30]

Thanks Gaz, hadn't thought of doing it that way, I've already built the body of the sander and a flat 'bed' Sao that should be quite easy.

 

[fluffflinger]

Generally people building these sanders true up the disc as previously mentioned by using the bed with sandpaper attached, either directly or to a board of some description. Steadily raise the bed and voila you have a drum perfectly round and aligned to the bed on which your work will ride.

 

[Dusty]

Hi Tvp30 , If you get stuck I could source you a piece of 110 /4 " stainless tube approx 5mm wall thickness , I could do it at cost plus p&P . If you wanted the ends welded on and bored for perfect centre that could be done too .

Kind regards Sam

 

[Tvp30]

Thanks for that very kind offer Sam, I will have a go with what I have and give re sanding technique a go, if that fails I'll get back to you.

 

[Gerard Scanlan]

Having built one of these a while ago I would say that I do not understand why you thought you needed to true the drum on a lathe. That overcomplicates the whole build. #-o You need to true the drum with a sheet of sandpaper glued to a sheet of mdf that rests on the sander bed. This can take a while! But it is very easy and it gives you a good feel of the way the sander is going to behave in action. If you do not do this you will have no guarantee that the bed is parallel to the drum. If the drum has lots of voids in the edge of the plywood just fill them with wood filler (depends on the quality of the plywood). Once you have wrapped the drum in velcro hooks and wrapped the sand paper around it you will quickly see that although it is important to true the drum as well as you can it is not as critical as you might have thought.
Check out my threads on my build problems for links to other resources.

Gerard

 

[bodge]

I also followed Gerard's method. No lathe required. It does vibrate a little at first until the drum becomes centred and trued, but after that its fine.
Don't forget the dust extraction though, it is an absolute must!

 

[R_kelsall]

Having built one of these a while ago I would say that I do not understand why you thought you needed to true the drum on a lathe. That overcomplicates the whole build. #-o You need to true the drum with a sheet of sandpaper glued to a sheet of mdf that rests on the sander bed. This can take a while! But it is very easy and it gives you a good feel of the way the sander is going to behave in action. If you do not do this you will have no guarantee that the bed is parallel to the drum. If the drum has lots of voids in the edge of the plywood just fill them with wood filler (depends on the quality of the plywood). Once you have wrapped the drum in velcro hooks and wrapped the sand paper around it you will quickly see that although it is important to true the drum as well as you can it is not as critical as you might have thought.
Check out my threads on my build problems for links to other resources.

Gerard

Has anyone got a link to Gerards threads?

 

[AndyT]

Has anyone got a link to Gerards threads?

As I'm feeling helpful... Underneath every post is a button 'Profile'. Click on that in Gerard's post to see more info about him. Included in the info is a link "search user's posts". Click on that to see all the posts that Gerard has made.
At the top is a box "search these results".

Type "drum" into that box, and you soon find this thread which I think is the one you are looking for:

https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/forums/drum-sander-envy-t49205.html

 

[R_kelsall]

Has anyone got a link to Gerards threads?

As I'm feeling helpful... Underneath every post is a button 'Profile'. Click on that in Gerard's post to see more info about him. Included in the info is a link "search user's posts". Click on that to see all the posts that Gerard has made.
At the top is a box "search these results".

Type "drum" into that box, and you soon find this thread which I think is the one you are looking for:

https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/forums/drum-sander-envy-t49205.html

Thanks Andy, i'm still finding my way around

 

[Gerard Scanlan]

Great to read that this thread is still proving useful. If you need to know anything else please just ask.