Making a drum sander

[Inspector]

Of course another alternative is to go to the long-stroke sander design like this:

The downside to these machines is that they are fairly big and that the belt on a 6ft machine is about 5 metres long and so costs £20 plus (they are frequently cloth-backed abrasive and you need to buy them in fives or tens of each grit you use). Up until the 1960s it was still possible to buy wheel kits to build these yourself.

Scrit

Scrit
There is a small company in Quebec by the name of Viel Tools that make a stroke sander kit. (I know that it may not be cost effective to buy and ship to Europe, but for those on this continent.) The company doesn't (unfortunately) have a web site. The kit consists of the plans, 8" drums, shafts and bearings, elevating screws and chains, wheel covers and all other hardware for about $500 Canadian. The only things not supplied are the motor, electrics, and wood. It takes a belt that's 6" x156" long over a table that is 24" x 50" and is designed to tilt the entire belt assembly 90 degrees to use as a horizontal edge sander. I haven't bought one yet but its near the top of my want list.

 

[mel]

cant get the picador website up at the moment
is their a distributor for picador in my area scrit ???

 

[Scrit]

Mel

According to Dave's link Picador are now at:

103 Louth Road
Holton le Clay
Grimsby
DN36 5AD
ENGLAND
Tel: (01472) 824520
Fax: (01472) 824520
Email: [email protected]

I'd always thought they were a Sheffield company

Inspector

I've come across Viel before, mainly because they make a very low cost profile grinder - and they used to make one of the Lee Valley grinders, didn't they? Didn't know what else they did, though. Thanks for the heads-up!

Scrit

 

[Scrit]

I just followed that reference by Dave R through - and found this beauty

Scrit

 

[mel]

scrit , thats more along the lines of what i was thinking :^o

 

[mel]

for anyone still interested in this topic
ive sent an email to stock room supply . asking for their shipping cost to uk
express airmail $105
by boat $55
link here
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... L:RTQ:UK:1
add that to the cost of the kit and it kills it . shame

just an after thought on this
would it be possible to use an industrial conveyer belt roller with an outside diameter of approx 4" ??? it may work out cheaper . i think that these are made of a hard rubber compound material ???
the pillow block bearings seem readily available at a cost of £14 plus vat per pair {sourced locally}

 

[mel]

just me left in the
"build your own drum sander" thread then ???
someone else must be building one of these

it would be nice to compare notes if anyone is self building

 

[ivan]

For local supplies of plummer blocks, pulleys, shafting, chain transmission etc look in yellow pages, probably under bearing supplies, or electric motors. If you go in to the trade counter with some sketches and they're not busy you'll get a lot of help on what's available/best for your job (if not, try the next one, most towns have several) Most can do small machining jobs on the items they sell.

 

[John p]

Hi mel + john , i've built one using a mix of the best of the free plans already linked and some plans bought. It worked ok for me . Plummers block bearings look like a heavier duty pillow block to me ( i ain't no engineer) , i used pillow blocks to take a one inch shaft ( £45 from the steel merchant would only sell me a full 2 meter length ) then drilled this three or four times ( can't remeber ) for a 8mm pin about 100mm long to stop the mdf discs slipping . My drum is 6 inch diameter and 24 inches wide , using ordinary cloth backed sandpaper at £3.00 meter. Pm me if you want the plans i had to buy. The plans was worth it for the method of drum construction alone

 

[mel]

thanks john
private mail sent
looking forword to your reply
regards
mel

 

[Gill]

Has anyone else made a sander along the lines of Bob Deacon's lathe attachment? I can see me making one of those but I'm a little concerned about how much strain would be put on a lathe motor. The smallest drum sander that APTC sells has a 1200w motor whereas most lathes have much less powerful motors, with mini lathes often being less than 400w. I would use the sanding attachment very frequently and I'm worried about burning out the motor.

Gill

 

[madere]

As a postscript and to add to the body of knowledge on this type of machine here are some photos of a 300mm wide joinery sander with a short belt and overhead feed. These machines are opensided so it is possible to feed 600mm through them in 2 passes although that will leave witness marks which need to be hand sanded out:

I believe that the basic design could be reproduced with a drum in place of the belt (simpler)

Scrit

buenas tardes
tengo una maquina igual a la que muestra en la fotografia, la compre de segunda mano y pienso que ha sido modificada ya que no esta alimentando bien la madera, no arrastra, seria posible conseguir con usted fotos o planos de como es el sitema de alimentacion para ver si puedo corregir mi maquina

gracias

 

[Limpet]

A couple of pics of my home made drum sander.