Todd Hunt's drum sander
Todd Hunter writes:I am planning to build a wooden airplane someday and, as you can imagine, I will need to make a lot of parts by laminating strips. So, I need a thickness sander. While looking at your reader projects I noticed Ron Walters' drum sander. I thought I might try to make my own.
I wanted an open-ended design. Commercial models with the capacity I needed cost over $1000. I just added up my costs and I completed mine for around $350.
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I needed some capacity in thickness. Some parts will be almost 6"
thick. So I made the table adjustable. I entertained your approach used
on your jointer but went simpler.
First, I needed to design a way to adjust the drum if it wasn't consistent in thickness across the width. |
| Here is the mount for the front end bushing. |
Internal structure of "C" shape.
The drum is made of a stack of plywood discs. I turned it round on the lathe.
Drum inside.
The drum can be removed to replace the sandpaper. I used Velcro backed
paper with the sticky back hook side on the drum.
I also turned the knobs.
The motor attaches to the bottom of the C-frame.
Adjustment screw design adapted from Ron's sander.
See also:
Pat Hawley's thickness sander
More sanding machines
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