Quick and Dirty Drum Sander Stand

Vaughn McMillan

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Not as quick as I would have liked, and a little dirtier than planned, but I finally did a bit of flatwork this past weekend and slapped together a stand for my newly-acquired drum sander. I was able to put together a flip-top rolling cart for the cost of a sheet of plywood, three 2 x 4 studs, and a few bucks worth of nuts and bolts (plus a few other bits of plywood I had laying around the shop). I didn't need fancy, but I wanted stout. I didn't take a good series of progress photos, but I grabbed a few along the way.

The basic plan was for two 2 x 4 frames - one on top and one on the bottom - with 3/4" plywood sides. (The 2 x 4 studs were milled down to 3 1/4" x 1 3/8".) The bottom frame would get a skin of 3/4" ply on the bottom, and be glued and screwed to the sides. The top frame would be skinned on both sides with 3/4" ply and mounted with bolts and T-nuts to allow it to swivel and flip over. One side would have the sander and the other side would just be a flat work surface the same height as my tablesaw.

I haven't used my vertical tablesaw sled in a long while, but it sure came in handy for cutting the box joints for the frame.

Drum Sander Stand - 01 600 HR.jpg

I used the Freud Box Joint blade set to get perfect 1/4" wide flat-bottomed cuts, and used the Incra fence on my saw to move the sled exactly 1/2" at a time.

Drum Sander Stand - 02 800 HR.jpg

Gotta love the Incra fence on a tablesaw. This took me about 5 minutes to knock out, including setup time...

Drum Sander Stand - 03 800 HR.jpg

The obligatory glue-up in the clamps shots...

Drum Sander Stand - 04 800 HR.jpg Drum Sander Stand - 05 800 HR.jpg

I didn't get any photos of the plywood cutting. You've seen plywood being cut, right? :p

Since the upper frame is a closed box, I wanted to be sure the T-nuts don't get pushed out when driving the bolts to support the top. A 3/4" sheet metal screw on the edge of each T-nut should solve that problem...

Drum Sander Stand - 06 800 HR.jpg

The base is very basic. As I said, it's just glued and screwed to the sides. The casters came off one of the Harbor Freight moving dollies they have on sale for $9.95 periodically. Buying those dollies is the cheapest way I know to get four 250 pound rated casters.

Drum Sander Stand - 09 800 HR.jpg

One tricky part was mounting the sander onto the swivel top. The base of the sander has four holes and threaded studs welded onto the backside of the channel steel that makes up the base. These studs are on the inside of the frame, hidden and out of reach. The idea is that you can simply run a bolt from underneath through a benchtop and screw it into the threaded stud. Unfortunately, a couple of these studs were broken off on this sander, so I needed a way to access the inside of the frame channels to hold a nut. To do this, I cut a couple of rough access holes in the plywood under the sander. Here's a photo of the swivel top, with the sander in the inverted position and the smooth, blank top removed. I was able to reach into those holes to hold the nuts that replaced the missing threaded studs...

Drum Sander Stand - 07 600 HR.jpg

Here's the stand with the flat top installed. Meet the new horizontal space in my shop to collect stuff...

Drum Sander Stand - 08 800 HR.jpg

And here's the top flipped over with the sander ready for action. I took the extension tables off the sander because I simply don't have the real estate in the shop for that long of a machine.

Drum Sander Stand - 10 600 HR.jpg

Both tops are just screwed on, so I can get back inside if I ever need to access the sander mounting bolts. (Such as to temporarily put the infeed and outfeed tables back on.)

Although I don't plan to make it a habit, it was fun doing some flatwork for a change. :whistling: I even got to use a couple of my hand planes to clean up a few things and make things match up better. I'm not set up very well for cutting sheet goods accurately, but there weren't any problems I couldn't fix with a sharp plane. Since it was on plywood, I used one of my beater planes, but even so, it was sharp and it made easy work of making things fit.

So far the only finish on it is a single coat of BLO. I may get motivated to take the sander off someday and put a more durable finish on it, but I wasn't going for pretty, just functional. ;) It should do for now, and it solves my "where do I put this sander?" dilemma. :D
 
And here's the top flipped over with the sander ready for action. I took the extension tables off the sander because I simply don't have the real estate in the shop for that long of a machine.

View attachment 60870

Great job, Vaughn. Flip-tops are surprisingly useful!!
What is your top pivoting on, just some bolts?

And where did you get that big green multi-drawer cabinet in the background? Looks bigger than a card catalog, and I bet all those drawers are very handy. (I need more drawers in my shop!)
 
Very neat solution.:thumb: But you can admit that you were suffering withdrawal symptoms from not having used your table saw and incra fence for a while. You can come out the closet now flatworker.:D:rofl: If you aint one why take on the sander eh?;)

Neat trick on the casters, i aint seen that floor you got in prior pics of your shop. Should run well on that. On mine i need min of slightly larger wheel diameter for a unit of that weight.

Just love the joints, neat upright jig you got to slide across the table saw. What is running in the t track between the two pieces?

Now someone is going to have to do it with a different joint on the corners.:D
 
Seems pretty quick and not so dirty to me.

I'm a big fan of the flippers!

1.1278422285.clapping-dolphins.jpg
 
Couple of comments -
really nice work on the finger joints
great overall design and economical use of materials
nice looking end product
Does the sander just flip over without much effort? That is very appealing.

BUT
why do you, an accomplished and gifted turner, need a drum sander?
Oh never mind, I remember now, you are also the cutting board guy ;)
 
Thanks, guys. I appreciate the comments. :thumb:

...What is your top pivoting on, just some bolts?

And where did you get that big green multi-drawer cabinet in the background? Looks bigger than a card catalog, and I bet all those drawers are very handy. (I need more drawers in my shop!)

I used 3/8" bolts for the pivot. The bolts go through a steel plate on either side that acts keeps the bolt from making the hole oval over time. The other bolts are just bearing on the wood itself, but I don't see the need for a metal plate. I did use machine bolts instead of something with a knob on it, since I wanted something with a bigger diameter. Plus, I didn't see the need for knobs, as seldom as I'll be flipping the top. They come out quickly enough with my speed wrench. :D

Drum Sander Stand - 11 600.jpg

That little metal parts cabinet was my wife's dad's. I believe it's government surplus from the Cold War days. I've got another (larger) one that was my grandfather's that dates back to post-war Los Alamos.

...Just love the joints, neat upright jig you got to slide across the table saw. What is running in the t track between the two pieces?

Here's a thread explaining the vertical tablesaw sled, Rob...

http://familywoodworking.org/forums/showthread.php?t=122

...Does the sander just flip over without much effort?

The center isn't really the balance point, but it's not too difficult to lift the motor side up to get the top lined up and bolted into place.
 
Great looking cart, Vaughn! I'll have to keep your idea of box joints on the 2x4's in mind - never would have thought of that. Looks real solid!!! :thumb:
 
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