Sand Flea

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North West Indiana
Saw a sander, 18" wide, hook and loop belt, can put three grits on at one time (which for pens and small projects would be excellent). Anyway, liked the looks of it greatly, but will be spring before I would buy one. Thought I would try to approach this purchase with a little maturity instead of the usual "spur of the moment" approach! :rofl:
I saw it at Woodcraft when I was there last month, they had a video of it on the tv and it looked like it might be better for me than a drum sander. So, anyone own one? Likes dislikes? Thanks in advance for any information.
 
First of all - what do you plan to use it for?

A friend of mine ordered one two years ago. The long and the short of it was the guy never made good and charged his card. He had to file a fraud complaint with his CC company and it was over a year before he got his money back. There were lots of "oh it's going out next week" and "I just shipped it..." stories and ultimately it wasn't a good experience.

While some folks may disagree with negative reviews, I think they're the most important. The machine itself may be handy with scrollsawers and fretwork. It's really not terribly useful in most furniture operations, that I've found. You need to be very steady with your feed pressure and rate or you will get little bumps or scallops where you pause.

If you're a DIY kinda guy, take a look at Stockroom Supply. They sell kits for building your own version of the same kind of tool. Never dealt with 'em, but I've only heard good things from those who have.

http://www.stockroomsupply.com/
 
What Jason said, re: Stockroom Supply.

They're based here in Ontario, so I've seen them at ever WW'ing show I've been to in the past 3-5 years. They definitely show a good demo, and they are far cheaper than that Sand-Flea, from what I've seen.

I've read a few positive reviews in other forums, but unfortunately only a few. The company is obviously doing good business, but I just have not bumped into many forum-ites who've bought one.
 
Jason, that was amazing!!!!!!!!!! That is in all actuality what is sold as "The Sand Flea" for $600.00 and they have it for $225.00!!!!!! :eek: :eek:
Jason, that is exactly what I was talking about when I said I would approach this purchase with maturity rather than impulse!! Man, you saved me some money!! :thumb::thumb::thumb:
Okay, anyone else have information good or bad concerning the drum sander Jason has led me to??? :huh:
 
Save some more and build it outright with parts from your local bearing house. 1" dia pillow block bearings run about $16 ea, a 36" length of 1" dia steel rod will be about $20 from the local borg. The drum can be made from particle board rings epoxied to the shaft. Depending on your scrap situation you can build it relatively inexpensive. The biggest expense you'll have is the motor if you don't have one already.

I built a drum sander myself and have been very pleased with the results. It actually works much better than my wildest expectations! If you really want the sand flea idea were you run the stock over the top I'd build a drum sander AND make a second dust hood with the sand flea type dust hood/top. That way you get the benefits of both types of sanders with very little cost increase if any.

Mike

sander.jpg sander7.jpg sander10.jpg
 
Mike, I am learning the process of how a drum/flea sander work which in essence demystifies the machine. A couple of features I like is the hook and loop because I can actually on an 18" drum, have three different grits allowing very quick and efficient sanding process on small wood projects like dominoes.
Does the wood pass between the table and drum?

The $225.00 is actually the entire set up costs. Can build your own/order what you need from there and make it less. Thanks for the heads up and seeing your machine. How do you accurately set a dimension/width with your system?
 
The $225.00 is actually the entire set up costs. Can build your own/order what you need from there and make it less.

I'm not sure what you mean by "entire set up costs". Are you referring to the 18" x 2" The Works Kit on [THIS PAGE]? 'Cause it says:

The Works includes
  • the drum of choice
  • bearings
  • 2 - 10yd rolls of sandpaper
  • 2 balanced pulleys
  • Linkbelt
  • a plan to build the box
Sizes of bearings, pulleys, and length of linkbelt will vary according to the size of drum ordered.

You still have to build the box, supply the motor, etc. Not sure how that would compare cost-wise with Mike's method.

Did I miss something? :dunno:
 
An incidental question for ya Jonathan.

In the first post you mentioned using a Sand Flea-type system "for pens and small projects". I'm a "small projects" kinda guy, and it sounds great for hobby-sized flatwork stuff.

But how would you use it for pens? :huh:
 
I'd be interested to hear about the flea. I saw the DIY version a few months ago but wasn't sure about it as it seemed like there was no height adjustment. I've been looking at the flea and it is considerably more dosh but less than buying a real drum sander.
 
The sand flea is based on the idea of running your piece of wood over the exposed drum which sticks above the table much like a jointer. With a drum sander on the other hand, the work is run between a a table and the drum like a planer.

I've seen the sand flea and tied it once, though not as in building a project. I'm not convinced in the effectiveness as it's marketed. I would assume it would have to be constructed much like a jointer with a out feed table slightly higher than the in feed to compensate for the material removed if you want your stock to stay the same width. Of course it would function with a same hight table, but repeated passes would leave you with a taper. Of course if you're building it yourself you could easily make the needed modifications.

My sander is a drum sander thus the stock is sent under the drum and rides on the table. Thickness is adjusted with a screw system to raise or lower the table which is hinged at the rear. Mine is 30" wide and I was having a problem with flex on the far corners due to the width. I came up with a duel screw system that raises both sides equally simultaneously. It's a bit crude right now and I plan on cleaning up the design, but it works great and is dead nuts on! A narrower sander wouldn't have the flex problem like a wider one and a single screw design would work well.
sander3.jpg

Goggle drum sanders and you'll find a lot of different designs, some fairly crude, others down right ingenious. I took what I thought was the best of all the designs and came up with my design.

About the Velcro sandpaper... spent a lot of $$$ on it and hated it. The problem is the Velcro flexes and leaves all the sides slightly rounded over as it flexes to conform to the work piece. The Velcro also wore out quickly also and the paper is expensive. Total waste of money IMO I now buy my paper in 25yd J weight rolls for a LOT less. I looked at and tried a number of attachment methods, the simplest and most effective I found was simple heavy duty thumb tacks! Works great, I've never had a failure.

Mike
sander8.jpg
 
Oh, forgot to mention, dust collection is a MUST! I'm talking a real dust collector with some CFM, not a little shop vac. Even a fairly narrow board, 8-10" wide kicks out a LOT of dust. A 30" wide table top will fill your shop with dust before you can figure it out and turn on the DC. DAMHIK:eek:.

Mike
 
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