home made thickness sander

Mike Gager

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118
Location
Topeka KS
issue #86 of shop notes has an article about using your table saw to drive a drumsander using a pulley mounted to the table saw arbor with a v belt driving the sander. it looks like it could work pretty well, i was curious if anyone has ever done something like this?

im gonna be in the market for a new table saw soon and was wondering what to do with my current one, i might have to try this out if you guys think it would even be possible. does anyone know the article im speaking of?

here is shopnotes online extra for the article which shows a picture and has a cutting list

http://www.shopnotes.com/issues/086/extras/thickness-sander/
 
sander

I read that article - and I found a detailed web site of a guy that made the same sander with several modifications - one of which is a powered feed roller system.

I am thinking on a thickness sander build in the not too distant future myself.
 
after trying most of the low budget sanding options i`m of the opinion a fellow is better off both financially and quality wise to carry your work to a shop with a widebelt or good drum sander and give the shop owner a few bucks to run your stuff.
i do this for a couple of local folks and believe it`s just common courtesy.
 
You make a very valid point Tod,and its certainly a way for a woodworker to use the best available and yet not have to go spring for the expensive wide belt sander.

In some ways I have the same option. I certainly could take anything I make and lug it to work and use their wide belt sander, but its kind of a hassle. Certainly if I had a wide belt sander at my home shop, I would find many, many uses for it I normally would not do if I had to lug my projects all over creation.

After using a Gilliom Bandsaw,and seeing what impressive results can be made out of home-made woodworking tools, I have come to the conclusion that with a bit of ingenuity, a lot of research, some luck and a whole lot of fun making the thing, some impressive home-spun tools can be made.
 
i agree 100% travis........for most stuff.
when it comes to sanders it`s a whole `nuther animal, sanders must be dead on accurate across their width and have enough power delivered at the correct speed to remove stock without loading the paper or burning the work.
most commercially available drum sanders don`t have this equation solved so asking a "homebrew" to do the job very well might be pushing it for most folks. i believe ad used to work designing widebelts you might ask him?
 
Yeah I see your point. I have a few ideas that I am mulling over to compete with the entire drum sanding concept. Some are outside the box ideas, so I'll wait to prove them before I embarrass myself here. The other thing to keep in mind is that I have the machinist mentality so precision does not scare me like some home-brewed concoctions would.
 
here`s a thought.....one i`ve seen in action that works,
a friend built an arm to control a random orbit sander so as to sand sashes without tipping the sander and gouging the work.....
 
I was thinking a long the same lines, but a ROS aluminum plate, mounted to a ROS that took a whole 8 x 11 sheet of sanding paper. It would have an arm that shifted from left to right as the ROS ran, the plate riding on the wood as it was driven through the planer. You would have to pull the wood through the sander for the remaining few inches of the board, but you would be planing and sanding all in one operation.

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