I know you guys think I must have a "man crush" on Matthias Wandel but he's come up with another example of a user built machine. Wish I had seen this before I made my sander.

http://woodgears.ca/sander/open_frame.html

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Lew Kauffman-
Wood Turners Forum Host

Time traveler. Purveyor of the world's finest custom rolling pins!

That's a nice looking build. I was originally going to build a drum sander but after I saw the sale on the Jet drum sander, I couldn't pass up the sweet deal. I probably would have spent close to the price I spent on the Jet building one in the shop. The purchase price now for the JET DS is slightly over double what I paid for mine on sale, so If I had to buy one at the current price it would be worth building one instead. One thing I really like on mine is the auto feed, while doable on a home built it would defiantly add to the cost.

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www.thepatriotwoodworker.com Proud Supporter of Homes For Our Troops

Lew, that is awesome, thanks for sharing!!!

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John Morris
The Patriot Woodworker
Proud Supporter of Homes For Our Troops and Wounded Warriors Project

I love Wandel too! I really want to make a drum sander - thanks for the post.

That is a great looking sander.  I like the idea of the bed moving up/down instead of the sander component.  Easier to make sure you are exactly parallel which I cannot adjust on my Jet 16-32.  It drops down at the outside end.  How are you attaching the "sandpaper"?

 

Phil

Phil,

Actually, I did not build this one- but wish I had! I like the open end design. I think the author used Hook-and-Loop but I don't know what method he used to secure the end tips. It isn't really clear in the article. 

Phil Rasmussen said:

That is a great looking sander.  I like the idea of the bed moving up/down instead of the sander component.  Easier to make sure you are exactly parallel which I cannot adjust on my Jet 16-32.  It drops down at the outside end.  How are you attaching the "sandpaper"?

 

Phil

Great job! Cost less too and must have been fun to do.

ahhh yes cute little Matthias.

One wonders whether he is all alone  in the world save for the internet and his video camera.

Is there a missus Matthias and a collection of little tiny Matthiai running around under foot?

Yes Lewis he uses  hook and loop.  That particular method  is nice because it goes on and comes off easily.  It's less than perfect though.  As the drum spins the roll literally expands as the centripetal force throws the  hook & loop to their  outer  grab  limits.  This creates a nice cushion which helps reduce the need for lots of horsepower but also allows the abrasive to  deflect up and around small hard spots in the wood being sanded, like knots and such.  I suppose repeated passes deals with this more or less.

I ran a monster sander the likes of which spoiled me for life. It was almost 6  feet wide and  had a mechanical conveyor belt made of steel with  a GoZillion little pads of rubber upon  which the work sat and three sanding rollers  with hold down rollers on either side of the  sanding rollers.  You'd load the rollers with three different grits and  the work would come out just perfect.

With something like that monster, I would be spoiled too.

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Harry Brink
Bulldog Woodworking
Montana

Along the line of shop built sanders here is one that takes the cake.  It's a sander AND a 20" planer and yes children it is shop built:

http://www.woodsolutions.com/planer-sander.htm

This guy http://woodgears.ca/reader/walters/drum_sander.html Tried to use a Wide Belt sanding belt as a feed conveyor.  Those things have to be under enormous tension and stretched  a little to track true.    Plus he wasn't using  shafts in his rig that were any where near thick enough to do the job. Those little things  deflected  like gangbusters  under any appreciable load.  

McMaster Carr has  conveyor feed belts that you can put together with hammer lacing  (which falls below the surface of the belt so it won't interfere with your work).  Just go to the McMaster Carr site  ( http://www.mcmaster.com )and input in the search box: CONVEYOR BELT and you'll get a page with everything you might need for making a conveyor feed system.

However there is one thing that a straight line drum sander can't finish  well: Face frames. They have members assembled at right angles so your straight line non-oscillating sander will always make a mess of the right angle members.  Of course the thing will do a fine job making the parts flush so you can finish-sand by hand and be OK.