Flatmaster

[RustyFN]

Has anybody seen or used a Flatmaster drum sander. I have been watching a lot of videos about it and it looks pretty good. It is quite a bit cheaper than the other style drum sanders and a lot lighter to move by hand.

 

[lew]

I looked at that design when trying to make a sander. Keeping an even pressure on the materials seemed to me to maybe be a problem. As far as hand feeding speed, with practice it isn’t too difficult to maintain a constant speed. 
 

I ended up making one with the drum above the table and hand feeding the materials. 

[BillyJack]

I don't see the advantage to having a Flatmaster...

[PeteM]

I have the equivalent, "SandFlee".  I really like it.  It's pretty easy to adjust.  It not only sands the surface, it joints it as well.  Sawdust capture is 98.7%.  Wear on the grit media is fairly low because (properly adjusted) the grit just "kisses" the wood, at a high speed.  I got the 18", thinking I could do 36" wide panels, but in actual practice I think the widest board I've ever used is 6", so the smaller version would have worked just fine.  It produces a surface one or two grit "stages" finer than you'd think:  I use 120 for everything, and the surface turns out about 220 equivalent.  3M now makes Cubitron rolls; I had to figure out the proper angle, but it went well.  I'd buy it again.

[PeteM]

4 minutes ago, BillyJack said:

I don't see the advantage to having a Flatmaster...

Think "drum sander" that is a smaller profile, it joints, it saves money.  Wood looks the same at the exit!

[Gene Howe]

Stockroom Supply has plans and the hardware for one. You supply the motor and belt. I built one and liked it so much that I left it when we moved.

[PeteM]

5 hours ago, Gene Howe said:

 I left it when we moved.

I think Flatmaster and SandFlee are more in the "hobbyist" spectrum, but they work well at that level.

[Gene Howe]

I never could get the abortion I made to produce a nicely sanded surface. Couldn't seem to get it tuned. Often got ripples. I adjusted down to get just a whisker cut and that eliminated the ripples but gawd, it took forever to sand any appreciable wood off. 

[knockonit]

lol,@gene, i picked one up a couple years ago from a gent in the ole pueblo, he touted it like it was the greatest gift to wood working, i was a jubilee dancer when i loaded it up and took home, but a week later, it almost learned to fly, i never could get it to do what it was intended to do, hence my now owning a couple drum sanders, lets just say, it could have been operator error, or machine error, shared the info with the new owner, so not sure if he was unhappy or real happy, never heard from again, so..............the conclusion is....................not for me

 rj in az

[BillyJack]

I had a "kuster" brand drum sander one time. Between the work, dust and aggration  I went back to the belt sander....

[Smallpatch]

I had a friend try to give me a sand flee, I believe is the name.

    My first question or reply was there is no way to keep even pressure on what is being sanded. So I can't see any benefit of me owning some like that. I all ready have two real drum sanders, an open ended model and the other one has two drums but is a closed model and changing sand paper is a bugger for the hole top end has to be removed with lots of bolts and nuts and usually waste a couple of hours but either machine does a great job with good sand paper..

  I learned right quick not to run pine through either model for the sap ruins the sand paper.

[BillyJack]

I'm sure if you already have this sander you can invent ways to use it. Something is always better than nothing.

 

[knockonit]

i'd bet that if one had the patience and time to figure out the nuance of the unit, it would work for them, i'm sorta impatient on some things, and power tools are one of them, if they don't do what they vendor or manuf. claim once i give them a thorough try, well then, im off to find the new ''shiney'', power tools can and will make some tasks simpler faster, i use them there but also return to hand tools as needed. nothing like a sharp hand saw, i keep a few handy 

pulled one out a while back whilst trimming some windows, instead of draggin saw in for a few cuts grabbed me little hand miter box and gave it a go, even hand nailed it as i didn't wanna drag compressor and hose in, the couple gents who were slapping a counter in asked me if i wanted to borrow some of their tools so i didn't have to hand cut, fun stuff ,i was done in a jiffy, and fella came over to take a look at my nail set ,had no idea they made things like that. 

oh well progress works some places, just not everywhere

rj in az

[PeteM]

16 hours ago, Smallpatch said:

there is no way to keep even pressure on what is being sanded.

 

  I learned right quick not to run pine through either model for the sap ruins the sand paper.

The proper adjustment of a single-drum flat sander is to lay a board on the table, and then lower the table with the drum running until the board just starts to move.  The sandpaper is velcro-ed onto the drum, and the 1800 rpm drum will actually "lift" the sandpaper off the drum just a little bit, so pushing down on  the board doesn't materially increase the friction (because the sandpaper is really floating on centrifugal force).  What you learn is that the friction between board and drum varies with the flatness of the board.  When you find a resistive spot on the board, you concentrate on that area for a few seconds to flat it down.  You know the board is flat when you get roughly equal resistance along the whole length.  At that point, it's also usually uniformly smooth.  If you don't force the board down too hard, the board doesn't deform, and you get flatness.

     I use nothing but pine, and haven't had any sap problems.  I pretty much stick to the "select" and "common" pine at HD.  

[Smallpatch]

 

Rusty I have something I would compare your flat sander to, a hand held, portable belt sander. I have both the 3 x 21 and the 4 x 24 inch models.  Neither machine sands anything good and flat like a regular drum sander. And trying to sand down panels of glued up wood for like the ends of cabinets and things I would spend more labor on one job than what a good used 22-44 open ended drum sander would cost.

   Any kind of a machine that sands glued up panels still needs a good hand held electric sander to make the wood smooth for finishing.

   From experience I think you would end up shoving that flat sander way back somewhere out of sight and be out that much money...

      But hey if this is your first goof up by throwing money away then you are probably way ahead many of us sitting here wishing we had lots of those things advertised to make work easier and more satisfying to use. 

   This would be a good place to find a used one for sale and see if you can try it out to see if it is what you are needing!!

[BillyJack]

47 minutes ago, Smallpatch said:

 

Rusty I have something I would compare your flat sander to, a hand held, portable belt sander. I have both the 3 x 21 and the 4 x 24 inch models.  Neither machine sands anything good and flat like a regular drum sander. And trying to sand down panels of glued up wood for like the ends of cabinets and things I would spend more labor on one job than what a good used 22-44 open ended drum sander would cost.

   Any kind of a machine that sands glued up panels still needs a good hand held electric sander to make the wood smooth for finishing.

   From experience I think you would end up shoving that flat sander way back somewhere out of sight and be out that much money...

      But hey if this is your first goof up by throwing money away then you are probably way ahead many of us sitting here wishing we had lots of those things advertised to make work easier and more satisfying to use. 

   This would be a good place to find a used one for sale and see if you can try it out to see if it is what you are needing!!

 

I can sand panels and doors all day and make them flat. We would put 2 30×60 radius halves together and I'd sand them flat all the time. 

 

[BillyJack]

I buy quality belt sanders like router. You can never have enough...

 

Edited October 20, 2022 by BillyJack

[knockonit]

lol, ole gal asked me about the 8 routers i have not  including the trimmers, and the 4 sanders, she knows about the ros, she goes thru them, the light duty ones she can't handle the heavy duty ones, hurts here wrist ect so i buy a couple at time the cheapies, when they start to squeal give'm the heave ho. 

 

lol, fella can't have too many dust makers of any kinds

rj in az