Here is a project I’ve been working on for a couple of weekends. I have to thank a couple of fellow Lumber Jocks for the idea and the links to loads of online info. Thank you to “Yorkshirestewart” and to “blake” for your earlier project posts.

This site had the most info. http://www.rockslide.org/drum%20sander.html

The goal of this project was to spend as little money as possible and since I’ve been called a pack rat a time or two, it wasn’t too hard. The frame is made of 2×4s and some hardwood from a pallet. The pillow blocks, shaft, motor, and piano hinges are all past auction sale purchases that I had lying around. The only pieces I’ve had to buy thus far were the 5 inch pulley and belt.
The drum is made of disks cut from ¾” plywood attached with epoxy to a 5/8” shaft. To finish the drum I glued 60 grit sandpaper to a piece of MDF the same width as the drum and ran it through raising the feed table a little at a time until the drum was perfectly round and parallel to the table. I sill need to make a safety/dust collection hood and some sort of wheel mechanisms. My only regret is not spending time on the looks of the piece…I could have prettied up the joinery and maybe painted it….

thanks for looking…..

Here are some items I built last week to give as Christmas gifts. The end grain cutting boards and the small box are made of maple and purple heart, the wine bottle holders are oak and purple heart, and the 45 baseball display rack is oak. Nothing complicated but the family should like them. I did however learn a few things while building the small box. Any small defect, nick or mistake looks bigger and more noticeable on a small project. I didn’t sand the inside surfaces before the glue up (very tough to do after). I should have used a straight tooth instead of an angled tooth blade when I cut the slots for the corner splines.

Also, I made a jig for routing out the places for the baseballs to sit on the rack. I simply cut a circle in a piece of plywood with a jig saw and screwed it to a couple of scraps to act as guides to keep the jig centered. The circle in the jig looked round but obviously wasn’t because routed out areas didn’t look very good. Any suggestions for next time?

I made this simple table this weekend out of some oak scraps and leftovers. Really didn’t have a plan when I started so I winged it. After the dry fit I decided to taper the legs so I built a taper jig.. Now I have a useful table and a taper jig… Thanks for looking….

I know you all have seen a ton of these cutting boards but here’s mine. I really had fun making it. It was the first time I’d worked with Purple Heart and it is sure beautiful (boy it’s hard wood). It turned out well with a few mistakes that i will always see but maybe no one else will.