| Blog series by WoodenSoldier | updated 405 days ago | 6 parts | 11818 reads | 22 comments total |
Part 1: Designing and demensioning
For months now I have looked at other people’s homemade drum sanders with the intention of building one myself. About 4 months ago I went out and purchased some MDF to make the discs to stack into the actual drum, but quickly abandoned the whole project when I got busy. Over the last week I decided to start it back up and finally cut enough circle to build a 14” wide drum. But then I started thinking to myself “Why just build a drum sander? Why not put a disc sander ...
Part 2: Prototyping the size
Trying to figure out the size still. I picked up a .5 steel rod at the hardware store and mocked it up a little. I haven’t glued the discs together yet or I just wanted to check out the size. I’ve got 24” to work with, which I think will be plenty of space to fit the whole thing except for the disc sander table. That’s not a big deal I guess, I’ll just make it fold down, so that it will fit in my flip up cabinet. I did a little digging around on ...
Part 3: It's getting out of hand.
This did start out to be a simple shop made drum sander but it has mutated into something larger (and a bit of an obsession). I’m having fun just thinking about building it, the question is how well I’ll actually be able to replicate my design. Still haven’t located a motor since my last update, but I did mess with the design a little more. I added 4 struts to the table to stabilize it when it’s raised and lowered. I found some brass sleeve bearings that should fit...
Part 4: Gathering materials, making parts, prototyping
The last two weeks I’ve been gathering some of the materials and prototyping some of the parts. I picked up a 1.125 HP two speed pool pump motor along with a hand full of pulleys and belts for only $22 on Craigslist! I tried to give the guy $30 and he wouldn’t take it. What a steal! Does anybody know where I can get a custom sander paper belt made? It will need to be about 16” wide x 66”. First I glued up the main drum onto a .5” steel rod. I left ...
Part 5: Table assembly
Still working on the drum sander table. Coming along well, though I’ve broken a few taps and bits requiring me to scrap a couple of parts.So the table is two pieces of 3/4” MDF laminated together. I glued T-nuts into the sides to hold the side bars. One end of the table has a mechanism to adjust the tension on the conveyor belt. The side bars of the table are made from 3/8×1.5” aluminum bar stock. I machined the slot out using an end mill. The tension is a...
Part 6: Frame work 1
I welded most of the frame up this weekend. I’m a beginner welder so it’s not great, but it’s square and strong enough. First I welded nuts to the brackets I made last week. Then I welded the frame from 1×1 steel tubing. I welded some bronze bushings to the frame to keep the threaded rods straight. This was a bit messy since they’re impregnated with oil which flushes out and burns black smoke when you weld them.Here’s the one on top…And ...
