My Home Made Thickness Sander #9: Dust Collection And Finishing Up

any chance to see a video of it in operation? Neat build, have been drooling over the various sander projects that have been posted.

-- Crashn - the only thing I make more of than sawdust is mistakes

Looks pretty good… I have to ask. Why a 2.5” port instead of 4” or even 6”? It would seem that you could be overwhelmed by dust with that small of a port…

Thank you so much for your thorough blog series on this build… This is a project I have attempted to start a couple of times, and flamed out badly as I had trouble figuring out several of the problems, okay honestly I got stuck trying to do a laminated all wood drum. BAD flame out there… You have given me plenty of inspiration to move forward with a PVC unit…

Is the 1/3 HP motor powerful enough? I am wanting to build mine a bit bigger to handle end grain cutting boards and the like, I want to go with a sanding width of at least 26”. I see take out 1/2 and 3/4 HP motors being given away all the time around here.

What size smooth rod and pillow blocks did you use? Do you get excessive flex with the drum / rod?

-- Manufacturer of fine quality sawdust since 1984. Comments and advice on my shop welcome. Check it out at http://lumberjocks.com/dbhost/workshop. Gladly accepting shop build donations!

Well Lew, I don´t know if skate wheels will work, but for sure this blog is very well documented . Thank you again.

As to the end holdouts, I found myself in the same situation. Being worse since I did not put any velcro. AT the end I just reinforce the ends of the sanding paper by gluing some cloth. This allow more strengh. However any time at all, with almost no advice, the paper will be defeated. What a pitty.

Take care with the walking choreography in the W shop !!

-- Back home. Fernando

Nice blog Lew. I agree with the request for a video of it in operation. I am curious about how the material if feed into the sander.

-- Bill - Mesquite, TX --- "Everything with a power cord eventually winds up in the trash.” John Sarge , timber framer and blacksmith instructor at Tillers International school

Lew:

A great design and a nice build.

I’ll have to take a road trip and see it in action.

-- I've been blessed with a father who liked to tinker in wood, and a wife who lets me tinker in wood. Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com †

This is a really great series. Thanks for sharing, I’ve marked this whole series as a favorite so I can build one sometime.

-- Brian in Arlington, TX - Laziness is the foundation of efficiency.

Crashn- Thanks! I have very little experience with video posting. See what I can do.

Bill- Thanks! It uses manual feed. I need to make some sort of push block to safely handle the materials.

DB- Thanks! So far the dust collection works well but I haven’t tried to sand anything over a few inches wide. If worse comes to worse, I can enlarge the hole and go to a 4” hose. My original purpose for this was to sand the thin inserts for my rolling pins. Being narrow, they don’t bog down the motor so the 1/3 HP is doing fine. Probably end grain cutting boards or wide piece will be a different story. I originally had concerns about flexing, too. The 5/8” diameter steel axle and the extra internal supports so far have prevented it. Again it is only about 16” across. The pillow block have bearings for 5/8” shaft. Their overall size is 1 1/4” W x 5” L x
2 1/4” H.

Karson- Thanks! You are welcome here anytime!

Brian- Thanks!

Lew

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

Lew,

Great blog series!!!

I was following right behind your every entry. NO, not stalkin’ you, just stalkin’ your thickness sander!!!

You said the drum is not flexing. What about the table???

Ok, now go back to your new machine and start MAKIN’ DUST!!!

-- Randy-- I may not be good...but I am slow!

you have more patience than me, i bought a used one. but this is pretty slick

-- There are many ways to skin a cat...... but, the butter knife is not recommended

Simply amazing! I read the whole blog series and it was like reading a book…..I couldnt wait to get to the next chapter! This is a really well thought out and designed project. I’m just glad I took the time to follow along. It was an instructive “read.”

-- Use it up, Wear it out --------------- Make it do, Or do without!

hows the dust collection on this tool anyhow? my drum sander is terrible. I have to run my overhead air cleaner and a still have to wear a respirator.

-- There are many ways to skin a cat...... but, the butter knife is not recommended

Jay- Thanks fro the kind words!

Sean- Thanks! I only added a dust collector to my shop about a year ago so anything I do now is an improvement. I really have nothing to compare it to. I can tell you that in the picture showing the run without the collector, you can see the dust it made. I cleaned everything up and reran the piece with the collector hooked up and there was very little dust on the table. As far as the really fine stuff in the air, not sure how much is there. I could run a bunch of walnut and then blow my nose- that’s a pretty good indicator ;^)

Lew

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

well this has been one fantastic build lew…i wish i could do a road trip and take you and karson out for lunch..where we could discuss the finer points of building one of these…or just eat …lol…thank you lew, taking all of these pictures and doing this blog was a lot of work, many will benefit…i wonder what this could do with a few modifications , and see her spit out some pizza pie…lol..now that would be something…grizz

-- GRIZZMAN ...[''''']

Grizz- I think some 4000 grit paper and hand turning the drum could produce a mighty fine pizza dough!

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

thats awesome lew,
i have to make up a new dust collection on mine. It spits a ton of duct up and enough dust is still on the boards after they are run through, that I have to brush the dust off with a bench brush.

-- There are many ways to skin a cat...... but, the butter knife is not recommended