Home made thickness sander

looks like you have a great tool there
thanks for sharing

Nice find Bob. a great restoration and modification, it is a great addition to any shop and should give you years or service. Isn’t the out feed a little too close to the wall for sanding longer items, it doesn’t look like you could move it that easily with all the other sanders piled underneath table.

-- Tony - All things are possible, just some things are more difficult than others! - SKYPE: Heron2005 (http://www.poydatjatuolit.fi)

do you have to manually feed / pull the work ?

seems like a great tool !

-- david ,new mexico ,allheart

Bob It looks like a great addition to the shop. Without a feed system, it might be easy to sand divits in the surface as the wood stops and the sanding contuinues.

But a light sanding pass and an even push should work great.

-- What happens in the workshop stays in the workshop. No wait that doesn't sound right. Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com †

very cool

-- When in doubt - There is no doubt - Go the safer route.

Thanks Fellas.

Tony
I mounted the unit on casters so I can pull it out easily into the isle for longer pieces. That’s why I left so much hose on the hood.

Patron , Karson.
Yep it’s a manual feed.
I had thought of putting a dc motor on a belt but I am finding that I have pretty good control over the pieces so far using that “T” shaped push stick. You can feel the resistance and adjust the feed accordingly.

I find that about three light sanding passes gives me a decent leveling but I still scrape or sand my stuff after this “leveling”.

Cheers

Bob

-- A mind, like a home, is furnished by its owner

Looks great and with that power it should do a very good job. A very handy shop machine to have. I would love to have one, but haven’t got the room. I just bought a 12” disk sander and still haven’t found a place for it yet!

-- Mike, American in Norway

Pretty cool. I’ve been thinking about building one.. Do you know or does anyone know where a person might get the drum from? Shopnotes has a plan for one where they use a bunch of disks glued together. I just can’t see that being accurate and I know that there must be alternatives out there?? I’ve thought about the rollers off of loading ramps etc.. but I was trying to think of some other common use for rollers with bearings in them that might be bigger in diameter? I suppose we could turn the drum on the lathe and then true it up? Anybody tried that?

Mine is a piece of 6” steel pipe with a crossed core welded into it to support the 5/8” shaft.
That stuff should be pretty available at a scrap yard or steam fitters shop as and off cut.
Any decent machine shop can weld in the cross braces and even run it on the lathe to level out any high spots. You could get your sandpaper lockdowns done at the same time.

Bob

-- A mind, like a home, is furnished by its owner

David.
I built a 15” version of the shop notes drum using the MDF disks – I had no problems at all with the precision, but accuracy is the key.

Make the disks, thread/slip them onto the steel bar and securely attach them. then mount the whole drum assembly onto a lathe and fine tune the disks/drum for perfect balance.

-- Tony - All things are possible, just some things are more difficult than others! - SKYPE: Heron2005 (http://www.poydatjatuolit.fi)

That should work as well Tony.
How did you secure your sandpaper?

Bob

-- A mind, like a home, is furnished by its owner

Bob;

Wow, it is actually pretty now!

If it works half as good as it looks, you should be pleased.

Nice job.

Lee

-- by Lee A. Jesberger http://www.prowoodworkingtips.com http://www.ezee-feed.com

The pipe thing sounds interesting but I’m curious how they would get the shaft aligned dead center in the pipe? Is it a common thing for machine shops to be able to weld that in.. accuratley?

“Is it a common thing for machine shops to be able to weld that in.. accuratley?”
It is here.
by the time they cut 4 cross braces to the inside diameter and spot them on they will be within 5 thousandths. The brace can be gang drilled or laser cut. they aill all be within tolerance.

Mounting the shaft on a lathe takes care of any flutter left.

Bob

-- A mind, like a home, is furnished by its owner

Thank you Bob,
I will look into that..

Hey Bob

Thats a sweet looking bit of kit you have there and i know you will get plenty of use out of it

Andy

-- cut it saw it scrap it

Hi Lee, Pommy,. Thanks for looking.
Every time I think a need a brand new tool I have to take myself back to realitly . Hell, I’m no a cabinetmaker and if I can fool some of the peole some of the time it’s a great hobby.<g>

I have never been satisfied with my glue ups for projects and I must say this project has been a real time saver and a great adjunct for my little shop.

Once again all thanks for the encouragement and support. You make it all worth while.

Bob

-- A mind, like a home, is furnished by its owner

One of a kind very cool

-- Jim from Heirloom Woodshop Southern Oregon

nice job

Bob
I used the same method as depicted in the shop notes article – it works really well – in fact I am happier with shop notes attachment method, than I am with the method used on my Jet 22/44.

-- Tony - All things are possible, just some things are more difficult than others! - SKYPE: Heron2005 (http://www.poydatjatuolit.fi)

I love the way it came out.

-- Whether You Think You Can or You Think You Can't, YOU ARE RIGHT!!!

If I had seen this sooner I would have built one the same…. Just with a .900 width.
I just bought a self feeding .500 width sander variable speed….It seems to be okay… Can’t wait to get stuck in though.

Great job…. I like your adjuster…

-- "Even small steps makes a distance." (Shawn Phillips, musician)

It works surprisingly well considering the low tech solution.
I have plans in my head for a self feed belt for it but the time is never there it seems.
So far pushing material through by hand is not much of a problem but boring.
p.s. the adjuster although correct in in principle works rather poorly as the handle allows too little torque to move the chain.
I should put a hand wheel on the sprocket for easier adjustments.

Cheers
Bob

-- A mind, like a home, is furnished by its owner

Clever trick and alot of work I take my preverbial hat off to you have mucho,woodo,funo Alistair

-- excuse my typing as I have a form of parkinsons disease