Homemade 18" Drum Sander

Here is my homemade 18 inch drum sander. I have spent about 10 months working on this project. I have had a number of problems, with things not fitting right, ordering the wrong parts, not knowing what to order, so I am going to try to clear up some of the questions anyone might have.

The Frame
The frame is constructed out of two by fours, that are just glued and screwed together using “woodgears.ca” homemade drum sander plan. Next time I’d like to build a stronger frame or maybe even a C-frame. This one has served me quite well.

The Drum
The drum is made out of MDF disc glued together. I have a 1” shaft for it, 1” pillow block bearings, and a 1” four step pulley to go with it. I probably don’t need a four step pulley, but it is kind of nice to have. The shaft and bearings came from the “surpluscenter.com”. The pulley came from “eBay.com”. I have hose clamps holding the sandpaper on to the drum. This is my second drum, my first drum had a 5/8” cold rolled steel shaft, 5/8 flange bearings, and a 5/8 four-step pulley. When ever I glued up the drum, I bent the shaft just using pressure from the pipe clamps. I believe I had four pipe clamps on there. A 5/8” shaft isn’t big enough, I would definitely go with the 1”.

Motor for the Drum
I have a 1 HP, 1750 rpm motor for the drum. The motor came from an old lathe I had sitting around that I wasn’t using. I’d like to put a bigger motor on the drum sander, maybe a 2 or 3 HP. If your looking for one check eBay.

Lift Mechanism
The whole table is supported by 4 half inch threaded rods. I have 4 nuts embedded into the bottom of the table at each corner. I also have 4 ball bearings at the bottom of the threaded rods and 4 bushings at the top. You must be very accurate when building this. Even if you are off by a 32nd it can jam up one of the threaded rods. Inside the lower case is a chain and sprockets that connect all the threaded rods together. When you turn the front right threaded rod all of them will turn.

Conveyor
The Conveyor table is made out of 2 pieces of 3/4” baltic birch plywood. Next time I’d like to get a piece of marble so I have something really flat, plywood is flat, but just barely. At the front and back of the table I have 2 rollers for the conveyor. Both have ball bearings, so they turn easily. The rollers are made out of 3/4” plywood discs glued together just like the drum. Luckily, I was able to reused my old shaft and bearings from my first drum. I resawed my old drum off on the bandsaw. For the front roller I did have to get another set of bearings and shaft from the surplus center. The belt came from Klingspor. It was a custom belt, 18 inches wide and 60” long. Tracking for the belt is made by a bolt that you just turn out, or in to adjust for tracking. The bolt is located on the front of the conveyor, behind the bearings. Just reciently I have had problems with tracking. The problem is in the rollers. Don’t make them out of plywood. The plywood has split apart, so now the roller is in two. It has happened with both rollers. I’d like to have a machine shop mill me some aluminum rollers.

Conveyor Motor
The conveyor motor is a DC treadmill motor that I found on Craigslist. It did have a circuit board to run it, but wasn’t the correct set up for what I needed it for. A neighbor of mine works for a circuit board factory, and she was able to get me the correct circuit board. Most treadmill motors are rated for about 2 HP or more on 110 volt. You cannot run a 2 HP motor on 110 volt running on an 15 amp circuit. So really they are about half of what the original rating is. It has variable speed, which is really nice when sanding. But the treadmill motor doesn’t have the torque that I need, so I have geared it down quite a bit as you can see in the pictures.

Next Time
Next time I would like to build a stiffer C-Frame. Have 2 drum, and make an adjustment on both, so you can raise each drum up or down seperately. Then a large motor to power the drums. I would also maybe get rid of the four step pulleys, you don’t really need them. I’d like to make it handle more width, so maybe 22” or maybe even a 26”, It all depents on what I am building.

When I finished the drum sander I was, and still am 15 years old. I have had very minimal woodworking experience, the only real experience I have had was in woodshop, in the middle school and high school. Any time I’d have a free study hall I would be done in the woodshop, building something or someone else’s project.

The drum sander has worked out great! Even with all the problems I have had with it. I do have 2 videos of it running on YouTube.

This is part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6pmlEejIFg

This is part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TP_4HQX_vjE

This is part 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBdboeaRqGQ&feature=youtu.be

-- Most people say "Measure Twice, Cut Once." I say, "Cut Twice, Measure Once".