# Home made drum sander question



## George_SA (May 4, 2012)

Just wondering before I make the commitment to build a home made drum sander. How effective are they for smoothing an endgrain cutting board? I am in the process of finishing my first endgrain cutting board. I built a router planer jig to flatten it, but it still needed a LOT of sanding. Sanding endgrain with conventional methods is NOT a pleasure! Because I want to make a few more endgrain cutting boards, I am wondering whether the home made drum sanders are effective to flatten endgrain cutting boards? What grit sandpaper do you use and how often does it need to be changed?


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## SASmith (Mar 22, 2010)

I think they are very effective.

I have a homemade v-drum sander. It is like an abrasive jointer. It is all I used to flatten cutting boards until about a year ago. I don't think I have changed the paper on it yet except to switch grit once in a while. Velcro sandpaper seems to last much longer than normal sand paper and it is less likely to burn the wood.You can check my projects to see how many boards I have used it on.

Now that I have a big 5HP drum sander I use the V-drum sander less. I still flatten the bottom of my boards with it then use the big drum sander to thickness it.

I use 40 grit on the v-drum and 60 and 80 on the drum sander(it is a dual drum sander). Before I had the dual drum sander I used 80 grit on v-drum.


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## thewoodworker01 (Jul 11, 2012)

There pretty slow at sanding, if there is any warping in the cutting board, it'll take a while. If there is no warping, I don't think it would take very long. I would go with a 60 grit, I have heard that 36 grit won't do very much cutting. I would start with 60, then move up to a 120.

I did make my own drum sander. I have all the information you would need on 2 posts that I have. I definiately recommend checking them out. I don't know how far you are planning taking the drum sander. I took my pretty far with a conveyor system and a four collum lift. I would definiatley put a big motor on it. I have a 1 HP on it. Next time I would put minium of a 3 HP. hope this helps.

http://lumberjocks.com/projects/68763

http://lumberjocks.com/projects/75689


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## RobertT (Oct 14, 2010)

I made nine end grain boards for christmas and made a v drum sander. It worked ok but i would say it was a waste of time because there was still straight line marks that required a lot of work with the random orbital sander. So I would say unless you plan on doing a lot of boards stick with your current set up.


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## MNgary (Oct 13, 2011)

The end-grain breadboards I have made were less than 12" wide. And I've only made 5 of them.

My process, after glueing, was to tilt my 6" belt sander to horizontal and float the boards resting against the stop. Than I increased pressure while slowly moving the board left and right and adjusting my downward pressure (to, fro, left, right). Yes, some ended up being a thinner than I hoped, but this was resolved by making the later ones a sixteenth inch too thick before moving to the belt sander. After belt sanding the sides flat and visually parallel I used an RO sander and completed sanding with my quarter-sheet finishing sander.

If making power tools is something that intrigues you, GO FOR IT! There are lots of uses for a drum sander. But if your goal is to make a few smaller end-grain cutting boards, there are alternatives if you are patient and willing to hone your "hand" skills.


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## lew (Feb 13, 2008)

I put 60 grit on mine and have had the same piece on there since I built it. Sill sanding like a champ. Sanded lots of rolling pin inserts and a bunch of end grain boards.


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## waho6o9 (May 6, 2011)

http://woodgears.ca/sander/thickness.html

HTH


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## George_SA (May 4, 2012)

Thanks for all the feedback and links.

I enjoy building home made power tools and usually do so when a particular project could benefit from it. I will not build the drum sander just for the couple off end grain cutting boards. They would just be the incentive to start the building process. There are other uses besides cutting boards that could be useful if I had a drum sander, but I was just curious how effective it really was. I have built a few jigs which looked nice on paper, but in real life did not work so good.

For the cutting boards I will continue using router planing jig to remove any warping there might be, but it does not leave a smooth finish, which leaves a need for final sanding. I might add that sanding is not my favorite part of ww


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## shipwright (Sep 27, 2010)

If you have a lathe of any kind this drum sander will be very cheap and easy to build and is very effective.


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## George_SA (May 4, 2012)

Hi Paul
Thanks for the link  I actually have a lathe that I haven,t used in ages. (I need to get a proper set of lathe chisels, but the amount of lathe work I do has not justified the expense).

This is another of those head slapping ideas of "WHY didn,t I think of that!" You have brought me 20 steps closer to making a nice large capacity drum sander  Thanks again! This is definitely the solution for my shop  (BIG SMILE)


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## revwarguy (Mar 12, 2013)

Here's a page with more information on the V sander I built and use alll the time.

V sander build log


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## moke (Oct 19, 2010)

Paul, George,
That is lathe conversion is cool. Like having half the machine built for you. I just have a question, I have a supermax drum sander. When you are off from left to right just in the slightest, it can make a difference. It is leveled with a ruler, used as a feeler gauge. I question the accuracy of that set up. Now, make no mistake I could be very wrong, but that could cause more issues than you know, and make it miserable to use.

It would seem to me that the V sander might be a better route to go. It would think that you could still build it on your lathe body, just put the opening on the top.
Just a thought…
M


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## shipwright (Sep 27, 2010)

Moke,You make a good point.
My sander is fully adjustable and lockable at both sides independently so that I can lock in extreme precision. When I'm worried about that ( all the time with thin veneers), I run a wide test piece through and caliper both sides then adjust to perfect. Then it's just a matter of taking both sides up the same number of turns when I need to move thinner.
I've almost never had to adjust and when I have it's been very little. Just because I haven't had problems doesn't mean your concern isn't valid. It is.


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## moke (Oct 19, 2010)

Paul,
Thank you for your response….from your photo it was hard to tell just how the table goes up and down. I should have known that anyone that had that much ingenuity would have a good adjustment system!!
I applaud your efforts and genius of this design…..Got anything else we should see?
Mike


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## JR45 (Jan 26, 2012)

Give it a go! You will use it for more than just end grain boards. It's a very good project to work on. Mine took a while over the winter months but I'm pleased with it. http://lumberjocks.com/projects/81511
Jim


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## George_SA (May 4, 2012)

Mike, Paul

I still need to make a drum sander, thus I am following with interest all the different alternatives. Will keep you posted when I start. In the mean time I I can learn from these discussions and hopefully sidestep a few pitfalls.

Regards George


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## Byronj (May 17, 2013)

I built an 4 inch x 18 inch free standing V drum sander a month ago. It took me a day and a half to build from scratch. Went to town Monday and bought the bearings shaft, pulleys and 3/4 ply. Started building at 11.30am cutting out the circles for the drum. 25 of them. By 6pm I had the box together and the drum in the box and the motor propped up to give it a run. I had planned to make it to just sit on the bench. Started to sand the drum true.

The next morning I decided to make it free standing, really glad I did. Finished trueing the drum. Ended up doing it with the router after putting the top on and using the top as the level and a guide clamped to the top parrell with the shaft- By the way I used a 3/4 shaft. My motor is a1/2 hp 1450rpm job so I have a 2 1/2 pulley on the motor and a 2 on the drum.

Living in South America I can't get velcro sandpaper. So I used 6 inch wide cloth sandpaper. Just flattened of a spot on the end of the drum where the paper starts and finished and a screw and washer to hold the sand paper. However the paper bunches up on the one end. It doesn't bother me on small jobs but is a bit of a problem on wide boards. I found 4 inch sandpaer and changed to that to see if it worked better but is is about the same.

At present I have put velcro on the drum and stuck felt sort of cloth on the back of the sand paper. It still not a 100% sucess. A friend is coming from the exterior and will bring me some 115mm velcro Sandpaper.

On the whole though, I'm rapped with my sander. I would be glad of any suggestions about solving the sandpaper issue.


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## bannerpond1 (Mar 15, 2013)

George, I have made many end grain cutting boards and understand the patience they require in sanding. Here's how to short-cut the process: Put sacrificial ends on the boards and run them through your planer. They will prevent the tearing out of the end grain on the trailing end of the board. Make very shallow cuts and you will be amazed how quickly you can flatten the boards. Do not pay attention to the "pros" who tell you can't plane end grain. It's not so. You just have to use the sacrificial pieces. Attach them with the final gluing.

Now that your board is flat and relatively free of tooling marks, use 80 grit paper on your random orbit sander. Be patient. Use a raking light to find any scratches or sworls from improper sanding technique.

If you can make your own drum sander, my hat's off to you. I personally wouldn't consider it. I bought a Jet 16-32 and it sure saves time between the planing and ROS work.


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## guitarchitect (Oct 28, 2011)

Dale can you provide more insight on this technique? Are you gluing them on the sides, or front and back? do you oversize them compared to your cutting board thickness? how are you cutting them off at the end - running them through the tablesaw?

And what's a raking light?


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## Okiewoodturner (Aug 5, 2013)

Well as usual a little behind. Did get some my ideas for my drum sander here and there. Long story short. Used a free treadmill with a 10 ER Shopsmith and now have a sander that works very well. Has a control lift and controlled feed. As I needed to use it now. I simply removed the handrails. Turned the SS 90 degrees and slid it under the treadmill on a 5foot movable cart. Made the drum and for now use 6×48 sanding belt glued to the drum. Squared the drum to the table and works great to sand flat anything I have used it for. 
Will fine tuned and redo the drum power as time allows. Capable of 18 " widths.


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## Okiewoodturner (Aug 5, 2013)

Posted last night about my homemade drum sander. Just wanted to post a few pictures. Still need to build a control panel. Plan to upgrade the motor at some point. Was in a big need for the ability to flatten so project pieces. 
Thanks for looking


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## HuckD (Sep 15, 2013)

I would *highly *recommend using velcro to attach your sanding paper. I have a Proformax 16×32 that I converted to velcro and the sandpaper lasts MUCH longer. There's less burning. And I "think" it gives a better finish. I generally use 60 grit in it which will need a little random orbit time to finish sand. I have used 150 and even 220 in it with excellent results on finish work, but they are really slow if you have to remove much material.


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