Mike Reinholtz
01-17-2010, 11:01 AM
Good morning!
I have started building a drum sander and have some questions I hope someone can help me with. I designed the frame from square tube steel and have most of it welded together, I'm mounting the pillow blocks and 6" drums this weekend and getting close to putting together the conveyor. I have looked online quite a bit and have a few different sources for the belt, but I'm torn on what to use. I read in a few places that some manufactures actually use sand paper belts for the conveyor because it grips so well, others use a rubber belt. Anyone have any experience with the machines that used sandpaper belts? I found they are cheaper and available in more sizes that would work for me, but I don't want to go that route if it won't perform as well. I'm not trying to do this on a super cheap budget but I don't want to break the bank either. The design is closed on both sides, has 25" drums, a 5hp motor for the drums, and a 1/2hp DC motor for the drive. The feed rate is infinitely variable up to about 18fpm.
When I started designing this machine I had only planned on using a single drum, but that changed and currently I am building a dual drum machine. I was thumbing through the Grizzly catalog last night and found a planer/sander combo ($13K- ouch), and that got me thinking- maybe a spiral cutterhead should go in that first slot... probably need a bigger motor for that. Maybe a 7.5HP with a woodmaster 25" spiral head...
I don't think I've ever built something as planned, always gotta "improve" it as I go. ugh.
Mike
I have started building a drum sander and have some questions I hope someone can help me with. I designed the frame from square tube steel and have most of it welded together, I'm mounting the pillow blocks and 6" drums this weekend and getting close to putting together the conveyor. I have looked online quite a bit and have a few different sources for the belt, but I'm torn on what to use. I read in a few places that some manufactures actually use sand paper belts for the conveyor because it grips so well, others use a rubber belt. Anyone have any experience with the machines that used sandpaper belts? I found they are cheaper and available in more sizes that would work for me, but I don't want to go that route if it won't perform as well. I'm not trying to do this on a super cheap budget but I don't want to break the bank either. The design is closed on both sides, has 25" drums, a 5hp motor for the drums, and a 1/2hp DC motor for the drive. The feed rate is infinitely variable up to about 18fpm.
When I started designing this machine I had only planned on using a single drum, but that changed and currently I am building a dual drum machine. I was thumbing through the Grizzly catalog last night and found a planer/sander combo ($13K- ouch), and that got me thinking- maybe a spiral cutterhead should go in that first slot... probably need a bigger motor for that. Maybe a 7.5HP with a woodmaster 25" spiral head...
I don't think I've ever built something as planned, always gotta "improve" it as I go. ugh.
Mike