Stock Room Supply Moulding Sander Good/Bad Idea?

[Brad Shipton]

I have a 180 and 240 grit moulding sander heads sitting on the shelf and I have been thinking it might be a waste of time to make this into a usable moulding sander. I have another 500ft of stain grade cherry trim to make and I had bought these heads to save some time on this next run. Now I am thinking it might be just as easy to stick to hand sanding. Thoughts?

Hiring a moudling co is not an option. I have too much money invested into blades and now pride is getting in the way.

Thanks.
Brad

[Lucas G Hager]

I've thought about doing the same thing on the backend of my woodmaster planer. I've got a 1 hp motor sitting around. Would you sand all the way to 240 or just do the 180. I've never sanded molding over 180.
I say go for it. I'm going to. I'm just going to build something simple that will bolt onto the outboard table. What rpm you think a guy should run?

[Brad Shipton]

Lucas, the kit come with pulleys to run with an electric motor at around 1750rpm. According to the information they have posted the sanding heads wear out much faster at slower rpms. For Cherry I have sanded to 240 in the past, but most of the time I stop at 180.

I am a little reluctant about this project. I have found that these projects can take a lot of time and sometimes do not turn out very well or even worse, they lead to a lot of tinkering. I have a few jigs and other things sitting around collecting dust. In your case it seems pretty easy to add an extension to your outfeed table. I use a shaper and do not have any extra length in my shop on the outfeed side. I suppose I will have to give it a whirl.

Brad

[Lucas G Hager]

I just did a quick glance at stockroom supply's sander. Are you willing to pay that much for a sander? And I assume you push it through the sander by hand. You sure you just don't want to build one yourself.
Here is a link to check out.
http://scrollsawworkshop.blogspot.com/2008/12/make-your-own-sanding-mop-on-cheap.html
You could come up with a shaft, 2 pulleys, and one motor.
Here's a paper link.
http://www.woodworkingshop.com/cgi-bin/C9A58E92/mac/qryitems.mac/itemDisplay?qryType=STYLE&itemSt=SR002X10G&coreDsc=2%7F%40X%4010%40METER%40GOLD%40ROLLS
I think you could make one pretty cheap.
Or maybe I'm just a tightwad. Let me know what you think.

[Brad Shipton]

I already have the moulding sander heads. I was thinking about selling them. I know I could have built these myself, but that takes away too much time from other projects that need to get finished. I was going to attach the assembly to my table so I can use my power feeder.

Brad

[Lucas G Hager]

Brad,
I'm curious what you decided to do?

[Brad Shipton]

I will probably give the thing a try. Lord only knows what I might get if I try to sell it. I probably would get the same if it is built or new. It could be months until I get to this. I was organizing the basement and the boxes were bugging me. I will post a couple of pics when it is done and let you know how it works. I have talked to some others, and I am not convinced it will do much other than de-nib the trim a bit. What the heck, I have tried dumb ideas before why change in 2011??

Brad