Building a thickness sander.

[Ross Lowry]

Does anyone have any plans on building a thickness sander they would like to share?
Thanks

[Cary Swoveland]

There are plans for one in Shop Notes Vol. 15, Issue 86. I think it came out about a year ago. I expect you can buy a copy of the article at the Shop Notes website.

Cary

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

Go here:
http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com.au/showthread.php?t=47750

Lucian's Drum sander is really nice.

I have a couple of things I'd have done differently but then, hind sight is always handier. His machine is really cool.

[Mike Golka]

There are several plans at the bottom of this page:
http://www.woodworkstuff.net/woodidxjigs.html

I have built surface sander using the plans and kit from Stockroom Supply
http://www.stockroomsupply.com/ that works very well. The ability to change sandpaper easily is great. By using the drum and one of the designs from above I think you would get good results.

[Ross Lowry]

Thank you all for these helpful links.
Cliff, what was the things you would of done differently?
Thanks again.

[Alex Berkovsky]

Thank you all for these helpful links.
Cliff, what was the things you would of done differently?
Thanks again.Ross,
Luciane made the sander, not Cliff. Here's a thickness sander (http://billswood.blogspot.com) made by someone using the plans from ShopNotes (http://plansnow.com/dn3078.html).

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

Thank you all for these helpful links.
Cliff, what was the things you would of done differently?
Thanks again.

Well I might have placed the bearings for the 3 little feed rollers out board further to get them past the bearing for the main drum in an effort to get the rollers that much closer to the main sanding drums. I can't say for sure that this would have the effect of making the feed and retention of the stock more firm and dependable but it seems to me that it might.

Also I might have looked around to a webbing to use as the feed mechanism instead of the rollers.

I might also have contemplated using a hinged table adjustment with more precise leveling screws trying to get as much precision across the width of the drums as possible. I rather suspect that Lucian wasn't thinking of this as a terribly critical issue since most folks who are concerned about controlling thickness across a width as close as .001" to .002" are usually musical instrument builders and they don't use 4' wide sanders. Lucian's table adjustment is both sturdy and probably plenty accurate for doors and table tops etc. .


But don't take this as criticism of Lucian's sander. I think the guy did one hell of a job~!!

[Ross Lowry]

Thank you all this is great info!
I do have a question though.
The conveyor belt is only 16" wide, do they make any wider ones?
Maybe 24", because I want to be able to sand a 24" wide piece of wood.
Thanks again Cary, Cliff, Mike, and Alex.