Stockroom Drum Sander

[Gene E Miller]

Greetings & Salutations,

I desperately want and need a drum sander but
as in I am sure for most everyone budget is tight.

I have seen and read several articles about the build it
yourself drum sander using the parts from www.stockroomsupply.com (http://www.stockroomsupply.com)

Sorry for the previous website address that I had up it was
a typo for sure.


My question:

Have any members here built one and used this type of
sander? If so what are your comments either good or bad
and what type of results do you get from the sander.

I do not know if this is the direction I need to move in or
should I be looking at an open throat model such as the
Delta, Jet or Performax machines.

I need something that I can put on a movable base and move
around when using or not.

Thank you all for your comments and help in advance.

Gene

[Lewis Cobb]

Better check that website there Gene - looks like some interesting stuff but doesn't look like any sanding machine I have ever seen :eek:

[Kevin McIntyre]

This web address is XXX rated please remove

[Mod: web address has been fixed]

[dennis thompson]

I asked this question a few weeks ago, do a search for " v drum sander" in general woodworking , I got quite a few responses (It should show up at about pg 5 in your search)
Dennis Thompson

[Dave Lehnert]

You may want to give the Sand Flee a look. Not a kit, but same idea. May give you an idea of how that type of sander would work for your needs. Here is a link to a video Shopsmith has for the Sand Flee made to mount to the MarkV.

http://www.shopsmithacademy.com/SS_Archives/SS106/SS106_Sand_Flee.htm

[Art Mulder]

You may want to give the Sand Flee a look. Not a kit, but same idea.

yeah, check out the price differential at the same time! :eek:

I see the v-drum sander at all the woodshows here in Ontario (the company is based here). It looks like a nice surface sander. Sure seems to perform well.

The problem that starts arguments on the forums is that people start trying to compare it to a thickness sander, and complain about what it can't do and so on... IMHO, it is better to compare this to a handheld sander.

[Anthony Whitesell]

You are comparing two different type of sanders.

The Jet/Performax, Delta, and Grizzly drum sanders are for thickness sanding. Though they can me used to a certain extent for finish sanding that's not their main purpose.

The V sander and SandFlee are finish sanders. They won't remove much material per pass and are far more gentle on the work piece than a thickness sander.

Take a look at the motor sizes, this should be the key that they have two entirely different uses in the shop. The Jet 16-32 has a 1 1/2HP drum motor. The Sandflee has a 1/3HP motor.

Both can me put on a mobile base and moved out of the way. The Sandflee can be attached to a board and hung on the wall even.

What sanding in the process are you trying to speed up?

[Randal Stevenson]

I haven't had time to finish assembling mine (workus interuptus), but I did ask them several questions during their show, and a couple (that took FOREVER, to get answered) via their website.
There IS a way to use it as a thickness sander. It was one of those things I didn't completely get to catch during the show, but another poster explained it here. It is a reverse planer sled. The sled rides on runners that are the finished thickness you want.
As for the motor size, the sites I looked at, showed that originally, they recommended a larger motor. Then they went to balanced pulley's and a link belt, and they "found" they needed less HP.
I have a larger motor (I thought 1, but 1.5hp) and asked it there were any issues with using a larger motor on the sander. They said no. (I do have two 1/2 hp motors if I find any).
There was one comparison that I believe is quite fair. This was compared to a jointer, where a normal, thickness sander was compared to a planer. Otherwise, I consider this a large belt sander (what seems more useful to my needs, then a thickness sander).
There are things though that one will use this for, that they would use a thickness sander for, particularly (my future project), smoothing out door glueups. So it isn't entirely apples verses oranges. The tools do have some overlap.

[Charles Robertson]

Bought the 30" Flatmaster. Am impressed with its capabilities and ease of use. Got the basic kit, less fences. Watch the Shopsmith video on the Sandflea in Dave L's reply. Pretty much the same machine as the flatmaster and is very informative, more so than the Stockroom video on the v-drum. A very useful piece of equipment. Got the steel frame Flatmaster to save time and put to use right away. Easy to make your own fences. Got the 30" so that I could run several grits at the same time---very handy. Highly recommend the 30" Stockroom Flatmaster and the very informative Shopsmith Sandflea video. Good luck with your choice. Al R.

[Ben Rafael]

There is a place on the stockroom site that gives a crude plan to make the vdrum into a combo surface sander and drum sander, that is, the drum will be exposed underneath and on top.
When you think about it is just a matter of making some type of conveyer to run your work under the drum and using electronics to reverse the direction of the motor(assuming you do want to have it function as a surface sander too)

[Travis Gauger]

Afriend of mine bought the v-drum and I helped put it together. Nice little unit but not overly impressive to me. I have built a few over table drum sanders for misc individuals and can't justify the cost of the v-drum for what you get. One thin gI did notice is that you can easily vary the amount of material you remove by how your feeding the work piece over the drum. The feed rate and downward pressure is controled by your hands. My hands aren't exact enough for that so I prefer the over table drum sander with an auto feed on it. I have a lot of plans for drum sanders drawn up in autocad. If anyone would like to see them PM me with an email and I'll send the files for you. Good luck with your sander search.

[James Hart]

Gene,

I hung out on CL for a couple of months and picked up a like new Delta 18/36 for $500. Recently saw a Powermatic 16/32 go for $300.

Jim

[Chris Padilla]

The Sand Flee looks nice but clearly it needs a fine adjust on the table. Who wants to spend a few minutes trying to futz with the table height.

Like a drum sander is akin to a planer, this is akin to a jointer. Planers and jointer can remove more material and the sanders are for fine tuning.

[Chris Padilla]

Gene,

I hung out on CL for a couple of months and picked up a like new Delta 18/36 for $500. Recently saw a Powermatic 16/32 go for $300.

Jim

I clearly need to hang on CL more often!!! An open-end drum sander would just about complete my aresenal of large ww'ing tools!

[Lawrence Smith]

I just finished putting together an 18 inch stockroom supply unit. It took most of a day to put it together. The total cost including a 1/4 horse motor was less than $350. I used their top and I made the box out of scrap maple plywood. It does what I want. I wish I had known about it years ago. It would have certainly saved me a ton of time on some projects. Go for it.

My$.02

[Gene E Miller]

Thank you everyone for the information and
responses.

I think that for what I want to use it for I need to
keep looking for a open end drum sander such as
a delta for preformax.

I do appreciate all of the information and want
to say that I am sorry that I got that goofy link
up there in the very first post. I will be more
careful in the future.

Gene