My homemade drum sander is finished!

[mreza Salav]

Some of you know I have been building a drum sander. I reported some progress earlier:

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=83816&highlight=drum+sander

Well, today I finally finished it. It took a bit longer because I had to do new electrical wiring in my basement shop just to be able to run it.

It has a 2HP farm duty motor and a 150lb/in conveyor motor. The maximum width I can sand is more than 28.5". Below you can see some pictures of it:

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The next picture shows the main motor and the elevation mechanism. I initially had connected the handle directly to one of the screws but changed the plan because: 1) it was heavy to move it up/down 2) it wouldn't allow for fine adjustments. Now every full turn of the handle will raise/lower the table by 1/32".

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The following picture shows the drum and pressure roller bars (after I removed the dust-hood cover). The roller bars are 5/8" thick solid bars with a vinyl/plastic tubing over them for friction.

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More pictures in the next post...

[mreza Salav]

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There are 3 switches and a nub for controlling the belt speed. The left switch
turns on the main motor and can turn the conveyor too if the middle switch is in ON position. The other switch will turn the conveyor directly.

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In the following link you can see two movies showing the sander in action.
First one shows the elevation mechanism. The second one shows how a piece of board is sanded.
Sorry about the quality. I had to hold the camera with one hand all the time.

http://good-times.webshots.com/video...03474875BxfVqF (http://good-times.webshots.com/video/3032904690103474875BxfVqF)
http://good-times.webshots.com/video...03474875zVoHBU (http://good-times.webshots.com/video/3005530730103474875zVoHBU)

The following two pictures show the thickness of the board I just sanded on it's two sides:

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Can't be more accurate than this! http://forum.canadianwoodworking.com/images/smilies/smile.gif

[Matt Hutchinson]

Wow! That's very impressive. The accuracy is quite astonishing! Great work. BTW, how much did this cost to make? I am wondering how it compares with commercial sanders.

Hutch

[Dewey Torres]

WOW!

I knew this was going to be good but....

WOW!

Dewey

[Tim Malyszko]

Very cool. It's so neat seeing someone make their own major power tool. I too would like to know how much it cost in materials.

Nice work!!!

[brett gallmeyer]

Thats Great!
I have been drawing up plans to build my own based on the 16-32 tyle drum sanders. I know it might be a bit more difficult but I cant afford the square footage one of the big machines would take up. Luckly I have welding experiance and all my metalworking tools. What horsepower motor did u use? i'm planing on 1 1/2 hp because I dont have 220v. Also where did u get the conveyor setup or did u build your own?

Awsome work though!

Brett G.

[Jerome Hanby]

Congrats on building a great machine. Your pictures and detail text are just about perfect. Every question that popped into my head, one or the other covered.

Thanks for sharing. I'm re-inspired. I'm going to spend part of the holiday weekend cutting more mdf disks!

[mreza Salav]

Thanks everybody for the complements.


Wow! That's very impressive. The accuracy is quite astonishing! Great work. BTW, how much did this cost to make? I am wondering how it compares with commercial sanders.

Hutch

Well, as usual, it went over my estimated cost by 50%. Total came around $600. Main reasons were: I was looking for a used motor but ended up buying the 2HP motor new for $200. The other big ticket items were: DC motor and controller for $65 and around $180 for shafts/bars/sprockets/chains. Even at this total price, I think I am better than buying a used one. Up here, anything used around this size or even smaller is well over $1k.


Thats Great!
I have been drawing up plans to build my own based on the 16-32 tyle drum sanders. I know it might be a bit more difficult but I cant afford the square footage one of the big machines would take up. Luckly I have welding experiance and all my metalworking tools. What horsepower motor did u use? i'm planing on 1 1/2 hp because I dont have 220v. Also where did u get the conveyor setup or did u build your own?

Awsome work though!

Brett G.

The motor is 2HP (farm duty), you may get by with a 1.5HP too.
I built the conveyor setup too (see the link to work in progress).
I tend to think building an open-ended one, even using steel/welding might have more than acceptable deflect. As far as I know, most commercial models of this type have heavy castings.


Congrats on building a great machine. Your pictures and detail text are just about perfect. Every question that popped into my head, one or the other covered.

Thanks for sharing. I'm re-inspired. I'm going to spend part of the holiday weekend cutting more mdf disks!

Glad to hear it was helpful. My suggestion is not to use MDF for disks: it is too soft and it is VERY heavy.

[Douglas Brummett]

Great looking project. I wonder how it will fare over time. I would imagine composite lamination would be better with respect to humidity/temp effects (picture the rock solid plywood bench from FWW that was made almost entirely of plywood).

[Jerome Hanby]

Glad to hear it was helpful. My suggestion is not to use MDF for disks: it is too soft and it is VERY heavy.I hear what you're saying. But I've got a ton of little MDF scraps leftover from a bedroom "doll house" bed I'm building for my little girl. It's just not in me to waste it :eek:

[Dave Lehnert]

WOW! Look out JET.

[Jeffrey Makiel]

You are a very skilled dude. Nice going.
-Jeff :)

[Phil Thien]

That is absolutely awesome! You should make kits of these using 8020 extrusions and sell 'em.

[Jerry McFalls]

Excellent work!

I was wondering if you could provide the specs of your conveyor motor. HP, voltage, etc. :)

[mreza Salav]

Thanks all.


Excellent work!

I was wondering if you could provide the specs of your conveyor motor. HP, voltage, etc. :)

it is 90VDC gearmotor, 19rpm, 150lb/in torque. It is the following one:
http://www.bisongear.com/detail.asp_Q_catid_E_3_A_subCatID_E_50_A_prodid_E_ 23_A_skuid_E_314

but I could get it off e-bay brand new for $15+SH :D:D
You need a controller to control the speed (and provide the 90VDC).

[Pete Bolakowski]

Thanks for the great documentation. If you aren't an engineer you should be.

Any lessons learned after 2 years of use?

I'm considering building an open frame model from an old radial arm saw (16" DeWalt). My question is: how fast can the paper go (inches per second) before it is too fast. How did you decide on your drum speed and diameter? My idea would include a direct drive 3600 RPM 5hp motor. I'd like the radius of the sanding drum to be larger than that of the motor so material can go under the motor on a second pass. This would result in a drum at least 3" in radius.

Have you seen replacement or scraped professional drums for sale?

Thanks,
Pete Bolakowski

[Glen Butler]

This thing is totally cool. Nice work.

I love SMC. I was just wondering the possibility of making my own sander. You answered that.

[mreza Salav]

Thanks for the great documentation. If you aren't an engineer you should be.

Any lessons learned after 2 years of use?

I'm considering building an open frame model from an old radial arm saw (16" DeWalt). My question is: how fast can the paper go (inches per second) before it is too fast. How did you decide on your drum speed and diameter? My idea would include a direct drive 3600 RPM 5hp motor. I'd like the radius of the sanding drum to be larger than that of the motor so material can go under the motor on a second pass. This would result in a drum at least 3" in radius.

Have you seen replacement or scraped professional drums for sale?

Thanks,
Pete Bolakowski

It's going great and I love it! Had a friend over to help me set up my sawstop and have a wide board sanded; he was more impressed in the sander than the sawstop :eek:
I don't have any complaints about it (maybe it's taking too much space in my now crowded shop but that's Ok).
I don't like the idea of the open end ones and don't know how accurate they will be.
As for speed, I think 3600rpm is too fast. Check some of the commercial ones and see what is the surface speed of the drum. I'd say something around half of that would be Ok with that size of a drum you are going to use.
I built my own drum (by laminating many pieces of BB). Don't know a good source of replacements.

[Phillip Bogle]

I built my own drum (by laminating many pieces of BB). Don't know a good source of replacements. I was a printer for 20+ years, and that looks like some of the rollers we used to throw away. You might check with a used printing equipment dealer. Rollers galore. Metal, composite, hard rubber, soft rubber, chemical safe, and ready to go. Some may have flat spot on the soft rubber and the hard rubber ones can round out.

We used to throw away the old Gast compressors that turners would love to have for vacuum chucks. The bindery equipment has stepping motors, VDC motors, and just about any other part you could use.


Just an idea for motors, and parts.

[Glen Butler]

Where did you get the acme rod and other such hardware?

[mreza Salav]

Where did you get the acme rod and other such hardware?

I was lucky to find the ACME rods and the nuts that were exactly what I wanted on e-bay. The DC motor too was bought (new) off e-bay at 1/20 of the price!
Rest of the hardwares were bought at surplus center and local hardware stores.

[allan kuntz]

yours was the inspiration for the one i built and it works just great. i use it all the time for flattening segmented rings for turnings
al

[Rick Fisher]

Really glad this thread was revived, I missed it originally.

Impressive stuff on these sites..