Home Made Tools

Just put this up to showcase my home made 24" drum sander.  I HATE sanding.  And trying to get a glued up panel perfectly flat is time consuming and dirty.  So I found a plan on the internet which I adapted to a larger unit.

The drum is approximately 5.5" in diameter.  The sand paper is held on with velcro.  I bought the motor on Ebay for a steal, around $60.  The table I already had laying around for the last couple of years, as it was going to be my workbench top.  Nearly the entire base is made from 2x4 construction lumber, except for the horizontal members which hold the pillow block bearings (which I also bought on ebay).

The velcro mat and sand paper comes from Woodmaster Tools, whose website really blows.  You'd think they would have all the sand paper in one section.

This is the out feed of the drum sander with the dust hood and collection hose hooked up.

This is the in feed side.  You of course feed the panel in with the sand paper pushing against you. Otherwise I'm sure this thing would project the wood across the floor!

A close up of the laminated table.  It consists of two particle boards and, yes, it's only laminated on the top.  When I build this table two years ago, I had no idea that you're supposed to laminate both sides to prevent warping.  But it hasn't warped, so I didn't touch it.  I believe I glued and screwed the two pieces together.

Here's the drum.  It's 3/4" MDF discs that I cut using a router.  I think there are 32 of the discs, with a 5/8" hole drilled and placed on a metal rod I got from Home Depot.  If it were any longer, I would use a 1" rod.

Ooops!  Here's what happens when you don't get the leading edge of the paper held down securely!

So what I did was cut a notch in the drum and placed the edge of the paper into it.  In this view, the drum rotates clockwise.  A corresponding notch on the other side was not cut because the rotation is not into the leading edge, but with the trailing edge...

The motor is a single phase 1.5 HP deal I bought on ebay.  It's a brand I had never heard of, but it really runs smooth.  I still need to install a power switch.

I can't recall where I bought the belt and pulley, but you can get them pretty cheap online.  The drum has a 5" pulley, and the motor a 4".  With the motor turning at 1725 RPM, I get approximately 2000 linear feet per minute with this setup, which is close to what commercial sanders run.