I really liked watching this as well as your oscillating spindle sander-project :) You have a nice calm way of explaining and you are not afraid to show your fails. Keep the vids coming!!
Awesome job. Shows perfectly a learning process. Not afraid to try, fail and try again till it works fine. One of the greatest DIY build videos I ever seen. Congratulations! :-)
Very nice build. I came here after I heard Matthias mention you in an interview on Bob Clagett's channel. He said you feature some "top notch engineering". Pretty high praise coming from him. Having just watched nearly all your videos, I have to agree. I love how you make do and move forward with whatever tools and materials you have available. Subscribed.
Just watched that video and that's crazy. It's like having Jimi Hendrix compliment your guitar playing. Thanks for the compliments, and for subscribing!
A tip that might help with small parts is to build to spring tension rollers, placing them about 14mm from the main drum. You should also try not using adhesive, the wedge clamps should be enough tension to hold the paper on. I plan on building one using a used treadmill motor and wiring an SCR with a bridged rectifier to convert the AC voltage to DC to run the gear motor and the main motor. I enjoyed the build. I would have had to edit the cussing out when the top glue failed. Painters or duct tape can actually hold mitered glue ups pretty well. I learned that making a segmented drum. Thanks for the video. cheers
A man after my own heart, engineering on the fly!!! Try it and if it doesn't work, try plan B, or C or D. Never give up & don't worry about perfect. I was looking for the adjustment solution for mine, thanks.
I agree with the other comments on the handcrafted Japanese pull saw. Nearly fell off my chair laughing. Great build. Second time I've watched this video. I really need to build one of these soon.
Well, if you are watching Matthias Wandel, you're watching some of the right stuff. I've been trying to decide if I'm suited to making machines like this. I certainly don't have the budget to buy everything outright and might never get to build anything if I wait! As far as the RU-vid feed, I've notice that I'm getting far fewer woodworking vids in my feed. just the other day, I watched a single Matchbox car rehab video and suddenly I get a feed full of them. I subscribed and am really looking forward to watching your channel. I'm a little hard of hearing so I have to turn on your auto CC track. I work in a disability services office so I know that Google auto CC doesn't get everything right. Kind of funny...LOL Thanks for the hard work.
It's a shame Matthias Wandel had to duck out of making big videos due to a tendon injury. But at the same time I feel something has really changed with youtube in terms of what sorts of videos can be successful over the last few years. The woodworking stuff I get recommended by the algorythms tends to be produced by guys with quite impressive workshops and equally impressive budgets, or jobs that give them access to fancy CNC machine tools, along with swish production values that mostly just make those projects seem unattainable to me and I imagine alot of other people. They feel like they're purely "entertainment", and not edutainment you can lift ideas and learn from - or let you feel part of some sort of online community of hobbyists. I'm also fairly sure the search algorythms are against me too. It's become increasingly difficult to find information on certain topics, with good results being buried deep within searches for very specific terms. All in all i'm not too thrilled about youtube or google these days. And that along with my recording equipment falling apart has put me off the idea of making any more videos. So don't expect too much more from me or this channel. Thanks for the kind comment though.
Great video mate! Oh, and awesome sander! The only thing I can see that commercial sanders have which your machine doesn't is in/out feed pressure rollers which may help with shorter pieces. Jordan
At some point I might be using this sander to make veneers, so i've got plans to add infeed/ outfeed rollers that attach to the tops of the sides of the table part. I'm saving that for if or when I need it though.
Hi Simon, just watched this and I am so impressed. I think this is the best homemade thickness sander build I've seen on RU-vid, I've been planning on making one for myself for ages,and am now so inspired I might actually get round to doing it, I just wish I had your skill to help me achieve this. Thanks for posting and I've also subscribed. Regards, Dave.
Dave Gibbon Thanks! I'm really happy with how the sander turned out and i've been getting alot of use out of it lately. As for skills, I don't really know much more than what you'd pick up watching Matthias Wandel's videos. You've probably already seen them, but i'd recommend having a look if you haven't already.
You must have as big a heat sink as you can, glued with a good head sink paste/glue on to your speed controllers mosfet, if you havent already done that. Else, do add a 12v fan. Doing so, over my 3d printers controller has done well for the motor driver boards. I can see how much work you put in and I really respect the honest video you have posted here.
I don't think most viewers actually make stuff. If they did, I think this video would be far more successful than it is. This was so well made that it actually makes me a bit embarrassed about the childish crap that I produce. The video was both enjoyable and useful for me to watch, and so it honestly makes me angry how far off view distribution can be with respect to quality content. Oh well, such is life. As for the spray adhesive on the drum, toluene is the only solvent that I have found that will remove the stuff. For that reason (for my disk sander), I just put it on lightly, and allow it to remain. Your spray seemed a but aggressive; I think it was that industrial web type for foam-rubber welding, so you may want to seek a milder brand if it is available to you. General purpose 3M spray is fine like hairspray, so it leaves less gooey, gummy blobs remaining after peel-off.
It's funny you say that, because I feel the same way with your videos. You make some really fine delicate stuff, and figure the maths out for it. Neither of those are things i'm any good at. It's not for lack of trying, either. I'm actually right now taking a break from doing stuff after spending the morning trying to make a segmented circle (for a banjo) from dense hardwood with no success, which was my third attempt at it. As for viewcounts, I think it's just down to chance. Alot of people have ideas on how to game the system and attract viewers, and I even tried myself with obnoxious eye catching thumbnails, but I imagine what it really comes down to is just if RU-vid's algorithms start displaying your video in the related videos on others. I know I see my spindle sander video in the related videos alot. It's still early days though and this video might start popping up like a bad penny. That 3M spray adhesive does look like the right stuff to use (especially for paper templates) but it's expensive, and for some reason every cheap noname brand can of the stuff I find turns out to be the globby web kind. I might have to bite the bullet and just buy a can of the right stuff, although I've got to buy ink cartridges first.
my grandad made homemade machinery like this when I was a kid. I remember him using thick plastic pipe for the drum and used wood discs to strengthen. brings me delight watching this being built. reminds me of past days.
Turning those kind of drums and stuff using a plunge router is actually very handy. You get dead straight surface. You turn the item very slowly and move the router along the item in a pair of T or L rails.
Daniel, you're an amazing young man. We live at a time when not many people in your generation know how to tackle such a project and work through the pitfalls. I must say that your ingenuity reminds me of my father. For those of us on this side of the Atlantic, it would have been helpful if you spoke just a little slower. :)
Very nice build! To sand smaller pieces you might consider putting a set of grippy rollers on either side of the sanding drum that are rotating at the same speed as the conveyer.
Oh! What is that I see being sanded? A segmented Bowl perhaps :-)) Great video, great to see you mention the odd mistake and how you overcame it. 10 out of 10.
Very nicely done! Really enjoyed watching the build (warts and all!). The MOSFET for the speed controller might benefit from being mounted to a large hunk of aluminum, etc in order to dissipate the heat (as opposed to a fan which gathers dust). Again, Awesome Video!
Thanks for the kind comment! If it weren't for finding Matthias' website i'd probably still have a hard time believing you can make stuff like this out of wood.
Seriously impressive build. I've been meaning to have a stab at building a drum sander for a while so notes have been taken. I built a belt sander a while back; when I saw you building the rollers out of MDF I thought you'd somehow secretly filmed my attempt as I had exactly the same problems. The solution I came up with was to soak the MDF in sanding sealer. Being solvent rich it didn't cause the MDF to expand and crack. The end result was acceptable rather than great though, I'd do it with ply next time as you did. P.S. where can I buy one of those flush cutting saw saws, they look great.
That's interesting. Someone on a forum suggested something similar (with diluted polyurethane varnish) and I was wondering if it'd work. I avoided doing it though since it probably would've taken a long time to dry, and solvent fumes tend to irritate my stupid lungs. Unfortunately that saw is a one of a kind though.
Windscreen wiper motors have a worm gear reduction in them and that gives them alot of torque at a low speed. What really amazed me was the brushless outrunner motor I bought to power my goofy electric bike. It wasn't that light a bike and I'm not that light a person, but it could still push me along at 15mph no problem.
Hi Simon. I came across and subscribed to your channel maybe a year ago and watched every video to date. I REALLY enjoyed watching and was inspired by them. I also like the concise way you make your videos. It seems like your last video was ages ago, so please, please please find more projects to upload. Regards Mark in the UK
I try to avoid making videos about things that I feel are already well covered by other people's videos. Like there's a million videos on dust cyclones already and I don't feel i'd be adding anything by making a video of my own.
Hi again Simon, and thanks for your reply. That's just it though; everybody has THEIR way of doing things. A different take and a different approach to things if you like. Someone else also commented that he liked the fact that you leave in the mistakes - we all make them. and it adds a touch more realism to the project. Having said that, I wish you'd put a plaster on your cut in this video. It looked fairly painful. Thanks again for sharing - any idea what your next video might be? Regards Mark in the UK
thecorbies The cut was fairly deep but surprisingly didn't hurt that much. I did it while fitting a door which a wonderfully sharp chisel. It was at the point where it was just starting to hold itself closed, so i'd taken the plaster off. And then I managed to drop another, different, chisel into it and re open it. Next video I can't make any promises with. I'm probably gonna try continuing to make a banjo (the hexagon I was sanding was for the pot), but i've also got a big and complicated project that I need to work on at the same time that'll most likely take a long while. I guess it depends on how I end up dividing my time between the two, but I would like to try get the banjo finished as soon as possible. I've been watching Treme (good show so far) and it got me back into playing my crappy current banjo.
for the drum, you could have just used 4 inch PVC pipe. then make wooden inserts for the ends. pvc pipe is not expensive. you can have several drums with different grit sand paper.
I didn't trust PVC pipe to be accurately round or to hold the pressure. It'd need wooden inserts throughout it for support, and to be turned round on the outside anyways. Plus I think the weight acts as a flywheel to help stop the thing stalling.
Another guy had a tip about trueing the disks... put sandpaper on the sled, and turn it on. Then using velcro around the drum seems to help with chatter, supposedly. I'm still trying to decide whether to go this route or just spend a few hundred dollars on a "real" one. I feel like it will cost me about the same either way.
I'd heard the cushioning from velcro is good for getting a smooth finish, but with this I was after dimensional accruacy. I could see it rounding over the leading edge a bit, but for making veneers that probably wouldn't be a problem. Although it might be a problem if centrifugal force flings the sandpaper out enough to catch on the conveyor belt if sanding something real thin.... I think making your own would end up cheaper if you have alot of the materials available. I'd been collecting motors i'd found cheap in second hand shops but they're stupidly expensive to buy new. The one I used for that sander i'd gotten given after a guy posted about wanting rid of it on a machining forum (that's now kinda dead). The real cost though would be time. I had more time than money back then. I figure from the username you're interested in making guitars, and if I learned anything from that banjo it's that it was all too easy to get caught up doing everything but making that banjo...
It was great friend, I will build for sanding my shovel pizza manufacturing. Thank you. Valdir Otrilla Brazil ==================== Ficou ótimo amigo, vou construir para lixar minhas pá de pizza que fabrico. Obrigado. Valdir Otrilla Brasil
Hi Simon, I'm a Geordie living in Australia and I love your drum sander design and I intend building one just like it. I'm almost 82 but still love pottering on in my workshop. It would help me greatly if you provided a dimensioned plan with a list of items used, size of table belt etc., is that available. I've got the Sketchup view.
Check the video description. Should be a thing that says 'SHOW MORE' under the video itself. If you ask me youtube should make it stand out more, it's easy to miss. There's a link to the sketchup model there, and in the top right corner of that page there should be an icon you can click to download it.
Also in the description is a link to a UK store where I bought the belt. I've got no idea where you'd find one in Australia, but there's the dimensions on the UK store's page. For dimensions in sketchup, sketchup has a tape measure tool (the icon is a tape measure). Sketchup provide a series of quick videos on how to use most of it's tools that are worth watching since alot of stuff isn't self explanitory. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-iQEACzA2fDk.html Might also be worth looking at the dimensions tool. I didn't feel a more traditional dimensioned drawing was necessary since the sketchup model already has all the dimensions to measure directly, and I found using the dimensions tool to include the dimensions made for a very cluttered image.
Great work. Congratulations On. I live in Brazil and here not always find the things that are shown. I wonder what the sandpaper grid you use to drag the woods, so I try to adapt here. I would also like to know the sanding roll diameter and rotation. Thanks You.
Eugenio Macedo The sandpaper for the conveyor belt is this stuff at 120 grit. www.axminster.co.uk/sanding-belts-406-x-1-220mm For the drum i'm using 80 grit sandpaper, which doesn't leave a very smooth surface, but this tool is mostly for making the surface flat and parallel. The rotation of the drum is clockwise while facing the drive belt. It rotates so as to sort of push against the work being fed in. It should reduce the chance of the thing getting grabbed and flung out. The drum diameter is 125mm and runs at 1400rpm.
fanbloodytastic. that motor is huge! I do like the infeed solution. Way more elegant than massive gear reductions that are normally used. Does the infeed speed controller works fine under heavy load?
It seems to be holding up, although I had a weird problem where the switch stopped working and the conveyor was stuck on (although I could still stop it by turning the speed down to zero). It turns out the two wires from the switch passed over the mosfet's heatsink, touching it, and the thing got so hot it melted the insulation and shorted it out. I'd been running the sander for a while at that point, but it means I still need to sort the cooling out.
+TheBlitz667 In all honesty, I've not been doing a whole lot of interest lately. I've also sitting on a video that could be interesting but it wasn't turning out very good and it kind of killed my enthusiasm for it. I keep trying to get back to it but I seem to have lost my mojo. Maybe i'll give it another go this week, but yeah... sorry for not producing much. I just don't want to be the guy that farts out weekly videos about building toilet roll holders or whatever.
Excellent work my friend - happy to subscribe. Why not just use some 4" steel tube for the drum? I'm most impressed that you made this with some fairly shitty B&Q power tools - no offence, but its a nice change from Festool everything.
Chances are the 4 inch steel tube wouldn't be that round so it'd only sand on a couple points. Plus it'd be tricky getting it lined up properly on the shaft even if it was round. I really can't remember why I decided to use expensive birch ply for the drum over something like MDF though. I guess it's just what I had on hand. Also thanks for the tool comment. I'm not sure how some people can afford fancy hand power tools. A whole set would add up fast. Plus I don't think they ever justify the price. I bought a semi-expensive router for a project a while back, the sort with a round metal body, and I'm not convinced it out performs the cheaper ones I already own. It has a LED light in it I guess. It might last longer but I could buy a lifetime supply of the cheap ones for the same price.
That's a really nice sander .. I been shopping around for one at a good price but drum sanders are just so expensive .. Think I'm gonna have to make my own .. Did you get plans somewhere or did you wing it ..
Great job all away around. Great dialogue, video and project. Love the purple! I have wanted to build one for ages and love your wiper motor idea, I actually have all that stuff in my radio shack ! Just one question, do you still have all your fingers? LOL All the best
Thanks very much. And somehow, yes. Although I sliced a bit off the side of my left finger yesterday at a friend's house. We tend to keep the knives at ours fairly dull so i've developed some bad habits that caught me off guard with their razor sharp ones.
Wow Simon - just watched your video for the 20th time i think - just awesome. Wish it was even longer and more detailed. Great narration, camera work and craftsmanship. I'm starting to slowly acquire all the components, so i can build your sander. Only thing i'm wondering is, if the hard sanding drum, with just sandpaper is causing problems. Seems the hook and loop type has a bit of "give" which i would think would be a bit more forgiving. I know this is not a planer, but my worry is, that differences in thickness in the stock that being sanded, might cause is to "jam" or kick back? I would prefer your method, since regular old sandpaper is WAY cheaper and much easier to come by, and living in the sticks here in Sweden, speciality items (like the felt backed sandpaper) is hard to come by.
Thanks for the kind comment! I think the hard sandpaper helps prevent kickback more than it'd cause it, since it removes enough material that if the part were to start sliding backwards there's not much pressure on the already sanded bit for it to grab. With a softer sandpaper with a bit of give it might leave the part thick enough that, when it starts moving backwards, it'll still have enough pressure on the material to get a good grip and overcome the friction of the belt below it. I was sanding some PVC a month or so back and the first bit went through fine, but then all the fine dust on the belt was extremely lubricating and the second part started to 'float' back out. But it didn't get enough of a grip to launch it. Infeed and outfeed rollers would probably help alot to increase the grip and help with long parts that might tip up into the sanding drum (or very thin parts that might warp a bit during sanding), but that's something I figured i'd build if I needed it and so far I haven't. Also my thought with the soft velcro back sandpaper was... mostly that it's expensive. But also that it'd tend to round over the front edge of the part going through, and not fully flatten the part since it would somewhat follow the existing waviness of any surface. There's also the concern that if the paper started to come loose it might get jammed between the part and the drum, and help launch it out or damage the machine. It'd be alot quicker to change though, and might be useful if you want to use the machine for finish sanding and swap out various grits. But I think hand sanding, or using an orbital sander, would work better for that.
Thank you for the thorough and kind reply. Your point with the rounding over from a "cushioned" surface on the drum is a great one, and since your real world experience is that is works without problems, i will definately go ahead and use your method. I'm not going to be swapping sand paper at all. I'm not a luthier, but will mainly be using it to sand surfaces of stock that is too thin to safely go through my planer, and to remove small swirl marks left on stock from the table saw. Anything under 5-6 mm gets sucked into it, and attaching every piece to a bigger board is too much of a pain when making tons of boxes for instance. So it will be permanently mounted with 80 grit. Though i'm going to experiment with using "grip resin" (the stuff basketball and handball players use to get better grip) instead of spray adhesive. Hope this works, but otherwise i will use the spray www.amazon.co.uk/Intense-Grip-Handball-Resin-500/dp/B00U1JEC1I Another question if you don't mind. Do you change the speed often on the feed belt? I have a nice 230v high torque 20 rpm synchronous gear motor, but it can't be speed regulated. Was thinking it seems like an ok all round speed if i used it as a direct drive, and would equate about 70 cm of travel per minute speed on the conveyer belt, which seems about right. But if you find the speed regulation essential, i will have to come up with a different solution (like swappable wood gears or something). Thanks again for your kind reply. Hope to see more videos from you soon, but i realize that making videos of the quality you are is a massive undertaking.
That grip resin looks like a good idea. I've not had to change the sandpaper yet, although it's getting there, and I imagine it's going to involve a heat gun, solvents, and alot of scraping. Yeah I tend to change the speed alot. I think it's more down to how aggressive a cut i'm taking and/or the hardness & width of the material, where slowing it down helps. The adjustment screw I made is fairly poor, since it's only captive at one end it can tilt about quite a bit, so I can't adjust the cut very precisely. Maybe if you could come up with something better you could adjust the depth of cut to match the speed of the belt. Also i've been sitting on a video for quite a while. A couple actually, on the same topic. But they're so... weird that i've been hesitating to finish them. I'm both worried about the response and also still unsure about how to really make the video. Hopefully i'll have it out by the end of the year but don't get your hopes up. There's also been a few failed and unfinished projects this year. After I made the banjo I was setting up to make chemistry related videos but it kinda fell through when I realised how time consuming and expensive it was becoming. It's something i'd like to get back to though.
Thank you again. I will have to figure out a way to regulate the speed then - have to think about it. Well - i hope you figure out a way to make more content that doesn't break the bank, and isn't too labour intensive or disruptive to the fun of making stuff. There is a big difference in making something that works or is interesting, that only you will see, and then presenting something that many thousands of people might potentially watch. A lot of a**holes out there waiting to slam creator, to compensate for their own lack of accomplishments. I for one will watch anything you put out, even if it breaks with the usual tone and style of your other videos. But man - you are an inspiration. What you make, with tools and materials of sometimes questionable quality (no offence), is amazing, and always a great reality check for me. I'm guilty of sometimes blaming the lack of the right tool for not tackling a project, which you prove is just an excuse and a mental block. So - i WILL build you drum sander, even if it takes me months :).
Love the video. Could you tell me what drive motor/unit you used for the feed belt please? I'm designing a drum sander to build and like the feeder drive you have. Is the table conveyor type feed preferable to feed drums on the inlet and outlet side of the main sanding drum?
I think it depends what you want to sand. Thickness planers tend to have rollers to push the stock through, but suffer from snipe that mangles the ends of the board as it leaves one of the rollers. They also push the wood flat against the table so you'd need one side to be flat already or the piece would spring back. I think they'd be best for sanding very thin veneers that are so thin they want to curl up and wont stay flat with a conveyor. The mechanism for driving the two rollers at the same time would also be a little bit complicated, involving a chain with considerations to keep the chain from falling off when the rollers move on their suspension. With the conveyor belt In think it'd be possible to also have rollers that you can remove when you don't need them. The rollers there won't need to drive the part, so the whole thing with a chain won't be necceccary. They'd only be there to keep thin and long work flat against the conveyor. The motor i'm using is a car windscreen wiper motor, which you can usually get fairly cheap from any automotive scrap yard, and i'm running it at 12 volts I think. The speed controller I built myself but it has some problems, you can buy PWM speed controllers very cheaply from ebay if you search around.
Darn, I just thru away an old wiper motor I thought i'd never need when I cleaned out an old storage building last month - should have known better! Off to the salvage yard or e-bay. Thanks so much for your insight. I think I'll stay with the driven conveyor belt and just add some small diameter spring-loaded rollers before and after the main sanding drum for some thin stock work. i'll make them so I can pin them in an unloaded position in case they present problems on thicker stock.
hi Simon. amazing video. I am well into building my own. just ordered steel rods but they don't fit the bearings :( I guess that I need precision ground round bar. Did you experience this? any idea where you got your steels. everything else I found. anyway super job and video.
David Monheit I wasn't using precision ground bar if I remember right. Just regular cold rolled steel, which is usually fairly accurate. I got it from a place in Darlington called m-machine metals, who're pretty good for small orders. I guess your bar could be slightly oversized, in which case is there any way you could chuck it up in something like a drill and spin it (not too fast) and sand it down till the bearings fit? If you can't chuck it up you could just stick it in a vise and do it the hard way. I can't imagine it'd be oversize by much if it is oversized. Also make sure it isn't just chewed up at the cut edges, since any burrs or dents would get in the way of the bearing.
It looks good. Did you consider using pvc pipe to form the rollers as i have seen others? also do you have probems keeping the conveyor completely parralel to the roller? i am considering making one for guitar making but am concerned about keeping the table parallel being that the woods i work with are sometimes 3mm thick, thanks
Joe Steele I did consider using PVC pipe. I've seen people using it with a couple of end caps to fix it onto a spindle, but I figured that the hollow pipe would be quite flexible and probably bow from the tension on the belt. So then I thought about pretty much making the rollers as I did from MDF, then slipping the pipe over it. But I figured i'd need to crown the roller anyways, and wasn't too sure how well the PVC would turn, plus I had a harder time finding PVC pipe in the right diameter required (if I was planning ahead I could've made the table to fit the pipe). But I decided to see how plywood would work, and it worked just fine. Another thing with PVC is it might be a bit too smooth to easily grip the conveyor belt. Also for adjusting the table parallel to the sanding drum, the mounting holes on the flanges for the table's pivot are slightly oversized and that gives some room for adjustment. I can get it fairly close by putting a flat board on the table, lifting it up, and holding it against the drum while tightening the flanges back down. If I needed something critically flat I could probably sand a thing, measure it, and then adjust the table by loosening the flanges and tapping them up/down to correct.
It's holding up pretty good. Alot better than I expected. I figured i'd use that speed controller till it burned out, but despite it running at i'd guess near 100 degrees it's not died yet. Wish I made the machine a bit taller though. That said i've not used it a whole lot over the last year, just a few times for making veneers. I'm trying to escape wood since it's just been killing my chest. Occupational asthma!
Hey mate, great build and on the fly problem solving. My question pertains to your Japanese pull saw, where did you get it, did you have to order it in special and was there a waiting list to get it. What sort of $$$ was it? Looks to be a highly sort after pull saw? Ive read about similar ones that are made by Tibetan Monks that shave their pubic hair and hand weave and press the blade into shape, apparently it can take a Monk a life time in solitude to make these pull saws, then they sell them to the Japanese to on sell to us the consumer. Is your pull saw one of these
I can't abide those modern reproductions. They're nothing compared to true antique steels. It's a lost art that can never be recaptured - and I feel honoured to be the humble custodian of this artifact.
