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I recently completed my Shopnotes thickness sander, and am starting the shakedown process. I'm wondering who else has one up and running to their satisfaction. Info on choice and source of abrasive rolls would be useful. I'm using a roll of 80 grit that I've had forever (I'll use it someday!) It seems prone to stretching, and I don't know whether that's the nature of the beast, or if I need a heavier (and newer) backing. BTW, I made my drum 21 inches wide rather than 16 inches. Anyway, I'd appreciate any input about how to get the most out of this rig.
   

Hi Steve, Can you post a picture of your sander?
I'm sure there are others who have made one.

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Anderson Guitars
Clearwater,Fl. 33755

Here's a pic - it's pretty much straight from the plans, except I added 5 inches to the width.



I've got it running off the motor of my table saw, hopefully temporarily, while a locate a suitable motor. I need to add a larger dust port also.

I know Charlie has made one, hopefully he will chime in here.

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Sanding belts are prone to stretching. I adjust the ones on my double drum sander fairly regularly or pay the price by replacing them when they braek!

Shane

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Canada

Im about to take mine on a test run this weekend upcoming,, I havent ran mine as of yet, sorry.
I also made mine wider, 18" wide instead of 16"... and havent added the conveyor.. I may just use a push plate, and forego the conveyor feature altogether... which seemed to work fine while truing the drum,,,
wish I could be of more help...
cheers
charliewood

I designed my own sander, so I can't be much help on the specifics of your unit... Except that I strongly recommend you build a sturdy guard over those pulleys BEFORE you hurt yourself. (clever of you to use the table saw motor!)
Two small dust ports might work better than one large one.
I haven't found an abrasive I'm completely happy with yet, so I won't recommend any.
The trick with drum style thickness sanders is to take lots of light passes instead of working the unit as hard as you can. A bit of practice on some scraps will teach you a lot.
If you try to take too much material off at once, the unit can stall out & make a huge divot in your precious wood doing so.
I was talking to a bunch of guys at our local guild meeting yesterday & some said they got much better results using an MDF sled rather than running thin stock directly on the feed belt.
My sander has feed rollers & I use a sled quite often. Especially when sanding binding strips.
Nice looking sander! Good luck with it. And... tuck in your shirt & remove your necktie! I have a few buddies who come over & use my sander pretty regularly... I'm constantly having to tell them to get rid of the loose clothing. Play safe & have fun.

Daniel
I believe that the dust cover for that unit is in the background of the photo on the table.
Cheers
Charliewood

Hi! What issue of shopnotes was this plan in?

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Guitars, guitars and more guitars.

Mike, it's in the March 2006 - Issue 86. Shopnotes have changed how they deal with back issues, you have to buy the volume that has the issue you are looking for in it. I'd suggest going to Ebay and watch for it.

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Aoibeann

Yeah, I saw the dust cover, but it doesn't look like it will cover the top pulley... Or maybe I'm wrong about that... Could happen... I seem to remember being wrong before...
Steve mentioned that he wanted to add a larger dust port. (See text below the pic.)
I have one large (4") port on my 25" sander. It works quite well, but I think two evenly spaced ports would be more effective.
Cheers!   Dan

[QUOTE=Aoibeann] Mike, it's in the March 2006 - Issue 86. Shopnotes have changed how they deal with back issues, you have to buy the volume that has the issue you are looking for in it. I'd suggest going to Ebay and watch for it.[/QUOTE]
Thanks...I will check out ebay.

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Guitars, guitars and more guitars.

As far as the plan goes, I bought it online as a pdf. download. It was $10, and immediate. I doubt you could do much better on ebay by the time you pay shipping and handling. Google Shopnotes sander...
Thanks for the reminder on the pulley guard! I'd best make one now even if this motor setup is only a temporary solution.
A couple questions- what horsepower motor will suffice? Smaller motors are obviously easier and less expensive to find than larger ones, but I don't want to do too much trial and error.
Also, what do you like in abrasives?
Down the road, I may want to motorize the conveyor to free up my hands.Any recommendations on a suitable low RPM motor? I was wondering if a motor from a paper shredder might be about right.

Hi i want to let you now I was at the book store today and they had a special shopnotes tool and jigs magazine special so I checked it out low and behold it has the thickness sander plans. It was $9.95 It has a bunch of other plans in it too. Theres a router thickness jig and a router jointer jig for those who might not own a jointer or planer.

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Guitars, guitars and more guitars.

Great find Mike. I was all over the ShopNotes website and could not find the plans to download. I'm glad they haven't completely hidden them on us.

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Aoibeann

I figured I'd bump this up in case anyone missed it. I'm still looking for general recommendations on abrasives, sources for them, and any other tips to get the most out of this sander. If I'm the resident expert on Shopnotes sanders, then we're in trouble! Todd, did you ever get yours going?

Steve-
re: motor selection
I've made a couple of sanders of this type. My current one (hand feed) has a 1 HP 3450rpm motor driving it, and has adequate power.
In the 70s I bought a 'kit' for a sander with power feed. The sander drive motor for that kit (which is on a bandsaw now) was a 2.5 HP, and the power feed drive was about a 1/4 HP gear motor. I notice that the BusyBee (Grizzly clone) uses 3HP main and 1/8 HP feed motor for a 25" sander.
I doubt that a typical paper shredder motor will do the trick for feed, but might be worth a try if (like me) you enjoy improvising tools. I see gear motors listed on eBay, though I haven't followed selling (or shipping) prices on them.

Business & Industrial# >Industrial Electrical & Test# >Motors & Transmissions# >Motors# >Less than 0.5 HP

Cheers

John

Thanks, John- I'll admit that the primary reason that the shredder motor came to mind was the fact that I have one. Thanks for the specs on the other sanders- that gives me something to work with. In the meantime, I'll keep cranking the conveyor. With my 80 grit paper, it seems that I can take off about .04"per pass in birdseye maple. I have yet to attempt a full width piece, such as a back or top.
I'll take a look on eBay for the fractional gear motors.