Official Luthiers Forum!

Kuster had a drum sanding kit that was availalbe several (or many) years
ago. I have the plans for it and it looks like a pretty nice machine. Now I
have a chance to pick one up at a very very resonable price. Does anyone
use one of these in the group. If so, what are the pros and cons.

thanks
Ken Hageman

Ken-
Back in the early 80s I bought a kit for a thickness sander- with the motors, the kit probably cost the same (or more) in 'real dollars' than a Grizzly/BusyBee sander today.
I think it was a Kuster kit? It had a separate gear motor which drove a couple of spring-loaded feed rollers (no 'conveyor belt), and an aluminum sanding drum that was about 8" or so in diameter- my memory is a bit hazy. The table adjusted with threaded rods at each corner and a sprocket and chain mechanism. Is this the same one? There were probably a couple of variants.
It worked well for me- I used it for a few years and then sold it for peanuts when I 'quit guitar building'- should have kept it!

If the price is right, and it has working motors, I'd jump at it.

Cons:The advantage of the 'conveyor belt' style is that sometimes you can get away with the risky practice of putting shorter stock through the machine (stand back), something you can't do with the drive roller style.
Cheers
John

Ken,

Craig Sullivan and I both own Kuster sanders, and are exactly as John describes. I picked mine up for around $350 back in the mid 90's when I was first learning to build guitars (still learning, btw). It has served me pretty well, and easily paid for itself in labor time saved. I've thought about converting the roller-feed unit into a belt feed, but can't seem to find the belt material and other parts at reasonable costs. One thing...the machine design is pretty darn good, and the parts are very heavy duty. A lot of small commercial machines are designed similarly, but some not as sturdy.

Mine didn't have a dust hood, if that's the same with the one you're looking at, you'll have to make one also. Not a big deal. I'm finding great success since I switched to 80 to 60 grit paper for thicknessing, and using Klingspore's blue paper.

The important thing is what size motor is driving the drum, and how properly it's tensioned. Mine is 1.5hp, and the tension was pretty poor, but I've recently tnesioned the thing a bit and have hed better results with it. I'm hoping to upgrade to a 3-5hp motor in the future, unless I hit the lottery, in which case I'll buy a wide-belt sander.

How much would you have to pay for it?

_________________
"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Thanks for the information. I did buy the Kuster Sander. I just received it
today. The person who built it did an outstanding job putting it together.
All solid Oak. It has a 3 horse 220 motor with it. The total cost to me was
$540.00. The machine was $400.00 and the shipping $140.00. Since it was
broken down (motors, vacuum hood and drum removed for separate
shipping) I will be putting it back together this coming weekend. Will report
how it works. I have a set of plans that I purchased in the dark ages, so I
have reference on how the whole thing works.

Ken

Ken-
Good find! Having lots of power in the main drive motor (which you've got!) is a real plus. Put your dust collector directly on it (with smooth pipe) if possible- lots of air helps keep the paper clean and slows down the gumming a bit.
Enjoy it! BTW, you can do short pieces if you use a 'carrier board' - a plywood scrap and some small cleats stuck on with CA glue will usually do the trick. I just thicknessed a bunch of classical bridge blanks that way on my homebuilt. I wish I had my old Kuster back!

Cheers
John

Sounds like you did pretty well Ken...congrats!

_________________
"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Very funny!

Thanks for all the help. I sort of made one of these sanders years ago
that was 18 inches wide. Did not have any type of feed on it except good
ole manual. Had a piano hinge arrangement. Cut and glued plywood for
the drum cylinder. I made a sled for that sander that had a cleat plus I
put down a surface of sandpaper kind of like a conveyor belt. Pushed the
sled into the sander and than pulled it back through. Worked OK, but I
think I am going to like this new system and the wider drum.

Ken

One more question. The gear reduction motor for the feed rollers is a 1/4
horse. Is there any reason it can't be hooked up with a rheostat so the feed
speed can be changed?

Ken

Hmmm....good question. No idea at all.

I'll say this though, if it's the same one that I have on my Kuster, that's an expensive drive motor! I priced a new one out at over $250. I would give the folks at Graniger a call and see if anyone there has a clue, or call Dayton if that's what yours is. Perhaps we have a mechanical engineer here on the OLF who can tell you if it can be done.

[quote=Ken]All solid Oak. It has a 3 horse 220 motor with it. The total cost to me was
$540.00. The machine was $400.00 and the shipping $140.00. [/quote]

Wow, you bought a motor and a feed motor, had them shipped, and got a sander thrown in with them! Not bad....

Hey Ken, it's traditional for us to show pics of a new piece of machinery here....so....let's see some pictures of that beast!

_________________
"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Ken-
I think that gear motor on your Kuster is just a regular AC motor with a reduction drive. I don't think you can control the rpm of such motors by varying the input voltage (with a rheostat or variac); the rpm depends on the frequency of the AC, if I recall correctly. There are some hi-tech power supplies that can control such motors- I think some of the woodturning lathes use them. As I recall, the electronics cost about the same as a good sander.

I'd keep the constant feed speed and just get things working smoothly with the depth of 'cut' adjustment. In a planer, slower feed speed gets the blade marks closer together(aka smoother result); in a sander this isn't really an issue.
Cheers
John

Don't know my electicity too well, but I have heard that some motors will burn out if you reduce the voltage. It seems counter-intuitive, but I have heard it may times.

Hey Ken, any pictures for us yet?

_________________
"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."