FINALLY! Drum Sander Pics

This has been a major work in progress.  It is still not done, but it is a working prototype.  It does what I need for now.  I used cut disks of MDF and glued them together to make the drum.  I then turned it as true as I could. 

To lift the bed (creating the thickness) I have a large threaded rod and a bolt.  I don't like having only one point to raise and lower the bed, as it is not very stable, but I will find a way to fix that in the future.

If you have any thoughts/suggestions, please feel free to share them with me.

New Things

I have been quite busy for a few months.  My family is finally in a house (our first!), and I started Graduate School this fall (EMPA from BYU).  I've been able to produce a working prototype of a drum sander jig for my lathe.  I hold the drum with my chuck/jaws which seems to work well.  I turned and sanded the drum so that it was flush and parallel with the bed I made (piece of thick, flat, particle board hinged to a small 2x4 frame).  I staples a small strip of 80 grit sand paper around the drum to give it a test and put a couple pieces of wood through to test, it seemed to work quite well.  I have a lot I want to do to perfect the jig, but for now it works for what I need.  I started a new inside-out turned ornament yesterday which it was nice to have my drum sander to make sure my pieces were all uniform in size.  Pictures are to come (I promise).

Drum Sander Revisited

Yes, it has been some time now since I last posted, and no, I still have not completed my drum sander.  I was able a couple weeks ago to get a bunch of blocks of MDF glued together so all I have to do now is get it turned round on my lathe.  The one thing that I'm still trying to figure out is exactly how I'm going to attache the drum to my lathe.  I'm worried about making sure that it turns square to my table each time I put it back on my lathe.  I also need/want to re-build my sander bed so that I have a little more depth available to work with between the sander and the bed.

In the mean time I have worked on a couple small projects. Unfortunately I do not have any pictures of these.  I turned a plate and made a stand for it for a lady at my work.  She gave me a picture of her kids to put on the plate and I made a small plaque that said "Happy Father's Day 2011".  She wanted to give it to her husband for fathers day.  It turned out pretty nice.  Also I have put together a small case to hold some hand tools that I use most often.  Right now it is hanging on the wall behind my lathe. I used my Kreg Pocket Hole Jig to put it together and it seems to be holding up great.

Drum Sander Continues

Sorry, but I have not yet taken any pics of my drum sander I'm making.  I have had a couple of issues.  I used contact cement to glue together disks of plywood, which I have learned is not the best way to join these disks together.  There have been a couple of joints between these disks that have failed and I am back at square one on creating the drum for my sander.  I have the bed almost completed, and should have pictures soon of that, but I'm going to have to start over with making my drum.  I'm planning on using regular wood glue and cutting the disks out of MDF.  I promise, pictures are to come!

Jerry Sloan Resigns Today

This blog is mainly for my woodworking projects to be shown and discussed, however, I learned some news today that I thought deserved a post.  Jerry Sloan, the 24 year Coach of the NBA's Utah Jazz, is being reported to resign today along with his assistant coach Phil Johnson.  I have always been a fan of the Jazz ever since I was a young boy planing in the Jr. Jazz community leagues.  I love going to their games and watching them on TV.  Learning of the departure of Sloan is a bitter-sweet moment for me.  On one hand he has been the coach for so long, it will be odd to see someone else in his place.  On the other hand, I have felt for the past couple of years that if the Jazz had a different coach, would they possibly be able to get over the hump and win a championship?  Don't get me wrong, Sloan has been a great coach, but I do think that it has been some time coming for him to part ways with the Jazz.  I'm excited to see who will take his place, and to see how his replacement will revamp the game strategy of the Jazz.  They have a great team with a lot of young talent.  I see good things for their future. GO JAZZ!!!

Thickness Drum Sander

I have been looking for a little while at homemade thinkes/drum sanders.  I have seen many made with motors from old dryers, some made with a drive belt attached to a table saw, and some powered by a lathe.  I decided to give it a try and have started making one to be powered by my lathe.  I have made a bed that is adjustable and am currently working on the drum which will be turned between centers on my lathe.  The way I have it currently there is only approx 1 1/4 in max thickness that can be sanded, so I'm sure I'll take another crack at it some day, but for now I'm kind of prototyping to see if I can at least get one made that will work.  My main reason for wanting to make one of these is so that I can do some more segmented turning.  With this I will be able to ensure that my individual rings are sanded flush and parallel top to bottom.  I'll take some pictures of what I have so far and post them, then put up another post when it is completed and discuss how it works.

Engraved Name Boxes

My Co-worker who purchased all of the Pen/Pencil sets in my previous post had asked me a couple of times if I could engrave the names of those to whom the items would be given.  I advised her that I did not quite have the equipment nor the skills to do that.  The more I thought about it, however, I realized that there was a possibility I could give it a try.  There was one Pen/Pencil set that she was giving to her husband (Ray).  After I completed that set, I grabbed my Dremel Rotary Tool with my Plunge Router attachment and a scrap piece of wood.  I had designed a few letters to attempt to engrave Ray's name, and my test on the scrap piece of wood was successfull.  So I decided to go ahead and engrave his name on the top of the box for his Pen/Pencil set.  I wanted to do this for him as a gift as he had given me earlier a bunch of raised pannel doors that he no longer had any need for.  When I presented the pen/pencil box to my co-worker, excited does not even begin to describe how she reacted.  She loved it.  I let her know that if she wanted to I would go ahead and engrave the names on the rest of the boxes if she would like.  She decided that she wanted me to do that and here are the results: