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Thickness sanders

Posted: Sun Nov 10, 2019 11:14 pm
by Bob Gleason
Just for laughs, everyone laughs when they see this sander in my shop, but hey it works. I've had 5 sanders in my time. When you do this for a living, the way it goes is you get a shop, fill it with tools, move to a bigger shop and fill that with tools, and just keep going.Eventually, if you're lucky, you get to move from more tools into better tools. But, I had to start somewhere. Those were the days when my shop was about 10' x 12' and I heated my lacquer by putting my gun in a pot of water on the wood stove. My first sander was just a drum that I turned on a Sears wood lathe. I covered it with sandpaper and had some way to push wood under it against a table. Don't remember that far back. Anyway, I built my 2nd thickness sander 35 years ago and I still would not part with it. It still has the free freight Harbor Freight motor that I bought before they figured out it cost more to ship the motor to Hawaii than the motor cost. I laminated together a maple drum that was turned roughly on a wood lathe and I used 1/2" steel for the shaft. A friend jury rigged a collar for the shaft so I could bolt the shaft ends on. Once i got my stand and table built, I trued the drum, slowly, by running a sanding board under it with 40 grit. I've used the sander that way for years. That sander had a 5" x 18" drum on it. Eventually I got a real sander, if you can call it that. It was an early day Grizzly garbage double drum sander. I did not keep it very long. But while I had it, I converted my old shop build one to a 3" x 18" drum, which was far more useful for dealing with bridges, nuts and saddles, and other small parts. Here are some photos. Looks like I have to do it in 2 postings. Pay close attention to the sophisticated electronics and digital table elevation system.

Re: Thickness sanders

Posted: Sun Nov 10, 2019 11:19 pm
by Bob Gleason
More photos

Re: Thickness sanders

Posted: Sun Nov 10, 2019 11:24 pm
by Bob Gleason
Last photo. Since the days of the Grizzly Beast, I have had a made in America, which is most likely why they went out of business, Kuster wide belt, a Sunnhill wide belt, and now a Shop Fox wide belt. It's the best of the bunch, so far. At 73, I'm hoping it's not the last one. My shop is big enough for just a few more tools!

Re: Thickness sanders

Posted: Mon Nov 11, 2019 6:42 am
by Diane Kauffmds
All of them beat my little 10" drum sander. But, better to have my 10" than none at all. Congrats on the Shop Fox.

Re: Thickness sanders

Posted: Mon Nov 11, 2019 8:49 am
by tippie53
I was lucky the Williamsport Grizzly was only 70 miles from me. I used to drop wood off at a friends cabinet shop for sanding and paid an hourly fee and sandpaper cost.
at one point I was spending about 300 a month sanding fee so one year grizz had a sale on the 18 wide belt sander. I had a 24 in double drum but that was a horrible tool for production work. 2006 was the year after I moved into the new shop and I use that sander daily. I would be lost without it. Takes about 15 seconds to change the belt.
Hope you have lots of years making dust my friend.

Re: Thickness sanders

Posted: Mon Nov 11, 2019 10:59 pm
by Morecowbell
Good thing you put the tennis balls on there, otherwise someone could get hurt!

Fantastic post, made my night.

Thanks Bob!

Re: Thickness sanders

Posted: Tue Nov 12, 2019 2:54 am
by Bob Gleason
Yeah, safety first you know. I figured that if I ever wanted to get shop insurance the agent would see the balls and know I'm a safe guy. They are on my buffer too.--Bob