Thickness sanders

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Bob Gleason
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Joined: Fri Jul 03, 2015 2:45 pm
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Thickness sanders

Post 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.
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Bob Gleason
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Re: Thickness sanders

Post by Bob Gleason »

More photos
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Bob Gleason
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Re: Thickness sanders

Post 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!
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Diane Kauffmds
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Joined: Sun Mar 09, 2014 8:13 pm

Re: Thickness sanders

Post 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.
Diane Kauffmann
Country Roads Guitars
countryroadsguitars@gmail.com
tippie53
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Joined: Fri Mar 03, 2006 7:09 pm
Location: Hegins, Pa
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Re: Thickness sanders

Post 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.
John Hall
Blues Creek Guitars Inc
Authorized CF Martin Repair Center
president of Association of Stringed Instrument Artisans
http://www.bluescreekguitars.com
Morecowbell
Posts: 280
Joined: Thu Feb 21, 2019 10:51 am
Location: Fishers, IN

Re: Thickness sanders

Post by Morecowbell »

Good thing you put the tennis balls on there, otherwise someone could get hurt!

Fantastic post, made my night.

Thanks Bob!
"Facts seldom sway an opinion." - John Hall
"The difference between theory and practice is that in theory there is no difference." - Van de Snepscheut
Bob Gleason
Posts: 412
Joined: Fri Jul 03, 2015 2:45 pm
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Re: Thickness sanders

Post 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
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