What a Difference a Few Inches Make - Gloat

Re: What a Difference a Few Inches Make - Gloat

Keith Tompkins

>Cool...Mark, have you considered making a disc sander to run off the lathe?

That's something I have been considering; seems like it would be easy enough to do....home built adjustable table to attach to the ways of the lathe.

Re: What a Difference a Few Inches Make - Gloat

Mark Kauder. Phenix City, AL

>Great Minds....

Actually this weekend I mounted a 20" plywood disk on a waste block to fit my chuck, and covered it with Formica. Tomorrow, I am heading to the Graingers to pick up a 20" 40 grit PSA disk.

My only desire right now is to flatten disks on it as several people do. However, most of the use stand alone 20" 2hp disk sanders, but I do not have the floor space or the $$$ for that right now. This will let me test it with out spending big $$$.

Right now I have my segmenting sleds dialed in really great, and when I need to touch up a segment, I do it on the disk sanders on the combo machines. However, I have considered a 12" stand alone sander that would fit on my sanding bench, to use for design ring glue ups.

It is always something.

Thanks

Mark

Re: What a difference...

Dennis J. Gooding

>Mark, regarding the dust port, my delta combo sander has an adjustable gate in the dust port that was in the closed position when I bought the unit. You may want to remove the cover and check that it is fully open in your unit. Dennis

Re: What a Difference a Few Inches Make - Gloat

Russ Fairfield

>A sanding disc on the lathe has a definite advantage over all of the commercial machines - variable speed.

1750 RPM on a 20" disc removes the wood too fast for fine tuning a segment, and there is the risk of burning the wood and getting a poor gloue joint. 700 is more to my liking.

Re: What a difference...

Mark Kauder. Phenix City, AL

>Thanks Dennis,

Yes, I played with that. Unfortunately, I think the main problem is the 2.5" dust port - just not enough air flow with a DC 4" hose necked down to 2.5". I am looking at maybe opening it up to 4".

Just a thought at this point.

Mark

Re: What a Difference a Few Inches Make - Gloat

JamieDonaldson

>Keith- I built such a table and mounted a disc made of MDF, then faceplate mounted on the old General long bed I seldom use. I glue the 9" round abrasives to the MDF with spray contact adhesive and it works like a champ.

Re: Variable speed disc sander

Russ Fairfield

>This is the table. It is fixed so there is no adjustments after the first time the table was set to square with the disc.

MDF works better for the discs because it is flatter, more stable, and the discs stick to the surface.

For other angles I just make another table. Sometimes I run one on each end of the headstock.

drum sanders?

John K Jordan

>A related question, something I've been wondering about - are the drum sanders any good for this? (Performax, etc) I've bought one but do not have it set up so I do not yet know what kind of things I can feed to it.

Is a disk the better way to go for a ring of segments?

JKJ in East TN

Re: drum sanders?

Mark Kauder, Phenix City, AL

>Many segmented turner do use drum sanders (Profomax, Delta, etc). You might be limited on the size that will work (Too large or Too Small), but that is a problem with any method.

The only thing that I wonder about is how long it would take - multiple runs through to get is flat, since you cannot take off much of a bit at a time.

When you get yours set up, give us a report.

Another issue with me, is floor space.

Mark

Re: drum sanders? *LINK*

Dennis Vallianos

>I purchased & set up a Performax 16-32 sander a few weeks back and am finding many uses for it on segmented vessel construction. I don't think I'd flatten the 1st side of a ring with it, sticking with the 6x48 belt sander but it is great for the 2nd side and for preparing wood for rings & veneer in whatever thickness you want.

Dennis


dnvturnings.com

Re: drum sanders?

Russ Fairfield

>Others will do things a different way.

The easiest for me is to run the strips for the rings through the planer so they are all the same thickness going in. That way all of the pieces of a ring are the same thickness after it is clamped and glued together on a flat plate. Any variation is small enough that I can clean up the high spots with a sharp paint scraper or by holding it against a sanding disc.

Thickness variations in the planer are across the width of the planer, so if all of the pieces for a single ring are cut from the same strip, they will all be the same thickness. Most of the time.

Re: drum sanders?

Dennis Vallianos

>Russ, I wouldn't abandon my planer for a drum sander but I am finding the sander invaluable when dealing with wild grain, very thin (1/8" or less)strips & small pieces/sub-assemblies when constructing a complex feature ring. After a few weeks I'm already repeating the often expressed phrase - "how did I ever get along without it?" - ha, ha.

Dennis

Re: drum sanders?

Russ Fairfield

>I know what you are saying about thin pieces. 3/32" is about the minimum thickness before the wood starts getting torn apart inside the planer.

Russ! You clever devil you!

Dominic Greco at home in Richboro, PA

>

Now that is about as slick, and as efficient of a jig as I have ever seen! Neat, simple, and to the point. I bet it works just fine too.

I don't have the room for a big disk sander. But I do have a extra 6" faceplate, and some MDF laying around that I could use to make something like you did! Thanks for the tip!

See ya around

Dominic