Blog about manufacturing, tools, and machines

Once the drum sander was finished, I gave it a coat of blue paint. Not so much for aesthetics but mainly for visibility and to protect some particle board surfaces against moisture.

When truing the drum cylinder I was collecting the dust simply by means of a handheld vacuum tube. That is not practical, of course, so I have made a simple cover to which I can attach the vacuum.

Last week I did not write an article because I was very busy and it was only late in the evening on Sunday that I realized it is not Saturday anymore. I guess I am getting old.

Since the beginning, I intended to use my current belt sander as a power source for the drum sander. On a picture in one of my previous articles on it can be seen how I used an old abrasive belt for this when I was making the drum cylinder concentric.

To regulate the working height of the drum sander I decided to go for the simplest solution – tilting table.

I won't write too much about the base, I hope most will be clear from the pictures.

I have a lot of tropical hardwood – jataba and garapa – and it is not feasible to turn all that into knife handles and blocks. Thus I decided to make some high-end cutting boards. For that, I need a drum sander to mate glued surfaces precisely. Unfortunately, I cannot afford to buy one and even if I did, it...

I made this part last year but I forgot to write about it at the time. It is the last part on the outside of the forge.

In a sense, this knife was in the making for over twenty years. For more than twenty years I wanted to make a bowie of this size and more than twenty years ago I drew the picture of an eagle to adorn it. Initially, I intended to etch the picture on the blade but when I made the blade, I...

The last week I finished both sheaths and this time I did not need to make any new tools and everything went pretty much as it should. So today just a few pictures and some words.