Making a Drum Sander - Part 7 - Working Lessons

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.

Once the paint dried, I started to use it intensively. And I began with the biggest board that I glued up, about 30x50 cm.

Work on this board has shown two main things. Firstly, the drum sander works as it should. Secondly, it is not enough to flatten a board.

It might be enough if I was using a different kind of wood but I begun with jatoba which is one of the hardest woods in the world and the hardest in my repertoire. Unfortunately, no amount of care can stop the layers shift a bit during glue-up so I needed to remove a few mm of material from each side of the board which took several hours apiece with the drum sander alone. Therefore I needed some other way to remove this material and roughly flatten the boards before proceeding to the drum sander. I will write about it in detail some other time, suffice it to say that I did solve this problem in the end and afterward I spent several days sanding these roughly flattened boards.

The drum sander still worked as it should but I think that after I finish with this batch of boards, I can improve it.

The particle board tilting table is showing some wear and tear on its surface. I will try to get my hands on some hard and smooth material to glue on it. Unfortunately, I did not find anything suitable yet.

And I think I should make a new propulsion wheel, with a double radius. That will allow me to run the motor at a higher speed and thus with higher power. And bigger wheel also means higher torque so it should be less prone to stalling during work.

We shall see how things go. Next week I will take a break from writing. After that, I will probably write a bit about the making of the kitchen boards.