Bench top Thickness Sander

After many trips from my workbench to the thickness sanders one afternoon, I decided that there ought to be a better way to dimension small parts, such as nuts, saddles, and bridge blanks. Using a small motor, a shaft-mounted sanding drum, and the ubiquitous hinged table, I built one. I started with the drum. I found a 3 inch diameter, 3 inch long sanding drum manufactured by Clesco. It's their model MD 4848-4. This drum has a machined sleeve on the end, which will fit directly onto a 1/2 inch motor spindle. The sanding sleeve slips over the drum, and tightens with a right-hand threaded nut. They also sell a filler, which changes the sleeve into a solid drum. I used the filler on my second try at this unit, and I noticed a great improvement in stability. Unfortunately, Clesco won't sell directly to us. If you can't find the drum at your local industrial supply house, call or e-mail them for your nearest distributor. (www.clesco.com) Next, the motor. I needed to fill the following requirements: 1725 RPM, 1/4 to 1/3 HP, counter-clockwise rotation, and a 1/2 inch spindle. Using a 3 inch diameter drum, the end speed of the sleeve with this motor will be about 1350 SFPM (surface feet per minute.) This falls in the range of other sanding machines that I found in catalogues, maybe a little towards the low end, but quite adequate. I think that moving up to a 3450 RPM motor and doubling the SFPM is overkill, not to mention a little scary! The low horsepower is plenty for our purposes. Remember, all we're using it for is small, delicate work. The CCW rotation is necessary so that the locking nut on the sanding drum doesn't loosen itself. The rotation requirement meant that I couldn't use an inexpensive swamp cooler motor, which was my first choice. (And yes, I found out the hard way, by buying the motor, hooking it all up, and finding out that it wouldn't work. Such are the perils of prototyping...) The motor I settled on was from Grainger, their model 6K298B. There should be a Grainger pretty close to wherever you are, or check their website for the nearest location. (www.grainger.com)

Next, the table. I used two pieces of aluminum bar stock, 1/2 inch by 4 inches, 16 inches long. I'm sure that plywood would work almost as well, but I like aluminum for the stability. The tables were joined with two 1-1/2 inch brass cabinet hinges by Brainerd. These should be available at almost any hardware store. I like them because they have a nice, tight pin, and no slop that I could feel. I drilled and tapped holes in the face of the aluminum, and attached the hinges with 6-32 X 3/8 inch flat head socket cap screws. Even though the tables had no discernible play, I mounted a 1 inch by 2 inch plate of 1/8 inch aluminum on each edge of the upper plate, up near the open end. These were mounted with the same 6-32 screws that I used for the hinges. In order to allow a little clearance, I shimmed each plate with a scrap of business card. The adjustment screw is a 3 inch long piece of 1/4-20 threaded rod, secured in a plastic knob with nyloc nuts. A hole is bored and tapped in the lower table for the adjustment screw. The entire table assembly was bolted to the base with 1/4-20 flat head stove bolts, through countersunk holes in the lower table. In order to get the table to the proper height under the drum, I set it on a piece of 1/4 inch MDF. The motor and table are bolted to a base of 1 inch MDF, about 12 inches square. The drum should sit about 5 inches from the hinged end of the tables. The wiring was straightforward. I used 16-3 SJ cord, which is a black rubber cord like you would find on any power tool. To make wiring to the motor convenient, I crimped solderless terminals to the ends of the wire. Remember to ground the wire to the motor chassis, and also to reverse the motor rotation, if necessary. I ran the wiring through a standard utility box, with an appropriately sized motor switch, then out to a grounded plug. I got all of the electrical supplies at Home Depot. So, after all this, how does it work? Pretty darn good! I can doublestick tape a nut or saddle blank to a straightedge, and work it down to thickness in just a few passes.

The total cost of the unit was about $150, and over half of that was the motor. If you can find something less expensive that meets all the criteria, let me know! If the dust bothers you, it should be pretty easy to cobble up a dust hood from 4 inch PVC pipe, and hook it to a shop vac. Happy sanding!