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Redesigning a Grizzly drum sander - I am a little late getting this in the mail, but I have some comments on your review of drum sanders (FWW #145, pp. 46-51) and the comments that followed (FWW #147, pp. 8, 10). II own a Grizzly G1066 and consider it a lot of sander for the money and Grizzly a good supplier. There are a number of improvements that can be made, and I was aware of some of the problems when I bought it but felt that I could make the improvements at a lower cost than buying an RBI or Woodmaster. I am a retired mechanical engineer with design experience and a well-equipped shop. I have built quite a bit of furniture for my family. Here is a list of changes I made: The sanding drum runs backward for best performance, so I turned the machine around and put a reversing switch on the feed motor. Dust collection was unacceptable. I took off the top cover and replaced;aced it with one that contains internal baffles to direct high-velocity air to the point where sawdust leaves the drums. I replaced the sleeve bearings on the conveyor belt with ball bearing. I installed bronze flange bearings top and bottom, on the four thickness adjusting screws. I built a gauge to indicate finished wood thickness. The sanding speed was too high to sand Brazilian hard cherry without burning. In order to slow it down, it was necessary to change the drive motor with one 1,750 rpm speed and change the pulley. I changed the paper-attachment method to one that works much better and is simple. I also devised a simple method to preload the spring tension and hold it while installing paper. This makes it easy for one man to change the paper. Once I had the rolls in alignment, I doweled the bearing blocks. This changes, except for the drive motor, were rather inexpensive. I now have a good drum sander at a low total cost. M. Allan horton, Waco, Texas |
