Hey everybody and welcome to this overview video of drum sanders. My name is Jameson and I'm going
to walk you step by step through the primary components of this style of machine, to make
operating, maintaining, or just impressing your friends with your woodworking knowledge
that much easier. Let's get started.
First off a question: what is a drum sander? A drum sander is a machine that's like a planer,
gives you a uniform surface to work off of by running material along a conveyor
beneath ... you guessed it ... a drum. The drum, or in some cases drums, like a larger model,
features the sandpaper grit which is barber-polled around the drum itself and secured on each end.
The result of passing a work piece through is a uniform well-sanded piece that is one step
closer to the finishing process. And it's a whole lot easier than sanding by hand.
So that's a drum sander in a nutshell. Now, let's dive in from the top down
and take a closer look. On the top end, you have a dust collection hood,
and this can vary from a single port, like this, to a four port one, on this monster.
Drum sanders can produce a lot of fine dust, so having
a dust collection system with a proper CFM on hand to pull it away, is a must.
Under the hood is the drum or drums mentioned earlier,
and on larger models, you can actually have a dual drum setup,
like this. This drum orientation lets you run two sandpaper grit options during a single pass,
so you can run, say, 100 grit on your first roller, followed by 120 or even 150 on the second.
It really makes stepping through the grits a lot quicker and it gets you finish-ready faster. So
those are some common drum sander styles. And next we'll take a look at the conveyor.
The conveyor shuttles the workpiece through the sanding drum,
and these typically have either an abrasive or a rubberized texturing to help
hold the work piece as it's fed through. And that helps prevent it from being kicked back.
Conveyors often feature their own motor and some allow for a feed speed adjustment, so
you can actually dial it in to the right speed that is demanded by your material.
The conveyor moves the workpiece through the bottom end, and on the top,
aside from the drum itself, you have the infeed and outfeed rollers.
These rollers apply downward pressure onto the workpiece to ensure that
there's a consistent sanding depth and it's maintained throughout the entire workpiece.
Speaking of sanding depth, there are two main styles for drum sanders
the drum movement and the conveyor movement. Now, drum movement, like this open-ended drum sander,
means that the conveyor stays stationary while the headstock travels up and down.
And conveyor movement means that the headstock is locked in place and the table itself moves up
or down. Table or headstock movement is done using the height handwheel.
And you can use this, along with the depth gauge, found on your machine,
for getting close to your sanding depth. I say "getting close" because, like any other machine,
depth gauges should be checked routinely for accuracy. And on drum sanders, depth may actually
be affected by the thickness of the sandpaper you're running, even in a little minor way.
And on the control side of things, you have either an on/off switch or a button set.
And on larger machines, you have an independent conveyor and drum start button.
At the very bottom is, well, the base. And the drum sanders can feature anything from a solid
base to an open-sanded design ,and some are even portable like this little fella.
One final stopping point on our drum sander grand tour is the powerhouse
of the entire operation, and that is the motor.
Drum sanders typically feature a motor ranging from one horsepower like this 10 inch capacity
model, up to a 10 or even 15 horsepower, which can be found on our 37 inch models.
Power requirements for these machines also ranges from the standard 110 volt
to 220 volt, and in some cases, like our largest drum sanders, you might even need three phase to
20 volt power as well. And that's about it. Drum standards are a fairly straightforward machine,
component-wise, but are a game changer for most shops by helping reduce that often loathed
sanding time. So thanks for watching, liking, and subscribing, for more from Grizzly Industrial.