A Sanding Drum for the Pillar drill

   I realise that you can buy drums like this, but I thought I would make one from the ever increasing pile of scrap stuff under the bench - if I don't start using some of it, it will fall on someone else to heave it all into the bin when I'm gone.  I had a length of grey plastic waste pipe which looked about the right size and many years ago I bought some big industrial rolls for belt sanding, thinking I could cut it to sheet size and save money on sandpaper.  In my ignorance (still got lots of that left!) I didn't know that paper to be run at speed is much different from hand sanding paper.  This industrial paper kind of works by hand, but is brilliant when run at speed, a fact I discovered by chance when I used some on a job on the lathe (don't tell the 'elf an safety man)

I cut a piece of the plastic pipe and trimmed it up on the lathe, then covered it in double sided carpet tape, and then wrapped a strip of said paper around it with an angled butt joint.

The finished sleeve - I have now made a few of these, with different grit sizes.

 

These are the component parts of the arbor unit, with a couple of O rings to provide grip between the nylon core and the outer sleeve when the nut is tightened.  I decided to put the threaded clamping end at the top near the chuck.  This allows the drum to get close to the sanding table.

This is how it all fits together.

And a shot of the finished article.

 

...and in action on the Pillar drill.    To change the sleeve it's just a matter of gripping the stationary one and slackening the nut above -the sleeve just slides off for changing to a different grit.  The vacuum cleaner pipe just fits in a clip on a cupboard nearby and keeps some of the dust away and even catches most of the flying swarf when drilling conventionally.

 

 

 

 

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