Sleeveless Sanding Drums
These sleeveless sanding drums improve on similar designs by making it easier to assemble, more convenient to replace the sandpaper and the construction makes the quality better and durable. Only the sandpaper needs to be replaced.
Most of us are familiar with the tried-and-true sanding drum chucked in your drill press. Great for smoothing curves (both inverse and converse!), and a heck of a lot less expensive than a spindle sander! Easy to set up and they even work on a bench-top drill press like the one shown. A much more consistent surface finish (and square if you've got your table set right!) than most other sanding methods (below).
But sometimes the workpiece is too large for the drill press table, or maybe it's already attached somewhere and can't be moved. You still want the same smooth finish, so the answer is the chucking the sanding drum into a drill and adding a handle (that spins!) on the other end (below). Makes you want to go sand things all over the house!
You want both of them? No problem! Both the drill press sanding drum (102-101) and the drum with handle (102-102) are available in a two-piece set (102-103) that'll save you money!
But wait, there's more! These aren't your run-of-the-milll sanding drums, the paper is replacable. These sleeveless sanding drums improve on similar designs by making it easier to assemble, more convenient to replace the sandpaper and the construction makes the quality better and durable. Only the sandpaper needs to be replaced. No need to buy replacement sanding sleeves, just cut and fold any type of sheet sanding medium to size for the drum (Secret Tip: the sanding belts from belt sanders work great in these drums). The sanding drum body is made of durable plastic and covered with TPR (Thermoplastic Rubber).
The lead end of the paper is fed into a slot in the drum, and then the following end is also slipped into the slot until it slides between the inner drum. Then the included wrench (below) is used to turn the inner drum and tighten the paper. Simple!
Add these sanding drums to your shop and things will smooth out quickly!
1 comment
This system works well, but is a real pain to change the paper—you basically have to take it apart each time. This makes doing 120-150-180-220 sequencing more work than it’s worth. I finally gave up and now I just use adhesive sandpaper strips, which aren’t quite the right size but are close enough. This restricts you to running the drill only one direction—the other one strips the paper off the disc—but that’s not a huge disadvantage, you just flip the drill around to get it always in a “winding” orientation.