• Are you looking for a coupon code to buy my software? You can get one from lots of 3rd party sites but they won't work. My software never goes on sale and has never been discounted. The only coupon codes that are given is when I give a club presentation and I offer a discount to the attendees. Other than that, everyone pays the same price.

Sanding rings flat

Chris Neilan

PRO Member
I saw demonstrations at the Woodworking Show in New England last week of the Flatmaster and Sand-Flea drum sanders. They both sand from under the work. They look ideal for flattening rings. Anyone have any experience with either? I have a Jet 16/32 which can get it close, but tends to have some low spots, similar to snipe.

Chris
 
Last edited:
The bottom sanders will make one side flat, but I don't see how you can make the sides parallel to each other. I have the 16/32 also, I use it to do both sides. I don't have snipe- are you taking too much off at a time?
 
Our club has a Sand-Flea sander. I found it to do an ok job to flatten one side of a ring. Once the ring is mounted on the vessel, I sand the top side on the lathe. Then I am ready to add another ring that had the bottom flattened on the sander.

One thing I noticed is if you put a lot of down pressure on the Sand Flea while sanding you can flex the aluminum base. So light pressure is required to keep things flat.
 
Our club has a Sand-Flea sander. I found it to do an ok job to flatten one side of a ring. Once the ring is mounted on the vessel, I sand the top side on the lathe. Then I am ready to add another ring that had the bottom flattened on the sander.

One thing I noticed is if you put a lot of down pressure on the Sand Flea while sanding you can flex the aluminum base. So light pressure is required to keep things flat.

Thanks for the replies. With my Jet I take small bites. I think that the sandpaper might not be on tight enough, and the drum is not perfectly paralell to the bottom. I also sand one side flat athe glue & true... I am leaning to the Flatmaster, but am not rushing to buy it tonight. I'll sleep on it!
 
I ordered a flatmaster 18" kit with the steel top. Once I get it built I'll give my opinion. I had a jet 10-20 plus but I didn't like a couple of things about it. It generated a lot of dust even with a good dust system because you are sanding on the top. The belts were not real easy to change and get tight which led to me leaving a coarser grit on it so I wouldn't burn the sandpaper. It did get the sides parallel but I had to finish sand them to get the sanding marks out. I sanded the top of the ring on the lathe with an angle plate and flat edge. Works good.
 
I've built and used the 18" Flatmaster and overall like it. One very important warning. If you buy the steel top the dimensions for the short sides is wrong if you build the design on the website. This is because the plan calls for a top 1 1/16" thick and the steel one is about 7/8" thick. Also the sides need to be about 3" longer due to the motor hook-up. It does a nice job on rings and the sandpaper changes easily which allows for rough and finish sanding if you need to. The sandpaper seems to stay a lot cleaner which will allow it to last longer. I've noticed I have to run the rings across the sandpaper about 50% more often to get them flat but it is actually quicker because I don't have to wait for a belt to bring the ring out from the drum sander. It is also cheaper to buy and will save on belt costs. I can't comment on the prebuilt kit but it would eliminate the build issue.
 
I'm over a year late reading this, so I don't know that anyone will see this. I made a drum sander similar to the Flatmaster and it works well. I've got about 300 bucks total in it. I've been using it for about three months consistently and I've changed the paper twice now. I use 120 grit in the 3" wide variety. It's important to let the drum do the work, not putting a lot of down pressure on the ring. If you push too hard (learned from trial and error here) the ring will end up with too much taken off the rear (it bites too much as you finish pushing the ring through). Other than that, it's been a nice (cheaper) investment and addition to my equipment.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_9689.JPG
    IMG_9689.JPG
    609.5 KB · Views: 32
Back
Top