Hand held drum sander?

[OrangeQuest]

Over the weekend I needed to sand the inside radius on my transom. I had nothing that would work even after going to HD looking at drum sanders stuff. No round sanding tools. So I took a hole saw and taped sand paper to it and did a fairly good job. This morning I looked on the web and found this.


Seems easy enough to make a few in different sizes and maybe even put a handle on the end to get more pressure and better control.
What do you guys use?

[pee wee]

I like these, but a bit pricey for infrequent use: http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.a ... 00&p=45190

There's also an air powered version with a handle out the end that works really well, but it uses lots of air and costs a lot.

The nice thing about an inflatable drum is (counterintuitively) they sand with fewer dips and bumps than a hard drum.

[terrulian]

I could never find anything that worked as well as hand sanding and hand sanding and hand sanding.

[Jaysen]

I could never find anything that worked as well as hand sanding and hand sanding and hand sanding.

Well... if you have kids and are heartless, I’ve found “get that done before dinner if you want to eat” to be effective. At least it was for my dad when I was much much younger.

[pee wee]

I could never find anything that worked as well as hand sanding and hand sanding and hand sanding.

Well... if you have kids and are heartless, I’ve found “get that done before dinner if you want to eat” to be effective. At least it was for my dad when I was much much younger.

Yeah, when we were growing up that was considered building character. These days you risk a visit from DFACS.

[Capt UB]

Making one for the tool box this weekend. Thanks.

[OrangeQuest]

I was thinking that I was pretty much done with inside radius sanding but my plans are to put a number of hatches in the deck and frames. There maybe more than I thought. Dremel makes a small drum sander that uses a rubber bushing that expands when you tighten a screw sown, maybe I can make some like that to use the replacement sanding tubes you can get for a table sander? If it works maybe a patent coming soon!

[terrulian]

Let us know. I tried a Dremel, which other builders have had success with, but in my hands it did more harm than good.

[pee wee]

If the diameter isn't exactly a match it can cause problems- it's hard to do a smooth job when the drum is too small, and too large obviously doesn't work well. The nice thing about the flexible drums- and inflatable is more flexible- is it will smush in there to match what you've got. Smush is a technical term, btw, meaning "shape shift".

[OrangeQuest]

Pee wee I understand what you are saying about the size match the size of the curve.

After getting to work and toying with a few ideas, I think the best would be to cut stacks of disks with a circle cutting, glued together. Drill the bolt that holds one end of the sand paper and go to town. Wouldn't take to many pieces of 1/2" plywood and regular wood glue to hold them together. Make a few different sizes and use sheet sand paper.

For a handle on the end I was thinking inline skate wheels. Very good bearings and just need to jam nut it to the end. I will make one over the next few weeks and post pictures.