surface drum sander

[Loyde Berkholtz]

I have a double 36 inch drum sander which I built.It works very well.The only problem I would like to resolve is how to prevent or remove pitch or glue from the spiral wrap sanding paper on the drums to extend the life of the paper.

[David Zaret]

loyde,

would you be willing to post pictures or plans of your machine? i am in the process of planning to build a drum sander.

thanks,

--- dz

Loyde Berkholtz wrote:

[LP]

Good luck. The only sure cure I know of is to not sand pitchy woods.

Typically the friction heat melts the resin, allowing it to collect on the paper, where the very structure of the paper gives it a very toothy surface to grab on to, and it becomes almost a permanent part of the paper.

All those gizmos sold to remove this are, IMNSHO, right up there with witchcraft and voodoo, and are composed of 100 percent marketing bullshit.

If you're sanding a lot of pine or other pitchy woods you just have to bite it and expect that your paper costs are going to escalate, and quite dramatically.

Not the answer you wanted, I'm sure, but once you accept that there just isnt any good way to remove that resin glaze, and accept that paper changes are going to come more frequently, life gets a little easier.

Note: I hear good things about the new 3M and Mirka papers but have no experience with them so perhaps they may alleviate this problem a bit. I dont think they'll make the problem disappear.

[George]

Well, the crepe rubber seems to work on other machines, though LP apparently disagrees. Trouble is you have to put your body at considerable risk to use it on a drum sander. Seems I also saw a version of the crepe rubber cleaner for drum sanders in the Klingspor catalog, though I can't find it just now.

FWIW, here's an alternative which works very well on softwood for me:

doubt that stearated papers would be an alternative for the drum sander as they are for other powered sanding.

[Scott Post]

Soak them for an hour or so in water & Simple Green then use a brass wire brush to clean off the caked spots. The paper for my Performax doesn't seem to be effected by water - even when I've forgotten and left it in the jar for a few days.

[Mike G]

If you are diligent with the application of a crepe rubber cleaning bar during use you can greatly inhibit the build up and when the job is done soaking the rolls in warm water and soap will loosen the rest to where a file card will easily clean up the rest.