Building The Towersander

Building The Towersander

Having built the oscillating drumsander I wanted to try building something that could do a similar job without the hazzle of changing drums to do different diameter curves.

I figured it had to be compact, easy to use and I wanted it to run off an old powerdrill.

I started by cutting out the  circles for the drums on my circle cutting jig, on the bandsaw. They are cut form 18mm BB plywood

tower sander.Movie_Snapshot

 

All the discs are glued and stacked on a 12mm threaded rodtower sander (2).Movie_Snapshot

tower sander (3).Movie_Snapshot

Clamping is applied just by tightening the nutstower sander (4).Movie_Snapshot

Parts for the back and the shelves are cut on the tablesawtower sander (5).Movie_Snapshot

All the shelves get 2 extra layers of 18mm BB plywood for support at the hingepointtower sander (6).Movie_Snapshot

 And the excess is cut off at the bandsaw.tower sander (7).Movie_Snapshot

Support brackets on the oposite side of the hinge are glued and nailed in place. The help make the shelves more ridgid.tower sander (8).Movie_Snapshot

 

Bearings are fittet to both ends of the shaft with the drums. notice the smallest drum is made from a plastic hose.tower sander (10).Movie_Snapshottower sander (11).Movie_Snapshot

The drum tower is temporarily monted to true up the drums like a lathe. And it is powered with the drill at this stage.tower sander (13).Movie_Snapshot

40mm cloth backed abrasive is glued to the drums with spray adhesive.

tower sander (14).Movie_Snapshottower sander (15).Movie_Snapshot

A cover for the powerdrill is made from 9mm BB plywood, and this also holds the power switc. I made a lot of vent holes to make sure that the powerdrill did not overheat.tower sander (16).Movie_Snapshot

Installing the bottom shelf of the sander after the parts are painted.tower sander (17).Movie_Snapshot

Assembly of the mount for the powerdrill.tower sander (18).Movie_Snapshot

The tower is installed. the lower bearing is press fitted into the lower shelf.tower sander (19).Movie_Snapshot

Top support gets screwed in place.tower sander (21).Movie_Snapshot

Powrdrill goes into its collar holder and chuck tighten over the pertruding lower part of the stacked drums.tower sander (22).Movie_Snapshot

Starting to allign all the 4 shelves for isertion of the pipe/hinge.tower sander (23).Movie_Snapshot

Inserting the hinge pipe.tower sander (24).Movie_Snapshot

Securing the powercables and wiring the powerswitch.tower sander (25).Movie_Snapshottower sander (26).Movie_Snapshot

Shelves swing out to give access to different siz drums.tower sander (28).Movie_Snapshottower sander (29).Movie_Snapshot

Or all of them can be removed for freehand sanding on all of the different diameter drums.tower sander (30).Movie_Snapshottower sander (31).Movie_Snapshot

I am very happy with how this sander turned out. I had been grinding the idea in my head for a long long time before coming up with this design.

There are no dustcollection designed for it yet, but that might be an addon that I can cover later on.

If you are interested in building this sander for yourself, there are plans available in my planstore.

You can find them by clicking the image below.

tower sander2

 

 

If you have not seen my video on this build you can check it ou here: