Aloha
I could make Thickness Sander.
I referenced Dominator's website.
Thank you for Dominator !

Photographs are in my homepage, however only Japanese only.

http://www.nasu-net.or.jp/~htezuka/

Dominator,
Thank you again.
I chose material for the table top Acrylics board.
However, since I do not understand the good press method for TOP, glue can be seen like a spot.
This machine is working satisfactory for accuracy.
Hideo

My Jet 6X48 benchtop belt sander runs at 2256 square feet per minute, therefore the the belt is travelling at 4512 feet per minute, which seems to be a good number.  The disc sander on this unit spins at 1724 RPM, and the disc diameter is 9 inches.  Therefore, the outer edge of the disc is travelling at 48,773 inches per minute (9 X Pi).

There is a great set of drawings for a thickness sander in the Shop Notes Issue 86 (March/April 2006).  You might be able to order a back issue from them at shopnotes.com, or find a copy in a library.  This thickness sander has a sandpaper belt drive to move the wood under the drum and a 5 inch diameter sanding drum which handles up to 16 inch widths.  If you make large guitars (or may in the future), I would suggest adding a few inches to the width to handle these tops/backs with some working room.  This sander is designed to be driven by your table saw with a 5 inch pully installed instead of the blade.  I would suggest using a link belt upgrade and light belt tension if you choose this option, or better yet build a base for the unit and add a dedicated motor.  Why risk damaging the arbor on an expensive table saw to save the cost of a motor.

I know that I saw an article in one of my woodworking magazines in the past talking about sanding belt speed, but I couldn't find it when I needed the info.  If I locate it in the future, will pass the info along.

I am new to this site, and the info you are posting is great.  I like the concept of builder helping each other.  I will be making my first uke soon, but have built guitars in the past.  Some things are the same, and some are very different.

Bob:

I have not built my thickness sander yet, but have been thinking about one for several years.  When I do, I will build one that will accomodate a 16 inch wide guitar top as well as the tenor uke I am now starting building forms for.

I favor using 3/4" MDF disks cut with a circle cutter on a drill press and stacked and glued onto the shaft (after widening the center hole) over PVC or aluminum drums.  The reason for this is that with a MDF drum mounted in the finished thickness sander, the drum can be trued to be totally parallel to the table by using a piece of flat MDF with course sandpaper glued to the surface to sand down the rorating drum to a smoothe flat surface before a sanding belt is attached.  This would be more difficult to do with a PVC drum, but not impossible.

The ShopNotes plans show a wedge shaped key cut into two of the disks (one at each end of the sanding drum).  One end disk is glued to the drum, and the other is free to rotate and secured to the drum with screws.  The plan uses 3" wide sanding belt which is spiral wound onto the drum.  Both ends of the belt have to be tapered from about 5/8 inch to three inches and the length of taper is dependant on the diameter of your drum.  This is why one disk is not fixed, so it can be rotated to capture the other end of the tapered belt.  I think that spraying the drum with 3M Super 77 Multipurpose Adhesive before spiral winding the belt may help kepp the belt inplace and avoid belt loosenig during sanding.

I'm not sure whether a sandpaper belt conveyor system is worth the effort to construct one.  I have come to the conclusing that I want the sanding table under the drum to be perfectly flat and very rigid.  Putting an adjustment mechanism into the table asselbly is asking for unwanted movement in the table under the drum.  If a sanding belt is used as a conveyor system, I recommend that the conveyor rollers and adjustment mechanism be added to the ends of the table not included internally as the ShopNotes drawings show.

For those of you looking for a low cost source for formica for this use, look for sink coutouts at Lowes, Home Depot, or Menards.  If you can't get them there, call a shop that installs counter tops.

I looked at the ShopNotes web page and they do not list back issues being available.  They want to sell you a full years volume instead of a single magazine.  But, the plans are available from plansnow.com for $9.95 for download.  Look for plans DN3078.  I am not trying to sell anyone on this source, but I did find them the most helpful as a starting point for my own thought process.  I like the idea of building the sanding assembly seperate from the stand/motor mount assembly, and attaching the two with screws or clamps.  Easire to move and store when not in use.

Lets face it, as hobby builders we are not building a sander to handle thousands of tops in its lifetime.  Therefore, making it more complex than needed only adds cost with no benefit other than bragging rights to having built a better jig than the other builders

Enjoy, and I hope you find these thoughts helpful

Don

I built a thickness sander using the plans from Moritz Designs.  It cost me around $300.00 to make it but it works great!  I can sand a set of tops, backs and sides to the thickness I want in about an hour, compared to hours by hand.  The thickness is consistent and I haven't cracked a side while bending since.  It's 22" wide so I can sand guitar tops and backs with it.  I made the drum out of poplar disks and trued it up with a piece or 60 grit floor sanding paper nailed to a 2 X 4.  I used a 1 1/2 hp motor that I bought from Harbor Freight for a round $125.00, that spins at 3200 rpm.  It works great! 

Don,

A number of people at the Official Luthiers Forum use the Performax 10-20 and like it. If you go to the OLF forum and search " 10-20 " you can read a number of posting and they should clear up any questions you have. Yes, these are being used by guitar builders. It seems the big hints are keep your cuts small, keep your sand paper clean, and the more dust collection the better. This combination makes for the cleanest cuts and longer sand paper life.
http://www.luthiersforum.com/forum/default.asp

Good Luck

Philip

Hi Mark,
Welcome back.  The Guitar Maker magazine site has very little info in the back orders section of the website.  Can you tell us what issue and when it was published so we can hone in on it?
Thanks,
Dominator