Drill Press Sanding Bit Jointer

[madhattr88]

i was thinking of making a simple table with some guides to use as a jointer....i know i would have to take very small cuts (1/32")

i have a 3" dia x 3" tall sanding drum that fits into my drill press.

i would use it for flattening the neck (on the fingerboard gluing surface) and maybe when joining the 2 body pieces.

right now i band saw the neck pattern and use a block plane to get it flat.

i attached a drawing...let me know what u guys think?

thanks!

madhattr88@yahoo.com

Edited February 7, 2008 by madhattr88

[Mattia]

I think you won't get a good enough joint.

Use a handplane, or a flat board with sandpaper glued to it.

[MescaBug]

Yeah. And it will take forever to sand something flat. And a lot of sanding drums. And I hope your drill press as a good motor, I'm talking at least 1/2HP.

Keep in mind that you will apply pressure when sanding. There's no way that sanding drum will keep an exact 90 degree shape when you apply pressure since they are usually made of rubber. Seriously, it's not reliable enough to make perfectly flat glueing surfaces.

[madhattr88]

so when doing a neck...

is this your order of operations?

1) from band-saw

2) hand plane

3) straight flat block with sand paper attached

if i make this jig i was thinking of changing me procedure to this

1) from band-saw

2) hand plane

3) new drill press sander w/guides (only remove a couple of thousandths per pass)

4) straight flat block with sand paper attached

Edited February 7, 2008 by madhattr88

[Mattia]

Look, if you have a decent drill press, buy a Wagner Safety Planer. Can be useful for all sorts of levelling/planing kind of stuff.

Personally, I go from bandsaw to handplane. Then I'm done. A table mounted router should work in a setup like the above, but again, it's decidedly not the best tool for the job. For jointing, you want a jointer or a handplane, IMO. Sandpaper on a board is useful for woods that are a major pain to plane (ie, highly figured woods). A router with a template bit and a reference straight edge also works in a pinch.