Make do barrel sander

[Talltim]

I have been pondering my technique of sanding the CA off my barrels when preparing to assemble pens. The current process is a piece of sandpaper on a flat surface. It is easy to have a slight rocking motion though when you move it back and forth. I have been dreaming of one of Richard Harrell's barrel sanders for which I lacked the ready cash when I stared at my old barrel trimmer that I am not using. It occurred to me that it had a flat surface on the back that was square to the center rod.

So took some 220 sandpaper, punched a hole and gave it a go.

Would still like one of the nice shiney ones but until then.....

 

[KenV]

An upgrade is to put a handle on it and counter bore the handle to hide those sharp pointed corners on the mill head. That is a great use for old mill heads!!!

 

[Dehn0045]

I did the same thing. I found that it doesn't work with 7mm tubes because it tends to round the edge of the blank because you are effectively sanding right on the edge of the sandpaper. For larger tubes you can get it where the sandpaper is sandwiched between the head and larger diameter of the spindle. Also, because you are sanding in the same spot on the paper it tends to gun up pretty fast. Not a bad solution though, well done.

 

[JimB]

Yes, that is a great solution. It has been mentioned on here before but it has been a long time. It is good to see the idea come to life again in a new thread.

Here is what I use. The wood is tapped to fit my lathe but you can also use an appropriate sized bolt epoxied to the wood. Just square up the face of the wood on the lathe and attach sandpaper. Works great!


View in Gallery

 

[Talltim]

JimB

I use a set up like yours to square the un-lathed blank before turning. This is just to give it the last clean up job before assembly.

 

[JimB]

JimB

I use a set up like yours to square the un-lathed blank before turning. This is just to give it the last clean up job before assembly.

I use a barrel trimmer to get it close before turning then a coarse sandpaper on this for final squaring before turning. After turning and after my finish is applied, I change to a fine sandpaper on this simple setup to clean up any finish, CA or other, off the ends.

Since I already had the jacobs chuck and punch set (both from harbor freight) as well as a tap this setup only cost me a piece of scrap wood and the time to make it.

 

[Gregory Hardy]

Improvement

I have done this on many occasions, but I loosened the set screw and turned the head upside down. This leaves a flat surface under the sandpaper for even 7mm barrels.

Boy, we are a cheap a bunch!