Byrnes Thickness Sander - Tips for consistency on soft/long materials?

[cgordon]

Hi All...and Happy New Year!

 

I've had a thickness sander for about two years now and it was immediately apparent there was some learning curve, as could be expected, to hold and feed the work material smoothly to get good results. And I'm pretty good and satisfied with it, to the point that I probably use it too much - can't resist a low removal pass after a joint glue-up for that flawless joinery look. I love the tool, and even though I also have the Byrnes disc sander and table saw, the thickness sander has surprised me time and time again with new capabilities that I wouldn't even have thought of otherwise.

 

My issue is that I run quite a bit of balsa and other soft woods, and sometimes in lengths far exceeding "normal" infeed/outfeed capacity. This is just reality for my work, I can't change it, and for the most part I do OK.

 

I'm wondering if others have tips, techniques, home-made adds-on, or secondary tool recommendations? Some ideas I'm considering:

 

• Add an extension to the outfeed, possibly narrower to allow better access to the dial.  Probably should add an infeed extension too.
• Build an adjustable height helper, separate from the sander, to support material on the outfeed. Similar idea to the supports you see for cutting large plywood sheets on a tablesaw.
• Add some kind of weighted device to the infeed side, like a roller, to prevent material from lifting into the sanding drum.
• Add some kind of slotted device to the infeed side, where you could lower it down to just kiss the thickness of the material going in. Actually not really a slot, but a bar that would lower on top.
• Buy a second thickness sander, of conventional woodworking type like a Jet 10-20. I do some regular woodworking anyway, but would be interested in how smoothly (or not!) a belt-driven sander might handle soft materials.

 

Thanks in advance.

[No Idea]

Great post - I too use my use my thickness sander a lot.  As an example I've just used it today to to sand 4 x 450mm long planks that are 140mm wide down from 8.5mm thick to exactly 7.9mm thick.

 

Thats a lot of wood to run through a small machine but it did it great which is a nod to its amazing design and quality build.  I too have the same problems to over come and the biggest problem by far is the outfeed is too short for me.  I over come this by clamping the piece using my thumb to the outfeed side but its far from perfect.  I've resigned myself to loosing the last 10 - 15mm of each piece as it always tips up towards the sanding drum no matter what I do.

 

If someone could produce an extension I would buy it in a heart beat as this would definitely  improve my sander.  Another thing I've found is that sometimes I feed the piece in and due to my lack of concentration it sometimes turns a bit.  An adjustable guide would be great but all of these things add a cost to what is such a fantastic machine for our hobby.

 

Its a lovely bit of kit and I'd be lost without it

[cgordon]

I'm going to have to go at a small outfeed extension first. Will partially drill and tap small holes on the underside to mount it.  Other than the holes, goal will be "do no harm"...

 

Was kind of hoping someone would jump in about how great and nearly as-good results could be from a belt-fed sander. But that's just because I have gear acquisition syndrome.

[SJSoane]

I haven't tried softwood in the Byrnes machine, but I have worked out good results with hardwood. (I am left handed, so this might want to be reversed for right handers). The trick is to keep the wood moving constantly while holding down flat on the infeed and outfeed at all times. I start by pushing constantly with the thumb of my left hand while using my right hand to press down firmly on the infeed table, fingers very close to the opening. As the wood approaches the end of the infeed table, I reach back with the thumb of my right hand to keep the wood moving forward and still pressing down.

 

My left hand is then free to move to the outfeed table,  where I pick up the forward movement and downward pressure by placing my fingers under the table and my thumb on top of the wood, squeezing the wood to the table while also pushing forward with my thumb on the top surface. When my right hand can no longer push the wood, I move it to the outfeed table and do the same thing, squeezing the wood to the table while pressing forward. I alternate pushing with left and right thumbs, so I never have to pause the forward movement while moving a thumb back.

 

Pausing the forward movement even for an instant will leave a ripple in the final surface.

 

I can get sore thumbs doing this with a lot of sanding!

 

With longer pieces, if I move the wood too quickly, or let up on the squeezing even by a tiny amount, I can get an harmonic vibration of the wood on the outfeed table, causing a very slight rippled surface on the wood. So press down for dear life, and slow down if you get this problem.

 

Another option, if this doesn't work for you, is perhaps to make a long sled with a stop somewhere in the middle. As you push the sled and the wood through, the back of the sled will still be on the infeed table while the wood is already passed through the drum. It give a greater chance to keep things pressed down and moving constantly forward until the wood is further through. I haven't tried this with a long sled, but my short sled makes it very easy to pass shorter pieces through without problems. I hold the wood down onto the sled with double sided tape in the case of short pieces. Maybe this would help with longer ones as well.

 

Just some thoughts!

 

Mark

[cgordon]

I think this technique is close to what I do, and it does improve with practice. Where I really run into issues is when the material is thin/soft enough that it flexes and bows up into the cylinder...at least I'm pretty sure that is what happens.

 

I have considered sleds, I do use one to make some tapered materials. They scare me! I think if sled tips up in the right (wrong) way, it can become a projectile.

 

BTW, I've decided to make a new extended aluminum platen (right word?) instead of drilling holes into the existing one. Looks like a very easy project - 2 cutouts and 4 tapped holes total. I won't get to this right away, but will post picts and comments when I do.