# Oh yes, daddy WILL be building guitars!



## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

A guy down the street is downsizing and selling off much of his pro-quality woodshop. He was out for a walk last weekend, spied our older son making a racket and sawdust with the garage open, and walked up the driveway to chat, noting that he had all this gear to sell, some of it at auction sites. We went over to his place after lunch and came back with one of these: Performax 22-44 Plus Drum Sander Review Much better than a planer, this will let me finally make use of those mahogany planks that have been drying out for a few years. As the review notes, the nice thing abut such drum sanders is that one doesn't have to be as anxious about the grain orientation of the wood as you might with a planer. Moreover, the drum is something like 18" wide, and apparently many planers top out at 13" or 15". We have to shift a bunch of stuff around to make room for it, and either buy a better vac system or else a lot of shop-vac bags. But this coming year promises to be very interesting.


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

Nice!


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## zontar (Oct 25, 2007)

I'm not a power tool kind of guy myself (In terms of using them--other than hand drills)
But they still interest me.
People showing off or talking about tools still catches my interest.

It's kind of like guitar gear in a way.


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## 1SweetRide (Oct 25, 2016)

mhammer said:


> A guy down the street is downsizing and selling off much of his pro-quality woodshop. He was out for a walk last weekend, spied our older son making a racket and sawdust with the garage open, and walked up the driveway to chat, noting that he had all this gear to sell, some of it at auction sites. We went over to his place after lunch and came back with one of these: Performax 22-44 Plus Drum Sander Review Much better than a planer, this will let me finally make use of those mahogany planks that have been drying out for a few years. As the review notes, the nice thing abut such drum sanders is that one doesn't have to be as anxious about the grain orientation of the wood as you might with a planer. Moreover, the drum is something like 18" wide, and apparently many planers top out at 13" or 15". We have to shift a bunch of stuff around to make room for it, and either buy a better vac system or else a lot of shop-vac bags. But this coming year promises to be very interesting.


Or speaker cabs, wooden pedal enclosures, pedal boards, lots of potential. Which reminds me I need to drop off some cash to you soon.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

My bad, posted the wrong picture. Same mechanism, and motorized bed-feed as the one I showed, but a different frame. It looks like this:


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## Silvertone (Oct 13, 2018)

mhammer said:


> A guy down the street is downsizing and selling off much of his pro-quality woodshop. He was out for a walk last weekend, spied our older son making a racket and sawdust with the garage open, and walked up the driveway to chat, noting that he had all this gear to sell, some of it at auction sites. We went over to his place after lunch and came back with one of these: Performax 22-44 Plus Drum Sander Review Much better than a planer, this will let me finally make use of those mahogany planks that have been drying out for a few years. As the review notes, the nice thing abut such drum sanders is that one doesn't have to be as anxious about the grain orientation of the wood as you might with a planer. Moreover, the drum is something like 18" wide, and apparently many planers top out at 13" or 15". We have to shift a bunch of stuff around to make room for it, and either buy a better vac system or else a lot of shop-vac bags. But this coming year promises to be very interesting.


Great purchase. Be very careful with this. It sounds like you want to treat it as a jointer? It will not take the amount of material that you may think. I have a similar machine and I mostly use it to thickness very thin things, like head stock veneers and take stock down to exact thicknesses. I will take a lot of material with my jointer and then finish up the last 1/16" to 1/32" with many many passes.

Regards Peter.


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## laristotle (Aug 29, 2019)




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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

Silvertone said:


> Great purchase. Be very careful with this. It sounds like you want to treat it as a jointer? It will not take the amount of material that you may think. I have a similar machine and I mostly use it to thickness very thin things, like head stock veneers and take stock down to exact thicknesses. I will take a lot of material with my jointer and then finish up the last 1/16" to 1/32" with many many passes.
> 
> Regards Peter.


Noted. The former owner used it primarily for making tables. If it will let me render the 1" thick mahogany planks I have level enough to make a proper glue joint once I've chambered them out, and level enough for a decent joint with the maple cap, then I'm good.


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## Silvertone (Oct 13, 2018)

mhammer said:


> Noted. The former owner used it primarily for making tables. If it will let me render the 1" thick mahogany planks I have level enough to make a proper glue joint once I've chambered them out, and level enough for a decent joint with the maple cap, then I'm good.



It should be fine for that, as long as they are fairly flat to begin. I do use mine for thickness sanding body blanks and glued up tops but only to just take a small amount off. If you need to take a lot you are better off jointing, thickness planing, or even hand planing. 

Cheers Peter.


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## Jim DaddyO (Mar 20, 2009)

Paint me jealous. Very cool machines. Set up right that one will do a 44" wide board.


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## MarkM (May 23, 2019)

Hey Mark get a proper cyclone dust collector with a bag in the knockout part. Check out the KIjiji or bookface used stuff or whatever it's called. I traded a defender Chinese shotgun for mine. Lee valley is my go to for connection and adapter.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

It's a miracle machine!
Here's what we start out with.








And here's what we end up with.


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## 1SweetRide (Oct 25, 2016)

One pass?


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

1SweetRide said:


> One pass?


Actually, about 15-20 passes, largely because the plank was not entirely even/flat to start with, and because we were just figuring out how to use it. The raggedness of the outside edges is a reflection of the slight warpage of the plank. A *lotta* shop-vac activity after each pass. Hard to tell from the photo, but the plank started out pretty dang rough. Looked like a mahogany shag rug on both sides. It's been around 5 years ago, but I think I paid about $40 for it at KJP. It was a beautiful long plank of mahogany, 15" wide, 1-5/8" thick, and they were willing to cut me off a piece 20" long.

Because all this time I didn't have access to any machinery to thickness it, I put off deciding what body shape I wanted to cut it to. I guess I have to figure that out now. I did get some nice creme/bone-coloured binding from the folklore shop in downtown Halifax several years ago, and I'm looking forward to using it.


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## 1SweetRide (Oct 25, 2016)

I see a telecaster in that wood.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

1SweetRide said:


> I see a telecaster in that wood.


Could be. I do have a nice gold-plated bridge plate for one.


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## Chito (Feb 17, 2006)

Are you painting it yourself @mhammer? I'm curious as I have a DIY tele kit here and I need it to be painted.


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## KapnKrunch (Jul 13, 2016)

Hammer shape. Ball peen?


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## Sneaky (Feb 14, 2006)

Chito said:


> Are you painting it yourself @mhammer? I'm curious as I have a DIY tele kit here and I need it to be painted.


I hope nobody is painting that mahogany.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

Chito said:


> Are you painting it yourself @mhammer? I'm curious as I have a DIY tele kit here and I need it to be painted.


Finish is the next hurdle to clear after deciding the body shape. But given that the preparation of the raw body (cutting, routing, final sanding, etc.) won't really be finished until near the middle of November, any painting will be deferred until the spring. Basically, if I can't do something with the garage door closed, it doesn't get done until weather warms up again in the spring. Either way. I don't have much luck with painting. Too many sawdust particles in the garage.

And, truth be told, I think I side with Sneaky, here. That grain is too luscious to cover with paint. I do expect to experiment with stains on the cut-out pieces and see what's viable. I do like the look of the LP Jr. body Steviemac showed here - So, I did something a bit unusual.... - but the viability of a colour stain depends on the darkness of the wood to start with. This is all new territory for me. I guess I'll see when I get there..


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## Silvertone (Oct 13, 2018)

I'm actually surprised it only took 15 - 20 passes. What grit were you using? Ever thought of making a router sled? Pretty simple and very quick to take 1/8" per pass to flatten and thickness. Then put it through the thickness sander a couple times for finish sanding.










Cheers Peter.


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## Sneaky (Feb 14, 2006)

mhammer said:


> Finish is the next hurdle to clear after deciding the body shape. But given that the preparation of the raw body (cutting, routing, final sanding, etc.) won't really be finished until near the middle of November, any painting will be deferred until the spring. Basically, if I can't do something with the garage door closed, it doesn't get done until weather warms up again in the spring. Either way. I don't have much luck with painting. Too many sawdust particles in the garage.
> 
> And, truth be told, I think I side with Sneaky, here. That grain is too luscious to cover with paint. I do expect to experiment with stains on the cut-out pieces and see what's viable. I do like the look of the LP Jr. body Steviemac showed here - So, I did something a bit unusual.... - but the viability of a colour stain depends on the darkness of the wood to start with. This is all new territory for me. I guess I'll see when I get there..


No stain either imo. Just clear coat in your choice of finishes. That is a nice slab of wood you have there.


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## 1SweetRide (Oct 25, 2016)

Or an oil rub.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

Silvertone said:


> I'm actually surprised it only took 15 - 20 passes. What grit were you using? Ever thought of making a router sled? Pretty simple and very quick to take 1/8" per pass to flatten and thickness. Then put it through the thickness sander a couple times for finish sanding.
> 
> View attachment 331745
> 
> ...


120 grit. Twenty passes was a guess. We were pretty excited and weren't keeping count. Amazing machine, though.
My son's been making all manner of sleds, though principally for his table saw. He got himself a really nice router table. I dont know if he's made any sleds for it.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

We picked up one of these from Busy Bee over the weekend, so hopefully we can say goodbye to 10 minutes of sanding followed by a half hour of vacuuming.


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## MarkM (May 23, 2019)

mhammer said:


> We picked up one of these from Busy Bee over the weekend, so hopefully we can say goodbye to 10 minutes of sanding followed by a half hour of vacuuming.


That's what I was talking about, you will never regret it!


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