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thickness sanders

I've seen several references to the Micromark thickness sander giving a link to a site that seems suspicious.

Has anyone successfully purchased anything from "microscopicmodelshop.com"? Their prices are just silly low, but their site is sketchy and the website scam rating sites I occasionally use give very poor ratings. Looking at the model rail road stuff, it seems they somehow have all of Walthers stuff, and all of it is at half or more off. I could understand if it was a real discontinued product site, but Walthers and Preisser certainly have not discontinued their entire catalogs...

If an admin feels this should be somewhere else please move the post, not trying to go off thread but this just seems to be a too good to be true sort of deal.
 
I have the Byrns thickness sander but I found it difficult use and to get a consistent finish!! I ended up with the (Jet 10/20) it's small enough but will get the job done and save you a lot of time!!! I'm very happy with it so far, only thing is you have to play with the tracking on the feed table belt every so often, other than that it works fantastic!!!! ✌️

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Dave Stevens (Lumberyard) said:
Kit builders would have little to no use for a thickness sander planking material is always provided in the kit. But kits often provide just one size plank width for hull planking which to do a proper planking on a hull different widths of planking are needed for shaping planks, a garboard and bottom planks are wider that top planks. So in the case of kit bashing or scratch building a thickness sander is an essential tool. I have a big double drum thickness sander that 2 men could not pick up, i do not have a small hobby size sander so i cannot comment on any of the machines. This is just what is available plus the fact you can make a thickness sander yourself. There are also mid-size machines but unless you're into mass production of milling wood or general woodworking they are not needed for building model ships

what are your comments


Byrnes Model Machines - Thickness Sander

Byrnes Model Machines produces precision-engineered miniature Table Saws and Thickness Sanders for Ship Modelers, Dollhouse Makers and Model Railroad Builders; every machine has an accuracy measured in thousandths of an inch.
byrnesmodelmachines.com

Luthiers Friend: small precision model thickness sander

Thickness and pattern sander which fits on a drill press and is designed to meet the needs of musical instrument makers and serious modelers.
www.luthiersfriend.com

MicroLux® Drum Thickness Sander - www.microscopicmodelshop.com

Drum Thickness Sander Turns Your Shop into a Portable Lumber Mill Sands wood up to ½ inch thick and 5 inches wide 1/3 hp with drum speed at 5800 rpm with power and precision Works with sheets or strips of wood A Micro-Mark Exclusive Reduces hardwood down to 1/64 of an inch Sands wood up […]
www.microscopicmodelshop.com www.microscopicmodelshop.com

Click to expand...
Is the microscopicmodelshop for real or a scam. Seems to be located in Hong Kong and has unbelievable low prices. Have you ordered anything from them.
 
I have a Micro Lux sander. Almost $400 6-7 years ago. I have to tell you that drum changes are a pain in the @$$. You have to disassemble the drum mechanism from the motor. Then remove thesleee from the drum. My drum is a snug fit. I've tried oil, baby powder to get a sleeve on. My final solution was to put the drum in the freezer overnight. Then the sleeve would go on fairly smoothly.
As for it's use? mostly unnecessary getting boards to .010 of each other. I can get good repetitive results with the Byrnes or Preac saws.
 
if you have a lathe i guess you can build a thickness sander for it

As far as using a drill press sideways are you really applying that much pressure to make a difference?

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Dave Stevens (Lumberyard) said:
i did not follow up on the link for the $79.00 Microlux sander so i do not know if it is scam or the real thing
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I think it's some kind of scam. I searched all over the internet for that sander and the only things I could find were an expired eBay listing for a used one and this outfit selling one for $79.00 without any other information on it whatsoever. Their website looked really sketchy, too. Another comment above noting that this model used a sleeve on the drum, requiring removal of the drum to change the sleeve, jogged my memory. As I recall, this model was a complete flop because of this annoying engineering defect and quickly disappeared from the market. One thing is for sure, MicroMark isn't selling them anymore!
 
I'm a "Kit Guy" through and through. When I see scratch builder discussions I'm in awe. The talent, knowledge, skills, and discussion strings are a different sphere. Thanks for sharing the same space. Very, Very interesting.
 
MisterCA said:
I'm a "Kit Guy" through and through. When I see scratch builder discussions I'm in awe. The talent, knowledge, skills, and discussion strings are a different sphere. Thanks for sharing the same space. Very, Very interesting.
Click to expand...
This is how it starts. Be not afraid. Lean back and relax. Let it wash over you. Listen and learn. Read and learn. Watch and learn. The next thing you know, you'll have been possessed by the realization that you, too, can build a model from scratch. One nobody has ever built before, and it won't cost you hundreds of bucks. Don't worry. It won't hurt.
 
I have the MicroLux thickness sander. It works well, small accurate thicknesses can be dialed in. Run the strips through it a couple of times then make small adjustments then run the strips through again for even consistent thickness. Its a heavy tool and well worth the investment. I recommend using it outside. I've had mine for 10+ years and I love it. I build model ships for a living and I would not be able to do what I need without a thickness sander. GET ONE
 
Dave Stevens (Lumberyard) said:
Kit builders would have little to no use for a thickness sander planking material is always provided in the kit. But kits often provide just one size plank width for hull planking which to do a proper planking on a hull different widths of planking are needed for shaping planks, a garboard and bottom planks are wider that top planks. So in the case of kit bashing or scratch building a thickness sander is an essential tool. I have a big double drum thickness sander that 2 men could not pick up, i do not have a small hobby size sander so i cannot comment on any of the machines. This is just what is available plus the fact you can make a thickness sander yourself. There are also mid-size machines but unless you're into mass production of milling wood or general woodworking they are not needed for building model ships

what are your comments


Byrnes Model Machines - Thickness Sander

Byrnes Model Machines produces precision-engineered miniature Table Saws and Thickness Sanders for Ship Modelers, Dollhouse Makers and Model Railroad Builders; every machine has an accuracy measured in thousandths of an inch.
byrnesmodelmachines.com

Luthiers Friend: small precision model thickness sander

Thickness and pattern sander which fits on a drill press and is designed to meet the needs of musical instrument makers and serious modelers.
www.luthiersfriend.com

MicroLux® Drum Thickness Sander - www.microscopicmodelshop.com

Drum Thickness Sander Turns Your Shop into a Portable Lumber Mill Sands wood up to ½ inch thick and 5 inches wide 1/3 hp with drum speed at 5800 rpm with power and precision Works with sheets or strips of wood A Micro-Mark Exclusive Reduces hardwood down to 1/64 of an inch Sands wood up […]
www.microscopicmodelshop.com www.microscopicmodelshop.com

Click to expand...
How does a thickness sander help with spiling a plank?? With care I can see a disc sander being useful to shape a plank (spile) from wider stock, that's the method I use. But plank thickness has nothing to do with it.
I buy my timber from Hobbymill in Estonia, the postage is pretty crippling so I buy an expensive stock of sheets. If I run out of 1.5 mm thickness and need 1mm for planks I could use a thicknesser and prep 1mm planks from the reduced sheet. Or use a Byrnes saw to reduce the plank thickness of individual planks like Olha. Her technique works well enough, possibly more accurate that a thickness sander, and certianly more accurate than a home built hand fed machine.
As for spiling to shape pick your tools according to what you are comfortable with, craft knife, plane etc. (disc sander) Anything but a thickness sander.
 
Kit builders would have little to no use for a thickness sander planking material is always provided in the kit. But kits often provide just one size plank width for hull planking which to do a proper planking on a hull different widths of planking are needed for shaping planks, a garboard and bottom planks are wider that top planks. So in the case of kit bashing or scratch building a thickness sander is an essential tool. I have a big double drum thickness sander that 2 men could not pick up, i do not have a small hobby size sander so i cannot comment on any of the machines. This is just what is available plus the fact you can make a thickness sander yourself. There are also mid-size machines but unless you're into mass production of milling wood or general woodworking they are not needed for building model ships

How does a thickness sander help with spiling a plank??

it has nothing to do with spiling or shaping a plank what i was trying to say is if you needed wider planks to shape you might need a thickness sander to sand down planking material in general to use for spiling or wider planks that are not provided in a kit.
 
Dave Stevens (Lumberyard) said:
Kit builders would have little to no use for a thickness sander planking material is always provided in the kit. But kits often provide just one size plank width for hull planking which to do a proper planking on a hull different widths of planking are needed for shaping planks, a garboard and bottom planks are wider that top planks. So in the case of kit bashing or scratch building a thickness sander is an essential tool. I have a big double drum thickness sander that 2 men could not pick up, i do not have a small hobby size sander so i cannot comment on any of the machines. This is just what is available plus the fact you can make a thickness sander yourself. There are also mid-size machines but unless you're into mass production of milling wood or general woodworking they are not needed for building model ships

How does a thickness sander help with spiling a plank??

it has nothing to do with spiling or shaping a plank what i was trying to say is if you needed wider planks to shape you might need a thickness sander to sand down planking material in general to use for spiling or wider planks that are not provided in a kit.
Click to expand...
Perhaps I over emphasised the spiling.
However You originally suggested a sander thicknesser was an 'essential tool'. I would argue it's completely unnecessary. There are more accurate, cheaper, less labour intensive methods.
 
Perhaps I over emphasised the spiling.
However You originally suggested a sander thicknesser was an 'essential tool'. I would argue it's completely unnecessary. There are more accurate, cheaper, less labour intensive methods.

i also may have over emphasized a thickness sander as an 'essential tool' because you right there are other ways
 
Kits often supply strip wood for planking. Some better kits now include wider or even laser cut “pre spiled” planking.

This strip wood means that the models are “strip planked” a technique not used to build actual large ships. Strip planking is promoted as an easy technique for amateurs to build small boats. The all wood canoes displaying different bright finished wood strips are “strippers.” The canoe is usually sheathed inside and outside with fiberglass and clear coated. Hardly still a wooden boat.

What Dave was suggesting is that a that a thickness sander is not an essential tool for producing the wide planks necessary to correctly plank a hull. I agree.

Roger
 
Today I needed 3x0.8 mm Castello strips. But I only had one 2x2 strip and one 3x10 mm strip. So I cut the 3x10 into 1x3 mm strips using the small Proxxon table saw. Then I smoothed the strips with a small Kanna (Japanese plane) and made sure they were 0.8 mm thick. You don't always need a drum sander in our hobby. It's handy to have one if you need to thin 100 of those strips. But most of the time it's gathering dust instead of being used. Use the tools that are useful. And if you want to make a DIY drum sander, check out the link in my signature. It contains plans and a description of a machine that works well. Without hinges that can be inaccurate.
By the way, my Kanna comes from Aliexpress, which was only €3.50, and after sharpening the blade properly and sanding the block straight on a glass sheet with a sheet of sandpaper, it is a very nice plane that is not inferior to a Bridge City.
 
I use my Jim Byrnes thickness sander every day. It replaced an old Preac thickness sander from Charley Files. I even extended the feed tray on the Byrnes to 16”. It is also very easy to change sanding paper and uses regular sanding sheets, so its very cost effective. You can have two different sizes of paper on the drum at the same time. I still use the Preac for resizing made parts as i can place very small parts under the drum sometimes using a jig to hold the part from flying out.

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I posted this to a different thread but it may be more useful here:

I made a dust cover with a shop vacuum hose port for my NRG plans thickness sander.
My machine has a 11" long and 9" diameter Hard Maple platen. About all that was available in the 1970's was 9x11 sheet paper backed sanding medium.

The shape of the sawdust funnel is a five sided box without a lid. The sides extend down to the pillow blocks to hold the cover high enough not to block the drum.
To make your own:
Measure the dimensions of the five pieces
Glue three layers of Amazon box quality corrugated cardboard with a generous and complete layer of PVA glue. (use weight for a tight close bond). This will make a thick side for each of the five pieces.
Enforce on the inside each of the eight right angle box seams with 1/4"x1/4" sticks that are as long as it takes to - I cut mine from a Pine 2x4.
PVA bond them.
Cut a hole in the middle of the top that is vac house diameter. Fix a vac hose socket over the hole.

vac female socket.jpg
The vac hose socket is fixed at the hole using screws going thru the cardboard and into pieces of 1/4"x1/4" Pine glued to the underside of the top piece.

I covered the outside with a lot of duct tape. Easier to clean The 4 vertical sticks make good legs going down to the pillow blocks.

The hose weight will shift the dust funnel box if not planned against. I use bungee cords on the hose that are attached to a sky hook (my peg board tool holder).

A cyclone trap between the sander and the vac saves having to clean the vac filter every 10 minutes. The sawdust is fine and of a huge volume.
A remote radio control on-off for the vac is also good to have.
 
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