The pieces of the platen are pictured. I'll begin this morning by gluing the edge pieces up to the platen, and while that dries, I'll begin work on the base. I have a 2/6 piece of construction lumber that will serve as the base. It's been in my shop for a while, so it should be about as stable as possible for the humidity of the area. Today, I'll prep the lumber -- cut off the factory rounded edges, and run it through my thickness planer until I get clean surfaces -- and cut everything to length.
The assembly will be rather straight forward. There will be two sides, which hold the bearings, and two cross members. I will use half lap joints for the cross members, gluing and screwing them into place. At the front of the sander, where the platen is hinged to tilt up to the drum, I want to have a cross member, butt jointed into place with screws. I want to set it so the hinged platen is about 1.5 inches from the drum when it is fully flat. That should leave enough clearance for other sorts of projects, beyond the guitar (my wife has her eye set on "tea-boxes" that could be sold at the open market this coming summer). In the back, set at the same height, will be another cross member, through which the height adjustment screw will be threaded. The width of my table saw will determine the length of the base -- approximately 30 inches -- which will leave sufficient over-hang for the operation of the adjustment screw. The width of the platen will determine the width of the base. I'll make adjustments as necessary.
The object is to keep the construction as simple as possible. I had in mind another "sliding" method of adjusting the platen, but gave up on it for the sake of simplicity.
No comments:
Post a Comment