finishing plasma cut pieces with a drum sander

[flyinwilly]

I recently received a very large order for a device I make. It has 5 pieces so it so that makes for a lot of finishing work. I used to do it with a flap disc but doing a 1000 pieces at a time by hand is a no go. I knock the slow speed dross off with a needle scaler and then finish the pieces on a drum sander. It is doing OK but because of the slight warping when cutting, it hits the high spots and misses some of the lows. Even with that, it has cut my finishing time by 60-70%. I had a thought that if I glued a 1/8" rubber cover on the drum to go under the sandpaper, it would flex enough to give a better finish. Has anybody tried this or have any suggestions ? Any help would be appreciated.

[weldguy]

For that many parts the only way I would go is a muriatic acid/water bath. Throw them in overnight, come back in the morning and they will look perfect. Will blow your mind how well it works and save you tons of time.

[flyinwilly]

will that remove the fine dross that I miss with the needle scaler ? What is the mix on the muriatic acid ?

[adbuch]

I recently received a very large order for a device I make. It has 5 pieces so it so that makes for a lot of finishing work. I used to do it with a flap disc but doing a 1000 pieces at a time by hand is a no go. I knock the slow speed dross off with a needle scaler and then finish the pieces on a drum sander. It is doing OK but because of the slight warping when cutting, it hits the high spots and misses some of the lows. Even with that, it has cut my finishing time by 60-70%. I had a thought that if I glued a 1/8" rubber cover on the drum to go under the sandpaper, it would flex enough to give a better finish. Has anybody tried this or have any suggestions ? Any help would be appreciated.

Is this a power fed drum sander where you feed the parts thru on a belt? Or are you doing it by hand with a drum sander? What I mean is the hand held units. Thanks,
David

[flyinwilly]

it's a power fed drum sander, Performax 16-32. As long as you don't take too much of a bite, you can feed the parts in as fast as you can get them on the belt. The drum is solid steel, not inflatable, and I think if I put a softer surface under the paper, it will do a better job. Trying to find out if anybody has tried this out.

[adbuch]

OK - now I understand. That makes sense that if there was some sort of thin "cushion" between the paper and the drum, this could allow a little bit of "give" or cushion to help you with your warped material. Perhaps you could contact the manufacturer to see if they offer something like that.

I would love to have a power fed drum sander like that, but it's just too expensive for the little bit of cutting I do. But If I were in business making many, many parts such as you are doing, I would most likely buy one like yours or the TimeSaver brand I have also seen.

Thanks,
David