[Viking]

Originally Posted by charles Tauber

RPM=Revolutions per Minute. It is plural. No need to pluralize a plural. RPMS (RPM's, RPMs, etc.) is incorrect. Semantics, I know.

Semantics indeed...

Originally Posted by charles Tauber

If the motor is air cooled, reducing the speed of the motor will reduce the speed of the cooling fan. You run the risk of frying the motor. A better solution is probably to use a more appropriate pulley ratio, one that gives you the speed you want.

Slowing the motor speed should also mean it generates less heat. It's an intermitent duty motor anyway, and I won't be super sorry if it fries, so I'll risk it.

Originally Posted by charles Tauber

You'll need a means of securing the drum to its shaft so that the drum doesn't spin on the shaft.

I've thought about that. I don't have a drill press, so I free hand drilled the holes for the shaft. The disks just barely fit on the shaft, and so given the fact that they were randomly placed on the shaft and the holes were not completely square, when I clamped them together after gluing them, they should exert a considerable amount of force against the shaft itself. I doubt very much that they will ever come off the shaft without considerable effort.

Originally Posted by charles Tauber

I'm guessing from the photo that your finished drum will be about 5" or so in diameter and 20" or so long. The combination of drum diameter and shaft diameter needs to be sufficiently stiff to prevent flexing mid-span under load.

The drum will be a fuzz smaller than 4" in diameter when it is finished, and just almost 20" long. The shaft itself it 3/4" steel. If I control the RPMs () and keep them from getting out of hand, it should be stable. But we'll see.

Originally Posted by charles Tauber

Ideally, you'll want about 400 CFM of air flow for dust collection. You'll also want some sort of dust shroud to keep the dust "in". Alternatively, use it outside.

I'm going to use it outside AND I'm going to put together the dust collection. Just sounds like fun. You should watch (if you haven't) Matthias Wandel's shop made dust collector video. Fascinating. He gets a tremendous amount of power out of the impeller he built.

Originally Posted by charles Tauber

I literally jumped for joy the day I disassembled my home-made sander in favour of a commercially made one with a variable speed feed and drum speed, quick-change sandpaper, accurate depth gauge... Back in the day, sanders started at over $20k: now one can be had for as little as $600.

I can certainly appreciate that the commercially made sander was a step up. But for a married father of two with bills to pay, this is the best I can do right now. If it gives me a basic thicknessing capability, then I'll be happy with it.