flatmaster vs. sand flee

[John Teichman]

i want to use primarily for cleaning up dove tail drawer boxes etc.

[richard poitras]

I have used both and both work good (about the same from what I could tell) I do have the Sand Flee but only because I found a deal on a used one. I would have been happy with anyone of them.

[Larry Frank]

Or you can build one. There are lots of plans out there. I just built one that mounts on a Shopsmith.

[Charles Lent]

I have the 24" kit from Stockroom Supply, bought about 10 years ago and built from their plans. The parts supplied worked together well and it has been a great sander, but I did make my own top from 1" Baltic Birch and laminate. I had to make two because the first did not turn out flat enough. It really needs to be very flat for the sander to work properly. I've used a friend's Sand Flea and both do about the same, but the DIY kit cost is about 1/4 of the cost of a Sand Flea. Stockroom Supply sells finished and very flat tops. If I had failed on the second try I would have bought a ready made top from them. The rest is just a box made from cabinet ply with the hardware from the kit and a 1/2 or 3/4 hp motor attached. Neither is a true replacement for a full size wide belt drum sander, but dor small projects they will do quite well. When smoothing dovetails and box joints I always use my router table with a flush trim bit first and then just a quick pass with a ROS or my kit version of the Flatmaster finishes the job.

Charley

[Randy Heinemann]

I have the Flatmaster from Stockroom Supply and think it works great for smaller projects, but I don't use it nearly as much as I thought I would. To keep pieces perpendicular to the table it helps if you have a fence to help steer the piece over the drum. This might be especially helpful if you are using it for sanding corner joints on drawers. I have a Carter Magfence II which attaches with magnets to the Flatmaster top. I found that, like with most tools like this, it isn't the answer for sanding everything flat, but it could work for drawers. If you get it, I'd experiment with it a little before trying your first good drawer.

[John Teichman]

thanks Randy i have been playing with joint cam cutting dove tail over the edge of my cnc router, i did a clean up with the router table then palm sander so far they are looking pretty good i just remember i have 18 in. sanding drum from my woodmaster so i might build one w/ that.

[Charles Lent]

The key requirement of a DIY version of these sanders is to have an absolutely flat top, because any deviation will cause the sander to work well in some places and not work or not work well in others. My first DIY top had a very slight sag in the middle. I could adjust it so the middle sanded well but the ends wouldn't sand at all, or adjust it so the outer ends sanded well and the center put too much drum upward pressure on the piece being sanded. If I remember correctly, the sag was only about 0.020". The top really does need to be dead flat to work well. My second DIY top is much better, but still not perfect. For my needs, mostly edge sanding, I decided to keep the second DIY top, Stockroom Supply sells very flat ready made tops and getting one of these was gong to be my next step if I couldn't live with my second DIY top. I still may get one for my sander some time in the near future, because I'm planning a few projects that my sander would be great for, if the top was truly flat.

Charley