Today I Printed: A Tumble Sander
Sun 30 July 2023Today I FINALLY completed my tumble-sander! It’s a tumbler (a spinning jar), that I run with sand in it, and when I put something in it (like a 3D print), it will slowly sand down the rough edges.
It’s been a bit of an adventure - originally I tried to 3D print the entire thing. Turns out printed bearings aren’t good long-term, and jars of sand are heavy enough to cause significant wear on all the moving parts 😥
My mark II build is a complete redesign, an I turned the jar into a giant gear. The motor drives it directly, while it rests on four TPU wheels (with real bearings this time!).
Another fun bit was preparing the sand. I’m trying first with beach sand (sifted, washed, and baked), which is composed of fairly round grains. I’m hoping that since I’m sanding soft substances that’ll be fine, but if I need to I can graduate to proper sand-blasting sand, which has sharp edges.
Here is a blurry phone shot of my sand under a microscope - it’s hard to appreciate in freeze frame, but moving the focus through some of the transparent silicates is quite beautiful.
And finally, here it is in action, sanding a test print and some scrap wood!
This has so many parts that I’m not going to put them up for download - you’ll have to design your own!