Pattern sander

[mikkekeswick]

So i'm looking to take my risers to the next level!
So far I have just been cutting out portions of a circle with the bandsaw and a circle cutting jig....They look good when finished but I want to go fancier with them and the accuracy of cutting with my jig leaves a lot to be desired due to blade flex etc...I end up having to free hand on the edge sander to tidy/square everything up.
So I've read the threads on how to make 'rub collars' for edge sander and understand the idea however I've been thinking that the collar is simply a stop for the pattern to rub against. What i'm thinking is making a new  (bigger) table for the end of my sander and simply fixing a pin as close to the edge of the table/sanding drum and using that as the stop instead of taking the machine apart and fixing a collar around the drums axle.
Does anybody have any thoughts on this? I can't see why it wouldn't work but I may well be missing something!

[mikkekeswick]

Forget this question.....I had a 'doh!' moment.
I've got it now...the stop has to be the same as the od of the sanding drum....
I'm thinking I like the oscilating function of my sander and don't want to disable it.
I will have a think about it and maybe make one from scratch.

You could make a big sanding drum put it on your drill press and install a radiused  piece underneath it as your guide...  I would try to keep your work touching only one area of your guide in case things were off a tad...

[kennym]

Maybe let the pin protrude a quarter inch above table and rout the pattern you want on a half inch pc but only a quarter inch deep so the top half of pattern touches the sander and the bottom half the pin .

Only prob with a pin is if you don't stay real square off the drum , it won't sand true.

[Mad Max]

http://tradgang.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=125;t=013999

[kennym]

Maybe let the pin protrude a quarter inch above table and rout the pattern you want on a half inch pc but only a quarter inch deep so the top half of pattern touches the sander and the bottom half the pin .

Only prob with a pin is if you don't stay real square off the drum , it won't sand true.

[Mad Max]

Yep

[mikkekeswick]

Thanks for the ideas.
I think I am going to go down the route of using a drill press and a robo-sander drum.
I'll see how that works then if I need to make a beefier Mk.2 version i'll have a good idea of what I need etc.
I'll post some pictures when I get it up and running and have the templates done.