Craftsmanship in Wood

I don't know about the rest of you but I tend to have a long list of tools, both hand tools and powered tools, in my mind. It's a list that shifts around a fair bit depending upon what sort of work i have been tackling of late.

With the many months of working bubinga and shedua on the cabinet, and more work on teak wheelbarrow #4 coming up, I've come to be interested in getting a small sanding machine for curved parts. For the longest time I have been looking at oscillating spindle sanders, aka bobbin sanders, however in the past half I year I have become aware of a type of Zimmermann sanding machine for shaping and profiling curved parts - the 'PS' for Profile Sander. They made a few different models of it. The smallest is the PS-0, which mounts atop a table. Then there is the PS-R, which is the same machine on a cabinet with vacuum built in and with switchable oscillation of the belt.


With the door open, you can see how the belt is routed - note that it goes up and over and down the bar fitted vertically to the work table:

Here's a link to a video of that machine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ca5HuEp8b4#t=56.739737

The next largest machine in the PS lineup is the PS-S (Standard), which has all the appearance of a bandsaw:

Clogging of a sanding belt, by the way, is one of the reasons this sort of machine may be preferred to a bobbin sander. Having a much, much greater abrading length means the belt on the larger PS machine runs cooler and lasts much longer:

Notice that the dust cover for the machine internals is cast iron.

A video of the same machine:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atYXYj5TMds

Here's a detail showing a selection of different profile bars - many of the machines i have seen for sale in Europe however do not come with the different bars:


Then there is the PS-1, which only routes the sanding belt from below, however the overhead arm can be swung back, so as to allow the sanding of inside curves:

At the top of the range is the PS-1/2, which is a heavier duty version of the PS-1:

Believe it or not, I have made arrangements to buy a very nice PS-1/2, and it doesn't even involve importing from Europe. I found one down in PA, and it was purchased new in 1977 or so by a pattern shop, used only on one job. And it is loaded with accessory bars, and many many spare belts:

The table has a perfect planed finish and next to no wear:


I am not exactly flush with cash at the moment, however this is the first one of these I had ever seen come up for sale, and the price was reasonable at $3000, especially considering it's mind condition and that it would cost me twice that to import one from Europe (which effectively means I would be unlikely to ever make such an acquisition). So, I felt I had to find a way to swing it or I would likely never get the chance again. The seller, who was retiring from the business, agreed to a payment plan, and I have sent him a deposit, and hope to have it paid off in 3~4 months.

Nice acquisition Chris. I hope you'll continue doing videos of your work (and hopefully some machine walk arounds/dissections). I'm sure this will have a large number of uses in your shop.

Thanks Chris.

I've been working on the video for the cabinet assembly for weeks now, and it just takes a lot of time. I'm feeling a little discouraged about it actually, but should get it done soon. Half the problem is finding chunks of uninterrupted time. With a 1year-old, those moments seem few and far between.

Thanks for posting about these, Chris. The pics of the profile bars are quite interesting, and answer a question which came to mind along the lines of "how does this differ from a belt grinder" re: the platen arrangement.

John Whitley wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 26, 2017 4:00 pm

Thanks for posting about these, Chris. The pics of the profile bars are quite interesting, and answer a question which came to mind along the lines of "how does this differ from a belt grinder" re: the platen arrangement.

Yes, the different profiles of platen that can be fitted is one thing, plus the longer length of abrasive belt than most vertical belt grinders, and the capacity, with the PS-1/2, to be changed between 'bandsaw mode' and having the upper half swung out of the way, the belt running up and over the platen, so as to allow shaping the inside of circular objects.

And it is made very nicely, as the cast iron covers over the machine internals, and planed work table suggest.

Cool! I actually built a belt sander as a yoot, for knife grinding and I felt the same in that a longer belt is useful.

Can these machines be fitted with wheels in place of the platen/table?

Brian wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 27, 2017 8:46 am

Cool! I actually built a belt sander as a yoot, for knife grinding and I felt the same in that a longer belt is useful.

Can these machines be fitted with wheels in place of the platen/table?

No, they can't as far as I know. However the table is tiltable, so I imagine with the table tilted that one could sharpen/repair tool bevels.

I know the kind of long belt knife grinder you are talking about and I would like one of those eventually as well. I'm running out of space for new machines however.

Chris Hall wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 26, 2017 1:28 pm

Thanks Chris.

I've been working on the video for the cabinet assembly for weeks now, and it just takes a lot of time. I'm feeling a little discouraged about it actually, but should get it done soon. Half the problem is finding chunks of uninterrupted time. With a 1year-old, those moments seem few and far between.

If you discover a way to be productive in 5-10 minute increments, please share. I feel like I'm just ramping up after 20-30 mins and hitting my stride perhaps an hour+ after.

Dangerous loop, that.

If it's of any value, I believe videos add a whole new dimension for anyone with content to share (and you have plenty to share). So please keep at it, the barrier to entry will only continue to decrease as you get more familiar with the workflow of editing.

Chris Pyle wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 27, 2017 2:03 pm

If you discover a way to be productive in 5-10 minute increments, please share. I feel like I'm just ramping up after 20-30 mins and hitting my stride perhaps an hour+ after.

(Dons hat of "studied modern productivity systems fairly extensively at prior job"....

5-10 minute increments can be tough. People tend to build mental resistance versus "getting into the flow" for small periods of time because we anticipate being broken out of it. The brain does a great big "why bother!?!".

One technique to make headway uses a combination of planning ahead and "time-boxing." At its simplest, the idea is two-fold: First, plan out some work over fixed-size units of time (thus the "time box"). Second, set a timer and work through the next increment. Stop when the timer goes off, and take a short break, also timed. A common recommendation for various knowledge-work activities starts with a 25-minute work, 5-minute rest cycle. But it's absolutely worth experimenting with 5- or 10- minute work cycles, with maybe just a minute or two to regroup if you get the chance. At a minimum, if you've planned a chunk of work that's really short, you're setting an expectation with yourself that it's OK to just do that short chunk of work. Using strategies like this also tends to reveal "planning debt", where you don't actually have a clear idea of what you need to do next. Planning debt tends to become lengthy "ramp up time", which again is hard in highly interrupted situations.

Not everything is amenable to this approach. I find that more free-form work such as brainstorming, design, etc. doesn't necessarily benefit from time boxing, and can even be impeded. Likewise, it's hard to see how some tasks can be broken up into increments. Sometimes this improves with practice, other times it's just not a good fit to the work at hand.

For more depth, it's worth checking out "The Pomodoro Technique" developed by Francesco Cirillo. See this brief intro on Wikipedia, then you can check out this short PDF book. It's a fairly simple process as such things go, but for the purposes here of just reclaiming some productivity from "the chaos", it's worth trying the time-boxing element on its own. Likewise, I expect many of the "rules" in the Pomodoro Technique won't be applicable to either 1) your specific work or 2) life ruled by a small child. I'd view it more as a toolbox of ideas for making progress under duress. Use only what you need, discard the rest.

Hope that's helpful!

This is really interesting John, thanks for that!