I’ve wanted to buy an oscillating spindle sander for some time, but they are too expensive for my tiny woodworking budget. I did, however, have a drill press that doesn’t see much action on a daily basis.
So when I saw the Big Horn Sanding Drum, I knew I had to get it. It does not oscillate, but it looked like a perfect substitute for work that needed sanding on inside curves.
The sanding drums arrives in a nice plastic box, with simple instructions inside. Understanding how the sanding drums work is very important to figuring out how to use it.
Basically, the drum expands or contracts when you tighten it. To get the sleeves on, you’ll probably need to loosed the nut. When you ave the sleeve on, tighten it to get a firm grip. No glue or adhesive is needed.
You get 4 drums in different sizes:
- 1-1/2″ by 2-1/2″
- 1″ by 2-1/2″
- 3/4″ by 2-1/2″
- 1/2″ by 2-1/2
Included are 4 sanding sleeves for each drum size. Two sleeves are fine, and two are course. You can fit the drums to your drill press or handheld drill.
Both drums and sleeves were good quality for the price. The set costs about $22 on Amazon.
There are replacement sanding sleeves available on Amazon for about $5 in various different grits. These do not specifically mention the Big Horn brand, but there are many other brands that are almost identical to the Bighorn drums. Just check the sizes before you buy.
I managed to fit the sleeves in without any difficulty. The sleeves were slightly oversized. Chucking it on the drill press was pretty straightforward.
Big Horn Sanding Drum in Action
The most important thing about a tool like the Big Horn Sanding Drum is how straight and true the shank is. To show you, I recorded a very quick video:
As you can see, this drum was slightly out of true, but it should work with no problems.
I wish this was something they paid more attention to since I mostly do small and delicate work. This is a far cry from how a spindle sander works, of course.
However, I plan to build a platform jig for the Big Horn sanding drums that I can attach to my drill press. That way, I can sand my work parallel to the sanding drums.
