my own domain and DNS

should be the major thing that is making it not work :
zone "thesanders.org."{ <-- no period at end of org
        type master;
        file "thesanders.org";
        notify yes;
};
 As for time it takes to get working once you have it in your DNS.  It
depends on if you moved the domain to your box from someone elses or if you
just bought the domain and your machine ifs the first one to ever host that
domain.  In the latter case, everything will start working and be correct
from the very first day that you host the domain.  In the case of moving a
domain it depends on a couple of things, if the party looking up your domain
before or not, and the time that you have your dns cache set to.  If
someone's dns has never looked up your domain before, you are all set, all
new queries will go to your new dns location.  If they have looked you up,
you will have to wait for the amount of time you have set for them to cache
they data before the new dns requests will go to your new dns location, it
could be hours, days, weeks , or even months.  One trick that I try to do is
sent the DNS cache down to just a few minutes before I move it.  That way
most people's dns will time out relativly quickly and they will get your new
dns.  These days there are people like @home that have a hard coded minimum
cache time, so even if you have jumped though all the hoops to make sure
that you have a smooth DNS transfer, you end up haveing to wait a couple of
weeks until their DNS decides for itself that it would be ok to get rid of
it horribly outdated DNS info.

> # zone file (in /var/named)
> @               IN      SOA     thesanders.org.
> hostmaster.thesanders.org. (
>                         2000080705 ; serial
>                         3600 ; refresh
>                         900 ; retry
>                         1209600 ; expire
>                         43200 ; default_ttl
>                         )
>                 IN      MX      5       mail.thesanders.org.
>                 IN      NS      ns1.thesanders.org.
>                 IN      NS      ns1.granitecanyon.com.
> @               IN      A       63.227.248.168
> ns1             IN      A       63.227.248.168
> mail    IN      CNAME   ns1.thesanders.com.
> www     IN      CNAME   ns1.thesanders.com.
> ftp     IN      CNAME   ns1.thesanders.com.

> # named.conf file in /etc
> options {
>         directory "/var/named";
> };
> zone "." {
>         type hint;
>         file "named.ca";
> };
> zone "localhost"{
>         type master;
>         file "named.local";
> };
> zone "thesanders.org."{
>         type master;
>         file "thesanders.org";
>         notify yes;
> };
> zone "0.0.127.IN-ADDR.ARPA"{
>         type master;
>         file "127.0.0";
>         notify no;
> };