Belt sander dust collection and 10" disc sander

[mr95gst]

My parents have had (2) 4" wide belt sanders in their shop for 15+ years. I quietly helped myself to one of them a couple months back. For as long as I can remember, neither of them have had the mounting plates for the disc attachment. Both have an exposed shaft where the disc would be mounted. I am not sure if both were removed and lost or if delta/craftman sold them that way. I have been envious of everyone's homemade disc sanders I keep seeing on the internet. Since I already had a good foundation with the belt sander, I figured I would give it a try.

I guess it originally came with a 6" disc. I knew I wanted something much bigger. I researched online and found that you can no longer buy the factory aluminum disc mounting plate. That would have made it too easy. I started by making the collar with a piece of maple. I drilled it for the shaft and threaded a set screw. I used the power from the belt sander to turn it down like a lathe. The mounting collar has a concentric shaft turned in it so that it presses into the disk. The disc is made from melamine. I turned down the 10" radius the same way I did the collar.


*****PHOTOBUCKET HIJACKED MY PICTURES SO I HAVE EDITED THE POST TO ADD THE PICTURES BACK. THEY ARE NO LONGER IN ORDER TO MATCH COMMENTARY MADE WHEN THE THREAD WAS STARTED. MORE PICTURES ADDED TO THE END OF THE THREAD.


Once I had the disc portion done, I moved my attention to the belt sander side. The rear dust collection port has a pass through to the disk area. I kind of just eyeballed these pieces. I just started cutting and adding pieces here and there. It turned out a little more complex than I anticipated, but it was a fun geometric exercise.

The hose attachment has two sizes. I can use my shopvac hose or my smaller vacuum hose.

The motor is only a 1/3 horsepower. The disk is on the heavy side. I have noticed that it takes a split second longer to get up to speed than with just the belt. Once it does it runs good and strong. When using the shopvac, almost all of the dust is collected when using the 4" belt. When using the disc, I have found that dust tends to collect under the disk. The vacuum is pulling enough to prevent most of the debris from being tossed in the air, but not enough pull to keep that area clean. Since the vacuum hookup is so close to the wide open mouth behind the belt, I am losing most of the vacuum before it gets to the disk portion. I think I can remedy this by moving the hose attachment to the disc side. That will solve the disc side, and since the disc side is more enclosed, I should still have enough pull behind the belt. Only one way to find out...