Disc/Belt Sander

This is a two-part project. About 40 years ago, my late dad, who was a tool and die maker, built this disc-belt sander out of material that he dug out of the scrap bin at his place of work. The sander itself worked fine, but it was mounted on a kind of shaky stand because I think he was in a hurry to use it and just never got around to upgrading it. The original motor was a 1/3 HP behemoth that looked like it could have been hand-wound by Nikola Tesla himself. A few years ago, the motor burned up (literally caught fire) and I just put the whole thing aside until I retired and had time to deal with it. I finally decided the time had come because I needed the sander badly to make Shaker oval boxes and carriers. I was able to find a new 1 HP, 1750 rpm motor that was about a third of the size of the old one! I also removed the rickety legs and built a very solid base out of 4x4 and 2x4 lumber. Finally, I added a Harbor Freight mobile tool base using square tubular steel for the stringers in order to allow me to move it around in my small shop. I do still have to add a dust collection hood to it, because it can produce an enormous amount of dust! It is once again working very well. I hated to just toss the old legs because they reminded me of my dad and all that he taught me, so I took the three Hemlock legs and milled them down into vertical supports for a thread rack for my quilter wife. It came out great and the old wood is still around for a second lifetime.

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Nice recycling the old legs, that's a heckuva spool rack! "Old projects never die, they just keep getting turned into new ones" :-)

Nice story...nice job...!

Willworkfortools,

Great story about the tool's history, the new improvements and reuse of the wood.

Thank you for posting this,

Paul

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Thanks Willworkfortools! We've added your Belt Sander Restoration to our Sanding category,
as well as to your builder page: Willworkfortools's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

<div id="blocks"> <div class="block b1 pngfix"> <div class="bimg"> <div> <a href="http://www.homemadetools.net/homemade-belt-sander-restoration"> <img src="/uploads/210444/homemade-belt-sander-restoration.jpeg"/> </a> </div> </div> <div class="head pngfix"></div> <div class="left pngfix"></div> <div class="right pngfix"></div> <div class="blockover b1 pngfix"> <div class="title"> <a href="http://www.homemadetools.net/homemade-belt-sander-restoration">Belt Sander Restoration</a> <span> by <a href="http://www.homemadetools.net/builder/Willworkfortools">Willworkfortools</a></span> </div> <div class="tags">tags: <a href='http://www.homemadetools.net/tag/belt-sander'>belt sander</a>, <a href='http://www.homemadetools.net/tag/restoration'>restoration</a> </div> </div> </div> </div>
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Thanks Willworkfortools! We've added your Thread Rack to our Racks category,
as well as to your builder page: Willworkfortools's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

<div id="blocks"> <div class="block b1 pngfix"> <div class="bimg"> <div> <a href="http://www.homemadetools.net/homemade-thread-rack"> <img src="/uploads/210449/homemade-thread-rack.jpeg"/> </a> </div> </div> <div class="head pngfix"></div> <div class="left pngfix"></div> <div class="right pngfix"></div> <div class="blockover b1 pngfix"> <div class="title"> <a href="http://www.homemadetools.net/homemade-thread-rack">Thread Rack</a> <span> by <a href="http://www.homemadetools.net/builder/Willworkfortools">Willworkfortools</a></span> </div> <div class="tags">tags: <a href='http://www.homemadetools.net/tag/rack'>rack</a>, <a href='http://www.homemadetools.net/tag/storage'>storage</a> </div> </div> </div> </div>
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Fantastic! I love the re-purposing for the thread rack. I brought heaps of my mother's possessions (20 ft container full) into AUS after she passed away in 2002. We still use lots of her gear. I brought all the Calif Redwood timber she had stored away (we had a lumber yard in CA for 40 years...) and have been making heirloom projects out of it, tremendously satisfying to extend the life of a material, and the receivers seem to value it more because it has a story to it. Great work, cheers
Jim in Sunny South Coast NSW AUS

That is truly an awesome machine and a much more awesome story.
Keep on tooling,,,