Making your own 12" disc sander

[Mike Cruz]

Has anyone tried making their own 12" disc sander? I mean, I was cruising through Ebay for a drum sander and fell across a guy's invention that basically lets you take your own motor (mounted on "something") and slipping on a roughly 4 X 7 foam roller that has drum sand paper on it...oh, here, look at it yourself if you didn't understand that:


I happen to have an extra motor already, and the plans for building a stand and mount developed quite easily. I already ordered it, so unless you've used it and found it dangerous, no need to tell me to save my money on it. For $46, I thought it would be worth a try.

The real question: On the same principle, since I have yet another motor handy, I thought...what about mounting a motor to a stand and using, say, Grizzly parts from a 12 disc sander to create my own. Grizzly is kind enough to show the blow up of its parts list

http://www.grizzly.com/products/g7297/parts

and will let you buy them separately. For about $50, I could get what I need (I think) to complete the project.

The only real challenge I see is how this attaches to the arbor...there is a screw that feeds in through the plate, but into what, the arbor? Or does the 12" plate have a set screw to lock it to the arbor?

Has anyone tried this?

PS Yeah, I know the G7297 is only $180 with shipping, but I wouldn't be ME if I didn't try to MAKE one myself...

[Carroll Courtney]

There use to be a mag. out and I can't remember the name(Build it Yourself???) and it showed how to make several machines from drum sanders to disc sanders and maybe a bandsaw.The mag or plans may be at Lowes.If I fine one of my copys,I look to see if there is a website.---Carroll

[Bruce Wrenn]

Shopsmith sells a 12" machined disk for a sander. It will fit a 5/8" shaft, which is typical of NEMA 56 frame motors. I bought one when they closed local store, and later picked two at an auction. But a 12" Delta became available for less than $100, so I bought it, and shelved plans for shop made unit for now. You can use a turned pullley and a plywood disk, laminated with "Formica." You could buy a 10" steel plywood blade (not hollow ground), grind the teeth off it, and mount to turned pulley. To drill mounting holes in blade, you must remove temper. This is done by using an 8d nail, cut off, in the drill press, as a bit (it won't drill). You bring it down against the blade, and the friction will heat up an area and soften it so it can be drilled.

[Chip Lindley]

Mike, it appears that set screw fastens the sanding disc to the nose of the motor shaft. The motor shaft passes through an outboard bearing in the rear guard casting.

Using this particular sanding disc may be *iffy* if there is no flange on the back of the disc with a setscrew to tighten the disc to the motor's keyway. The ShopSmith disc is probably closer to what you need for a *HoMade* sander.

You must consider a guard, and some sort of dust collection with your *basic* disc sander. Although the *motor & disc* basic machine will work for intermittent sanding, some*tweaks* make it better and safer.

[Larry Marley]

Hi Mike,
Here is the link to the sander I made two years ago.
I later added a miter lot parallel to the disk and made a sliding table with a 90 degree fence so I can move the piece along the disk.

http://marleyturned.com/id141.asp

May give you some ideas.

Larry

[Mike Cruz]

Wow, Larry, that is some piece you've got there. While, if you were charging for your labor, I'm sure you would have to put a price tag of about $1000 on one of those. But it is probably priceless to you. I can see why you made one...I bet you couldn't buy exactly what you wanted.

Unfortunately, while I am quite a wood tinkerer, this seems a bit past my tool tinkering abilities. I envy you, and really appreciate both the work you did and the link showing and explaining the process. $180 for the Grizzly never sounded so cheap. :)

Bruce and Chip, thanks for the Shopsmith idea. I will check it out. Larry's sander really got me thinking, and I might need to rethink whether or not "making" one myself is worth my time right now...I have SO many other projects to make in my shop. I had the building erected over 4 years ago, electric installed about 2 years ago, and the flooring took me about a year to install (I certainly wasn't going to install hardwood flooring during the winter in an unheated building...) because I was installing it with the shop full of stuff, so whenever I wanted to lay some flooring, I had to move stuff out of the way. You get the picture. So now it is organization and clean up time. Slowly but surely, it is coming together. Actually, now that I am devoting more time to it, it is really moving along.

We'll see what happens, again, thanks for your input guys. If nothing else you may have stopped me from entering a project that I may have regretted starting...which may be worth its wieght in gold. ;)

[harry strasil]

Making a disc sander is easy, mine is not pretty, but was functional for a lot of years, before retirement due to space restrictions.

small piece of 3/4 ply for base, bolt an old 3/4 hp motor with a cast iron pulley to the base, a couple of short pieces of 2by4 for table risers, a scrap 10 inch aluminum circle cut out, and a 10 inch self stick sanding disc from sears. And a small piece of counter top sink cutout.

[Tom Clark FL]

Mike,

I made my disk sander around 25 years ago. Had an unused 1hp Baldor motor with a 1" shaft. I just welded a hub to a 1/2" piece of cold-rolled steel, added a couple of set screws to the hub, and then turned and faced the front so it would run true and be balanced. It works great and has been in constant use ever since.

I also have a belt sander, so a 60 grit disk is kept on the disk sander You should see how fast it eats wood when you want to.

It would have been far better to use aluminum for the hub and disk, but I used what was on hand. When the machined is turned off, it coasts for 3-5 minutes before coming to a stop due to the weight!

The base is a couple of scraps of angle iron. The table is a piece of 3/16" steel. Formica faced plywood would have been just as good. The table is removed when changing disks - but they are long lasting and not changed all that often.

[harry strasil]

my homebuilt disc sander does the long coast deal too.

[Myk Rian]

12" is for sissies. My step dad made one out of 1/2 sheet of plywood. A 4 FOOT disc. Took some skin off with it too. :D

[Mike Cruz]

So I found a motor that I think will work well for my 12 inch disc sander. Whattaya'll think?

http://baltimore.craigslist.org/tls/1269542957.html

:D

[Kris Koenig]

So I found a motor that I think will work well for my 12 inch disc sander. Whattaya'll think?

http://baltimore.craigslist.org/tls/1269542957.html

:D

There are directions for one in Building Workshop Workstations by Danny Proulx (http://www.amazon.com/Building-Woodshop-Workstations-Popular-Woodworking/dp/1558706372/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1247598425&sr=8-1). That was what I had considered using the old bandsaw motor for if I replaced it. Not sure what the speed should be, though.

Kris

[Rob Young]

I have a 10" plate from Woodcraft that I can put on my table saw in place of the blade. Works pretty well with a throat plate with some clearance I can have angled sanding or use the miter slot for jigs. Works pretty well.

http://www.woodcraft.com/product.aspx?ProductID=129272&FamilyID=1809

These disks are available elsewhere but this happens to be the type I bought.

[Mike Cruz]

Ok, so next question:

Preferences and pros/cons...steel vs aluminum disc

[Dave Lehnert]

Shopsmith sells a 12" machined disk for a sander. It will fit a 5/8" shaft, which is typical of NEMA 56 frame motors. I bought one when they closed local store, and later picked two at an auction. But a 12" Delta became available for less than $100, so I bought it, and shelved plans for shop made unit for now. You can use a turned pullley and a plywood disk, laminated with "Formica." You could buy a 10" steel plywood blade (not hollow ground), grind the teeth off it, and mount to turned pulley. To drill mounting holes in blade, you must remove temper. This is done by using an 8d nail, cut off, in the drill press, as a bit (it won't drill). You bring it down against the blade, and the friction will heat up an area and soften it so it can be drilled.
http://www.shopsmith.com/ownersite/catalog//images/DiscSandingInd.jpg
http://www.shopsmith.com/ownersite/catalog/sn_sandingdisc.htm

[Mike Cruz]

Thanks, Dave. I did some research and found them. But I couldn't find the price. Your link was perfect.

The reason I asked about steel VS aluminum is that I have found both on Ebay, and wondered what others thought. Have you tried both, or just the steel? Thanks.

[Chip Lindley]

Building a portable tabletop model huh??

Steel/aluminum? Depends on the disc. Plate steel is good. Cast aluminum is good. Which is cheaper for you? Which one will fit that 30HP arbor??????

[Dave Lehnert]

Thanks, Dave. I did some research and found them. But I couldn't find the price. Your link was perfect.

The reason I asked about steel VS aluminum is that I have found both on Ebay, and wondered what others thought. Have you tried both, or just the steel? Thanks.

I just have the steel. I think the aluminum was an older style. My SS is from 1989. Thats new in Shopsmith years.
If you sign up for e-mail offers they run killer deals often. Or you can check out the deals at the link top of page here.
http://www.shopsmith.com/ownersite/index.htm