help finding post on homemade belt sander

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About a year ago I was doing some searching and came across a thread about a guy building his own belt sander that was really nice.  After doing projects over the last year I decided I could really use one.  I have spent hours today searching for this thread and can't find it for the life of me.  I thought I had bookmarded it or subscribed to it or something but can't find it.  I did print out a couple of pics of it that I still have but they aren't in the best of shape from a year ago and I would really like to find this thread for some ideas.  I thought it was on this forum but it might have been on the miller welding forum which I also searched with no results.He had different attachments like a wheel and then a striaght sander that were interchangable.  It had different speeds by means of a belt and pulleys.  And from what I remember a really good tracking system to align the belt.I have searched the whole homemade tools thread and didn't see it, saw the one linked to from hobartwelds.  Also saw the recent thread on a homemade belt sander that was nice but I really liked the one I saw last year, not sure when the original thread was from but I found it about a year ago.  So I'm hoping someone out there can help me.  If you have a link to a homemade belt sander can you please post it so I can see if it is the one I am looking for?  With a little luck hopefully I can find it.  Thanks for any help with this search!
Reply:I saved a link to belt sander ideas for a future project.  The site is CNCcookbook.com and can be found at the following link:http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=...26tbs%3Disch:1There are several different designs to look at.
Reply:Thank you for that link.  Looks like a good site.It was very similar to the KMG style one on that site.  There was a write up about a guy building one just like that I read a year ago, I thought it was on this site but it might have been the millerwelds site.
Reply:Here is one of I don't know how many.....pretty good build. http://weldingweb.com/vbb/showthread.php...ht=belt+sanderI did a search for "belt sander".City of L.A. Structural; Manual & Semi-Automatic;"Surely there is a mine for silver, and a place where gold is refined. Iron is taken from the earth, and copper is smelted from ore."Job 28:1,2Lincoln, Miller, Victor & ISV BibleDanny
Reply:I just found the thread I was looking for, it was over on millerwelds.  I tried searching for many hours today on all the welding forums and google but didtn' find the one I was looking for.  This guy called his a belt grinder and not a belt sander.  Here is the link, http://www.millerwelds.com/resources...ht=belt+sander.  The only problem is all the pics are gone now!  And the guy only has 36 posts and hasn't posted since Feb so not sure there is any chance of ever seeing the pics again!Real bummer because this thing was really nice.  Guess I will have to go over all the other ones I found today when searching and come up with my own plans.Thanks again for the help guys.
Reply:Is this the one you were thinking about?http://weldingweb.com/vbb/showthread.php?t=32363Cut an MGB and widened 11" C4 Corvette suspension and LT1 Chevrolet power & 6 spd. Pictures here:Part 1http://forum.britishv8.org/read.php?13,7581Part 2http://forum.britishv8.org/read.php?13,22422
Reply:Originally Posted by Jim StabeIs this the one you were thinking about?http://weldingweb.com/vbb/showthread.php?t=32363
Reply:Originally Posted by tanglediverI was! That is very nice work, is it still running for you ok?
Reply:Jim, that wasn't the one I was looking for but I was just comparing the one that I originally saw and yours and the more I look at it the more I like yours!I really like how you can rotate the head so it's either a contact wheel or platoon.  The one I was originally looking at had different "heads" that you changed for the platoon or wheel.  Just more stuff to have laying around which I don't need.  I am going to go threw your thread and look into yours more, might have soom questions for you this week!thanks for posting.
Reply:Originally Posted by ponch37300Jim, that wasn't the one I was looking for but I was just comparing the one that I originally saw and yours and the more I look at it the more I like yours!I really like how you can rotate the head so it's either a contact wheel or platoon.  The one I was originally looking at had different "heads" that you changed for the platoon or wheel.  Just more stuff to have laying around which I don't need.  I am going to go threw your thread and look into yours more, might have soom questions for you this week!thanks for posting.
Reply:Try this one http://weldingweb.com/vbb/showthread.php?t=3894
Reply:I also made a simpler belt sander from an old swimming pool pump motor that you might be interested in. This uses 1" x 42" belts but the concept could be used for a 2" belt model as well.Cut an MGB and widened 11" C4 Corvette suspension and LT1 Chevrolet power & 6 spd. Pictures here:Part 1http://forum.britishv8.org/read.php?13,7581Part 2http://forum.britishv8.org/read.php?13,22422
Reply:Jim,  I have been looking for parts for this and seeing what all it is going to take.  I am going to try and do this on a budget, don't have a lot of money right now.  So I have some questions about your thoughts on parts selection.  I usually can come up with a used motor farely cheap.  I have a bunch of pillow blocks and if need a different size I can get them cheap from surpluscenter.com.  I also have some 3/4", 1", and I think 1 1/4" shafts laying around from other projects.  I also have a bunch of metal laying around so would be able to peice most of this project together, probably have to get a couple peices. So this leaves the wheels that I need to buy, the expensive part!  With the idler wheels at 35 a peice and the 10" at 70 bucks after shipping it's going to be 150.  Granted that is a decent price for a quality machine but no in my budget right now.  I found some idler wheels on mcmaster http://www.mcmaster.com/#2472t55/=7ujnxd and an 8" one for around 10 bucks.  Was thinking of getting the 4"x2" like you with roller bearings and then the 8" with no bearings and put some pins in to use as a drive roller on my shaft.  These are just polypropylene wheels and I know they have cheap bearings and not last that long but would be nice to use these for a little while and then switch to nice ones when I can afford them.Just wondering if these would be a huge fail or if they would get by for a little bit?
Reply:The 4x2 wheels at the bottom of the page with precision bearings are what you want for the idlers, I wish I had seen them for my machine. I don't think the roller bearings will take the rpm. My big machine runs the belt at 6000 sfpm and that spins the idlers at 5700 rpm. The roller bearings are just sloppy, unsealed bearings designed for low speeds in a caster.The 8" wheel will probably be a fairly loose fit on a 3/4" shaft because it has to spin freely on an axle. You will have the problem of how to drive it from the motor shaft and the potential of wobble from the shaft fit.You will likely have to true all the wheels in a lathe because they will come straight from the mold. That's not a bad thing because you will want to put crown on the idlers to make the belt track anyway.JimCut an MGB and widened 11" C4 Corvette suspension and LT1 Chevrolet power & 6 spd. Pictures here:Part 1http://forum.britishv8.org/read.php?13,7581Part 2http://forum.britishv8.org/read.php?13,22422
Reply:Glad I asked before ordering.  Guess I will just have to bite the bullet and order the good stuff.  You said you wished you would have seen the polyurethane wheels with precision bearings?  Are they better than the wheels from sunray you linked to in your thread?  The reason I ask is that you say they would need to be trued in a lathe, which I don't have.  Another one I came across http://www.mcmaster.com/#contact-drive-wheels/=7un2dj about halfway down the page is the extra wide vibration resistant idler and drive rollers.  How do you think these would work?  If I wanted to skip the 10" contact wheel and just use the platoon I was thinking that I could use some 4x1.94 idle rollers and then a 4x1.94 drive wheel.  The idlers are 20 a peice and the drive is 23 so 65 instead of 140-150.  I believe that using a 4 inch drive wheel instead of a 10 like you would speed up the belt but not sure if it would make it to fast or not.  I could use different sized pulleys to slow it down since I will need to order them anyway.Sorry for all the design questions but I don't know a lot about the different kinds of rollers and it seems you are pretty well knowledged.  So out of my choices, 1)the ones you used, 2)the ones you said you wished you seen(remember I have no lathe to true them up), 3)the ones I linked to this time, which would you recommend.  Again I would like to do this on the cheap but if I need to spend the money to make it work right I will have to spend it.  Guess I'll just eat hotdogs and ramen noodles for a week or two!Thanks again for your help, I'm sure I'll have some more questions but just trying to gather all the parts for now.Scott
Reply:I just looked threw the thread again and I guess I am trying to get rid of the 10" drive roller if I can save some money.  So guess I'm looking at making something like the simple one you posted the other day.  What rollers did you use for that one?  Would the rollers I linked to in my last post work for something simple like that?  I can afford 70 bucks in rollers right now but would have to wait to spend more than that if I need to.
Reply:Originally Posted by ponch37300I just looked threw the thread again and I guess I am trying to get rid of the 10" drive roller if I can save some money.  So guess I'm looking at making something like the simple one you posted the other day.  What rollers did you use for that one?  Would the rollers I linked to in my last post work for something simple like that?  I can afford 70 bucks in rollers right now but would have to wait to spend more than that if I need to.
Reply:Thanks a lot for the info Jim.  I am looking for something to take the burrs off cut metal, remove material, bevel an edge for welding prep, take mill scale off, etc.  Don't think I'm looking to do any fine work.  That is why I'm thinking I can get away with just a platoon and not the 10" contact wheel.I looked threw that link last week during my searching but went threw it again and got some more ideas now that I knew a little more information on them.  With your advice and the links I think I have enough choices on wheels for whatever design I come up with.  Think I'm going to go with a simple 2 wheel design for now to just be able to clean my metal up and take some material off.  Should be able to do this for under 100 bucks pretty easy with what I have laying around, mainly just the cost of the wheels.  Then down the road build something more like yours.  And this time I learned how to print the whole thread out so when I go back to make one the pics aren't gone!!!Thanks again for your help and taking the time to suggest the different parts.  I will post pics once I start.Scott
Reply:Here some idea I'm making a large Belt Sander                                  Vernonhttp://s795.photobucket.com/albums/y...view=slideshowLast edited by 1969 Vernon; 08-23-2010 at 02:57 PM.
Reply:Here is a bolt sander I built many years ago.I cast the bearing housing and wheels for it with aluminum.It uses a 2” X 60” belt and a 2 hp motor it takes loosing 2 bolts to change the belt.It is one of the most used tools I have I would not like to be with out it. Also here is the pedestal I have it mounted on.have funTom Attached Images