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More power for my 6 X 48 belt sander.

John Conroy

member
Premium Member
My belt sander is a very solid cast iron piece made by Crafstman in the 60's. The only complaint I have is the lack of power. The 1/2 HP motor can be stalled quite easily. Since I had the 1.5HP single phase motor left over from my drill press conversion I decided to install it on the belt sander.



Pretty simple really as the motor just bolts under the stand on a mounting plate with horizontal slots to allow for lots of motor possibilities. I need to add the ability to adjust vertically so I sliced a 8" long piece of 1.5" square tubing in half lengthwise and milled some slotted holes.













I bought a 4" OD aluminum pulley at PA. It had a 3/4" bore so I had to bore it slightly to match the 20mm shaft and widen the keyway slightly to fit the 5mm key. After I got it all installed and wired up I hit the switch and tried to sand a piece of steel and got a surprise. The motor turns the wrong direction! It turns CW and I need CCW rotation. I was pretty choked at myself for not thinking of that before I started. The motor has no provision for reversing the direction. I found a very good video on youtube and followed the instructions from it. Basically you need to reverse the polarity of the start windings only. I took the motor apart and found the start winding leads buried under a bunch of insulating sleeves and held in place by string. It was pretty easy to cut the 2 leads at their original solder joints and reverse and re-solder them. I used sail makers thread to replace the string ties holding it all together. I was quite surprised when it actually worked. I figured for sure I would be back to the old motor. Link to the video.






Any way the motor swap was a success and the sander has tons of power now.
 

DPittman

Ultra Member
Premium Member
Nice improvement. I'm trying to figure out what I could use my single phase motors on from the drill press and milling machine...it would be easier to justify the vfd change for me.
 

John Conroy

member
Premium Member
Yeah I was thinking of selling the motor but I realized it could be of use. The perfect belt sander would have a three phase motor/vfd but this will be a huge improvement.
 

CalgaryPT

Ultra Member
Vendor
Premium Member
My belt sander is a very solid cast iron piece made by Crafstman in the 60's. The only complaint I have is the lack of power. The 1/2 HP motor can be stalled quite easily. Since I had the 1.5HP single phase motor left over from my drill press conversion I decided to install it on the belt sander.



Pretty simple really as the motor just bolts under the stand on a mounting plate with horizontal slots to allow for lots of motor possibilities. I need to add the ability to adjust vertically so I sliced a 8" long piece of 1.5" square tubing in half lengthwise and milled some slotted holes.













I bought a 4" OD aluminum pulley at PA. It had a 3/4" bore so I had to bore it slightly to match the 20mm shaft and widen the keyway slightly to fit the 5mm key. After I got it all installed and wired up I hit the switch and tried to sand a piece of steel and got a surprise. The motor turns the wrong direction! It turns CW and I need CCW rotation. I was pretty choked at myself for not thinking of that before I started. The motor has no provision for reversing the direction. I found a very good video on youtube and followed the instructions from it. Basically you need to reverse the polarity of the start windings only. I took the motor apart and found the start winding leads buried under a bunch of insulating sleeves and held in place by string. It was pretty easy to cut the 2 leads at their original solder joints and reverse and re-solder them. I used sail makers thread to replace the string ties holding it all together. I was quite surprised when it actually worked. I figured for sure I would be back to the old motor. Link to the video.






Any way the motor swap was a success and the sander has tons of power now.
That's some higher end electrical work and a killer save on your part. Great work John. Thanks for posting the vid too.
 

Tom Kitta

Ultra Member
My belt sander is powered by 2hp motor but I found out that single pulley is not enough and I need two belts. Also I recently burned out the switch with too much load. These things eat a lot of power.
 

Dabbler

ersatz engineer
Nice work John!

My sanders have 3/4 HP and 1 HP, but both are a bit lame for hogging metal. I have a 3PH 3HP motor waiting in the wings for a 3X79 belt sander build - probably 100 years from now...

Until then I'll cope.

Really nice idea to get the most out of your sander!
 

Brent H

Ultra Member
I have the CAD plans for a 72x2 belt sander built up out of 1/2” plate I’d anyone is interested I can post in the plans section
 

Brent H

Ultra Member
I will dig them out and put them on the plan section. You will - or should use a CNC to cut out the patterns - I will put as much detail I can on the plan section
 

John Conroy

member
Premium Member
There's quite a bit of info on this link/forum for additional ideas/plans
https://www.homemadetools.net/homemade-belt-sander

There are also Ebay & kit sellers who offer some of the pita components if you are so inclined. Depends on what you want to make yourself.

One of my fav's from a features & functionality standpoint

I like his method of holding the flat plate on the rotary table with the 3 jaw chuck. Never thought of doing it that way.
 
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