- Joined
- Dec 9, 2003
- Messages
- 4,804
This is for the delta sa180 belt/disc sander seen here.
http://www.deltaportercable.com/Products/ProductDetail.aspx?ProductID=11470
I bought this for about $100 or so for various crafts and its a quality tool. I remember using them in shop class in intermediate school.
Problem was that with 3,000 sanding feet per minute it moved quite fast and with grits higher than 320 or so it would melt acrylic and other plastics rather than sand them. As I am starting to get into knife making (I rehandled 2 knives and put handls on 2 kit knives) I am learning that this can be too fast for metal too. The metal edge may heat up too much and lose its temper! I redid one kitchen knife and I am already worried that I lost the temper when I sharpened it. Im not sure how to check though.
Anywho I was searching how to control the speed of the sander. This is an AC motor sander and I learned that AC motors are not easy to control the speeds of like DC motors. Thus I shouldnt use a fan control dial, a router speed control, or a sewing machine foot petal. So i was at a loss, then I started thinking about step pulleys like the ones used on a drill press. Ok, I had an idea! So what size pulleys and what diameters etc? Well I found someone who already did what I wanted to do and had written a brilliant 20 page write up about it. Foxholeatheist found the link.
Ill post the link here.
http://www.knifeforums.com/forums/showtopic.php?tid/821501/
Just download the pdf file.
So this features pictures and great explanations about how to do this. Now you do have to get the right step pulleys and get them bored out to the right diameter, HOWEVER, on page 12 he lists a http://www.bearserco.com/ that will sell you the right pulleys already bored out with the right belt for $70. I got charged $100. $70 may have been an old price or the shipping to Hawaii was a lot extra.
So here I was with everything ready to go and it ended up taking only about 20 minutes to do!!!!. The plans called for a special tool for removing the old pulley wheels as they are tightly fit on there. I found that using the claws of a hammer to slide the wheels off worked just fine. IT SHOULD BE NOTED that you should be careful not to use too much force because you dont want to bend anything. If its too tight then you may need the tool. Put the new ones on and presto! The slow speed is not as slow as I thought but should be quite adequate. The high speed seems similar to the original speed.
Though the write up says keep the other parts because you may want to turn it back into a disk sander I found that I can still mount the disc sander wheel on the motor shaft even with the pulley on!. There seems to be just enough room. Though you dont have the plate for controlled angles.
Overall I am very very pleased with this.
I havent tested it on acrylics yet but the slower speed should make a big difference.
http://www.deltaportercable.com/Products/ProductDetail.aspx?ProductID=11470
I bought this for about $100 or so for various crafts and its a quality tool. I remember using them in shop class in intermediate school.
Problem was that with 3,000 sanding feet per minute it moved quite fast and with grits higher than 320 or so it would melt acrylic and other plastics rather than sand them. As I am starting to get into knife making (I rehandled 2 knives and put handls on 2 kit knives) I am learning that this can be too fast for metal too. The metal edge may heat up too much and lose its temper! I redid one kitchen knife and I am already worried that I lost the temper when I sharpened it. Im not sure how to check though.
Anywho I was searching how to control the speed of the sander. This is an AC motor sander and I learned that AC motors are not easy to control the speeds of like DC motors. Thus I shouldnt use a fan control dial, a router speed control, or a sewing machine foot petal. So i was at a loss, then I started thinking about step pulleys like the ones used on a drill press. Ok, I had an idea! So what size pulleys and what diameters etc? Well I found someone who already did what I wanted to do and had written a brilliant 20 page write up about it. Foxholeatheist found the link.
Ill post the link here.
http://www.knifeforums.com/forums/showtopic.php?tid/821501/
Just download the pdf file.
So this features pictures and great explanations about how to do this. Now you do have to get the right step pulleys and get them bored out to the right diameter, HOWEVER, on page 12 he lists a http://www.bearserco.com/ that will sell you the right pulleys already bored out with the right belt for $70. I got charged $100. $70 may have been an old price or the shipping to Hawaii was a lot extra.
So here I was with everything ready to go and it ended up taking only about 20 minutes to do!!!!. The plans called for a special tool for removing the old pulley wheels as they are tightly fit on there. I found that using the claws of a hammer to slide the wheels off worked just fine. IT SHOULD BE NOTED that you should be careful not to use too much force because you dont want to bend anything. If its too tight then you may need the tool. Put the new ones on and presto! The slow speed is not as slow as I thought but should be quite adequate. The high speed seems similar to the original speed.
Though the write up says keep the other parts because you may want to turn it back into a disk sander I found that I can still mount the disc sander wheel on the motor shaft even with the pulley on!. There seems to be just enough room. Though you dont have the plate for controlled angles.
Overall I am very very pleased with this.
I havent tested it on acrylics yet but the slower speed should make a big difference.
