Horizontal Belt Sander

I’ve been wanting to get a horizontal belt sander for a while. I currently own a Delta shop master, which I hate. The motor is under powered and the disk sander never worked because the set screw flew out. I could never keep anything square and then finally a little while ago the switch broke so the only way to turn it on and off was to pull the cord.

I was about to throw it away, when I realized that the actual sanding mechanism worked just fine, I decided to convert it into the sander I actually wanted. I had a 1/3 HP motor that I used for my buffing wheels. I also had some scrap maple and some casters laying around so I decided to give it a shot.

I started by disassembling the sander. In order to have it going the direction I wanted and have the tracking knob and tensioning lever facing up, I had to flip the spindle on the input side of the belt. This proved to be more difficult than I thought it would be, because the cheap screws would strip when I tried to remove them. I ended up drilling out a few screws, but luckily I didn’t end up needing any of them. Everything else stayed the same.
Here’s a picture of the shop master taken apart.

I built a small table frame and mounted the motor so that it could slide up and down the legs and held in position with hand screw knobs.

The motor connected to the spindle with a standard drill chuck I had laying around.
I removed the dust collection attachments from the sander and built a small box so that it could easily be clamped into position or moved to another location.

The table top was a piece of melamine from an old TV stand. There is a groove in the table top so that the sand paper is just slightly below the table top. Then I put one bolt through the bottom of the frame so I could attach the end of the sander to the table with a star knob. By loosening the drill chuck and the star knob, I can easily remove the sander.

I then made a zero clearance throat plate to fill the groove. Because the motor has a drill chuck attached to it, and it can translate up and down, I am able to quickly convert it to a spindle sander.

I can also push the motor way up so the drill chuck sticks out of the table so I can still attach my buffing wheels.

Finally, I put a mobile base on it. This idea was inspired by several designs on lumberjocks for mobile bases. It has a foot pedal that when pushed spins two axels to engage the wheels. As the lever moves down, a spring loaded cam locks the lever in place. A quick kick of the cam and the weight of the table disengages the wheels.

In the end, I’m very pleased with the convenience and functionality of the sanding table. I’m also pleased with the fact that I spent $11 on an motor arbor and everything else I had in my shop. Talk about a cheap weekend project.
Comments and Questions Welcome. Hope you enjoy…

-- Tom, Simsbury, CT