Do-it-yourself metal sander. Belt grinder from lbm

Often there is a need to perform various kinds of finishing work on a wooden surface.

The use of such a unique tool as a sander for wood helps to significantly speed up the implementation of this kind, as well as improve their quality.

She is in rather high demand among buyers. That is why I would like to dwell in more detail on the features of this instrument, as well as its varieties.

The popularity of such equipment is due to its rather wide area. By using a sander for woodworking, you can perform the following types of work:

• Curved plane polishing
• Leveling a flat surface that is on a stationary work table or by manually moving it mechanically
• Processing the edge of various parts or their ends
• Preparation of a wooden surface for painting, etc.

All these and other types of work often have to be performed in a country or private residential building.

In addition, the wood grinder is simply an indispensable tool for craftsmen who work with wood surfaces and blanks.

In addition, when choosing equipment, it is necessary to pay attention to such an indicator as the grain size of the abrasive belt. In order to be able to perform different types of work, experts recommend taking several types of tape with a different grain size when buying a machine.

Vibrating

The design of this type of equipment consists of a body and an abrasive element, which is fixed with strong clamps.

Grinding is carried out as a result of the frequent oscillatory movement of the worker.

The master can set the amplitude of movement independently in manual mode.

This indicator ranges from 1 to 5 mm.

The smaller the amplitude, the more accurate and finer the working surface will be processed.

Delta sander

A distinctive feature of this is the presence of a working sole in its design, the shape of which resembles an iron. Using this equipment, the master has the ability to work with all types of surfaces.

Equally important is the presence of a small sharp angle in its body. Thanks to this, by using this tool, it is possible to process such surfaces or parts that consist of one or more hard-to-reach corners.

Different machine models have different operating speeds. The popularity of such a tool among buyers is significantly increased by the fact that its working surface can be turned in different directions as needed, as well as to replace different attachments. Thanks to this, the use of equipment is increased several times.

Eccentric

The main difference between this type of tool and others is that it is designed to perform jewelry processing of the working surface. The abrasive surface is round.

The master can independently choose the degree of surface grain. The subtlety of the work performed depends on this indicator. The sole of the equipment is equipped with small holes through which dust is removed.

Thanks to this, working with such a tool ensures the safety of the master. It is also of great importance that the master can choose the speed with which the sole of the machine with the abrasive surface fixed on it will rotate.

Renovator

This tool is used by craftsmen as an analogue of a grinder. Its distinctive feature is its versatility.

By using the renovator, you can perform the following types of work:

• Make slots of different diameters and shapes in the work surface
• Clean the back of tiles or any flooring
• Cut different communication lines

This variety of functions is made possible by the many attachments that come with the equipment.

The wide variety of woodworking sanders greatly expands the range of work that can be done with them. In addition, the craftsmen have the opportunity to choose the most optimal equipment, which is designed to perform a certain type of work.

Making a grinder with your own hands

It's no secret that it is quite difficult for a home craftsman to do without such unique equipment as a wood sander.

Despite the seeming complexity of the device, a do-it-yourself wood sander is a reality.

It is possible to simply make a tool from a conventional computer power supply that has already failed.

First, you need to prepare all the parts and tools necessary for work:

• Power Supply
• Old computer disk
• Abrasive surface
• Bolts or screws
• Speed \u200b\u200bcontroller
• Switch

The assembly sequence is as follows:

• Disassemble the power supply so that only its twisting part remains.
• Attach a computer disk with an abrasive surface attached to it with glue (the abrasive material can be fixed permanently, or you can make small clips. Thanks to this, the master will have the opportunity to change the surface as it wears out)
• Connect the power supply and speed controller.

This is how you can make a simple grinder at home. It can be used to work with small work surfaces.

Such equipment can also be made from a simple grinder. Simply changing the abrasive disc is enough. But it should be borne in mind that the speed of rotation of the abrasive element of such a machine will be quite high.

Therefore, it is worth paying special attention to the observance of safety measures when working with such a tool.

Often, craftsmen adapt a conventional drill in such a way that it can be used as a grinder. To do this, you need to use a special nozzle.

An emery cloth is attached to its working part. And on the opposite side, a small shank is inserted.

It will be necessary in order to be able to connect this bit and the drill chuck. With the help of such a tool, rather large surfaces can be processed, not only made of wood, but also of metal or plastic.

How to choose the right equipment

In order for a wood sander to work with full efficiency, it is necessary to pay special attention to the following indicators when buying it:

• The type of work being performed. Different types and models of equipment are designed to perform different operations, as well as to work with different work surfaces. These indicators can be found in the technical data sheet of the tool, which is included in its kit.
• Centering mechanism. This element is for fine tuning the abrasive surface. If the design of the machine has such a mechanism, this means that it will be much easier to work with it, and the quality of the operation will increase by several points.
• Speed \u200b\u200bregulator. Thanks to this mechanism, the master can independently adjust the speed of the tool. This is especially important if you do not have the necessary work experience or the work surface https://www.youtube.com/watch? V \u003d eE7j2vOW8gg has unevenness.
• Abrasive grain size. This is the indicator that affects the quality of the work performed. If precise surface treatment is planned, the grit value should be very low. For the usual cleaning of tiles or linoleum, a coarse-grained abrasive surface is also suitable.

Grinding machines for wood are a unique type of tool that is indispensable in the household. On the tool market, you can find several types of such equipment.

In addition, a sander can be made and, and how to do it from a fan is shown in the video:

Rotation to the drive shaft of the band machine is transmitted from an electric motor, which is connected to it using a belt drive. The speed of the belt mechanism can be adjusted, thereby changing the modes of processing parts. The belt of a surface grinding machine can be positioned horizontally or vertically, as well as at a certain angle, which is allowed by some models of equipment in this category.

When choosing a model of a belt sander for processing a particular part, it is important to consider the length of the surface that needs to be sanded. It is much more convenient to process parts on such machines, the length of the surface of which is less than the length of the abrasive belt and the working table. If these conditions are met, the processing quality will be much higher.

The belt sander can have various designs: with a movable and fixed work table, with a free belt. Wide-belt equipment belongs to a separate category, the peculiarity of which is that their working table, which is at the same time a feeding element, is made in the form of a caterpillar. In those models of equipment, in the design of which a working table is provided, the abrasive belt is located in a horizontal plane, and in equipment with a free belt, in which a working table is not provided, it can have a different spatial position.

An indispensable structural element of any belt sander, including a table-top one, is an exhaust device, which is necessary to remove dust generated in large quantities during processing. Whether professional or any homemade sander used in a home workshop or garage is powered by an electric motor.

Principle of operation

The main parameters of a belt sander are the feed rate and the force with which the belt is pressed against the workpiece. Parameters such as the degree of graininess of the abrasive belt should be selected depending on what material the workpiece is made of, as well as the degree of roughness that the surface of the workpiece should have.

The characteristics of the material to be processed, in particular its hardness, primarily influence the grit size of the abrasive belt. The processing modes, which are directly related to each other, are feed rate and belt clamping force. So, if you grind at high speed, but with a slight pressure of the abrasive belt, then some parts of the surface of the part may be untreated. If, on the contrary, you increase the clamping force and reduce the feed rate, you may encounter the fact that burn-through and blackening of the material may appear in certain areas of the treated surface.

Another variation of the machine is a view from the side of the working surface of the belt

The grinding results are also influenced by how well the abrasive belt is glued. To get a high quality finish and not to encounter malfunctions in the operation of the belt machine, you should not use abrasive belts that are not glued correctly or have torn edges. When putting the tape on the equipment shafts, it should be positioned so that the overlapping end of the seam does not lift up against the surface of the workpiece, but slides over it. Learn more about gluing tape in the video below.

Anyone, including a hand-held grinding machine, should provide for the possibility of adjusting the belt tension, which is ensured by moving the movable shaft, which is not a drive shaft. Belt tension is a very important parameter, when choosing which one should be guided by the “golden mean” rule. If the belt of the grinding machine is pulled too tight, it can lead to its breaking during operation, and too weak belt tension causes slippage and, as a result, its excessive heating. The main characteristic for determining the degree of belt tension is its deflection arrow, which is measured by lightly pressing on its surface in a taut state.

The manual belt machine of the grinding group can be operated by one operator, who moves the working table with the workpiece and turns it so that all sections of its surface are brought under the abrasive belt.

How to make a belt sander

Many home craftsmen and professionals are wondering how to make a grinding machine with their own hands. The reason for this question is quite simple: the high cost of serial grinding equipment, which, with irregular use, not everyone can afford. In order to make such equipment, you will need several basic components: an electric motor, rollers and a reliable bed. Naturally, drawings of such a device or its photo will not be superfluous. Also, at the end of the article, you can watch videos on assembling a band machine on your own.

The motor for belt sander is easy to find, it can be removed from a used washing machine. The bed will have to be made independently, for this you can use a sheet of metal with dimensions of 500x180x20 mm. One side of the bed should be cut very evenly, since it will be necessary to attach a platform to which the electric motor will be mounted. The platform for the electric motor should also be made of a sheet of metal with dimensions of 180x160x10 mm. Such a platform must be fixed to the bed very securely with a few bolts.

Another version of the bed

The efficiency of a belt sander directly depends on the characteristics of the electric motor that is installed on it. If you are going to make a grinding machine with your own hands, then an electric motor with a power of 2.5-3 kW, developing about 1500 rpm, is quite suitable for you. In order for the sanding belt to move at a speed of 20 m / s when using such a motor, the drums must have a diameter of about 200 mm. What is convenient, if you choose a motor with such characteristics, then you do not need to make a gearbox for your grinder.

The drive shaft is directly connected to the motor shaft, and the second, the driven shaft, must rotate freely on the axis, which is installed in the bearing units. In order for the abrasive belt to touch the surface of the workpiece more smoothly, the section of the bed on which the driven shaft is installed should be made with a slight bevel.

It is possible to make shafts for a belt sander with minimal financial costs from a chipboard plate. Simply cut square billets 200x200 mm in size from such a plate, drill central holes in them and put them on the axle with a package with a total thickness of 240 mm. After that, you just have to grind the resulting package and make a round shaft with a diameter of about 200 mm out of it.

Drawings and detailed analysis of some parts of the machine made of wood.

Wood belt sander (click to enlarge)

Table Tilt Adjustment Mechanism Plate Block Belt Tensioner

For finishing wood, metal or stone, you can build a belt sander with your own hands. The need for such processing arises quite often. It is needed not only to obtain even and smooth surfaces. With its help, it is possible to remove various kinds of irregularities, bulges and depressions, peel off burrs, remove local defects, remove burr formed during welding, carry out internal grinding, etc.

Manual execution of such processing is very laborious and low-productivity, and the cost of industrial grinding machines is quite high. Therefore, you have to come up with and build homemade structures, especially since they are not particularly complicated.

General information about the design of belt sanders

Belt grinders, with all the apparent variety of their designs, have common distinctive features. An abrasive belt is used as a working tool in these structures. Most often it is connected in a ring and placed between two rotating drums.

Usually there are two such drums: the first is the master, and the second is the slave. The drive drum is driven by an electric motor through a mechanical transmission. This is usually a belt drive. It is desirable that there is a device that allows you to change the speed of rotation of the leading drum, thereby providing a variety of processing modes.

The location of the sanding belt depends on the purpose of the sanding machine and can be anything: vertical, horizontal or inclined. The tape is usually mounted on the bed, and the processed products can also be located there. In homemade designs, workpieces are usually held by hand, although there may be other options.

The length of the working part of the sanding belt depends on the size of the workpieces being processed. The grinding process is accompanied by the release of a large amount of dust, therefore, an exhaust device is desirable. A tension roller is often used to adjust the degree of belt tension.

Depending on what the grinder will be mainly used for, it may have some design features. This concerns the diameter of the drums, the length and speed of the belt, its grain size, the design of the working table, etc. The main types of grinding types are:

• grinding curved surfaces;
• alignment of flat surfaces;
• alignment of side edges or ends, as well as surfaces of bars, shields and similar parts;
• grinding of intermediate layers of paint and varnish coatings.

Back to the table of contents

Homemade belt sander

The design prototype for the homemade sander is a conventional industrial design in which the belt moves with the abrasive part outward over the flat surface of the worktable. The resulting grinder is distinguished from the industrial design by the increased size and stationary installation.

Since the gearbox or belt drive complicates the design, an electric motor is used, the rotor of which makes 1500 rpm. The power of the electric motor should be about 2-3 kW. With a drive shaft radius of 10 cm, the linear speed of the belt will be about 15 m / s. As already mentioned, a reducer is not needed in this case. Rotational speed control is not provided in such a simple design.

The drive shaft is rigidly mounted on the shaft of the electric motor, and the second shaft pulls the belt. To reduce friction, the tension shaft rotates on bearings seated on a fixed axle. This axis can be displaced relative to the working table in one direction or the other, decreasing or increasing the degree of tension of the sanding belt.

The working table can be made of materials at hand: sheet metal or timber. Its dimensions are determined by the distance between the axes of the shafts and the length of the abrasive belt. Near the shafts, the surface of the table should have bevels to ensure smooth contact of the tape (especially its joint) with its plane.

Both drums are easy to make yourself. The material for their manufacture can be chipboard. Squares with a side of 20 cm are cut from the original plate. Their number should be such that the total thickness of the set is about 24-25 cm. Discs with a diameter of 20 cm are made of them on a lathe. There are two options for their processing:

1. You can grind each workpiece separately on the machine.
2. A more preferable option is to put the blanks on the axle, clamp and grind them all together.

The groove should be carried out in such a way that the edges of the drums are a few millimeters less than their middle. This is to ensure that the abrasive belt is automatically positioned in the center of the drums.

A sander or polisher is required for painting. There are many models of such devices in tool stores and other outlets. However, in some cases it is advisable to create a polishing machine yourself. This article discusses the various options for such homemade devices and describes the process of creating them.

The simplest polishing machine

The easiest way to do it yourself is a polishing machine designed to work with grinding discs. To create this device, you need the following basic parts:

• electric motor;
• power Supply;
• battery.

The electric motor can be removed from a variety of electrical tools and appliances. For example, components of a computer's power supply or disk drive will do.

You can also use an electric motor from a fan, and a household battery is suitable for driving the electric motor.

In addition to the named components, you will need a board, it needs to be sanded with sandpaper. Next, the battery and the electric motor are fixed on the board with screws and connected with wires. Also, a switch must be installed in this wiring diagram, fixing it on the board. Secure the wires with a stapler to prevent loosening.

The working element of the design under consideration is represented by a circle. You can use branded products, or you can make a do-it-yourself sandpaper sanding disc. To do this, you need to cut out two sectors from a fragment of the source material and fasten them together with the back sides, gluing them together.

Two bushings are required to drive the abrasive disc from the motor axis. The diameter of these attachments is determined based on the corresponding motor axis parameter. It should be borne in mind that different electric motors have axles of different diameters. The considered grinder can be used for processing both wood and metal surfaces, including bodywork.

Motor and polishing discs

Remember that the functional parameters of such a homemade grinder are determined by the individual parts from which it is assembled. In this regard, an electric motor from a fan should be used, since the motor from a computer has less power, which may not be enough for some types of work. In addition, sandpaper sanding discs are not optimal for this type of attachment. Instead, you can purchase branded circles of small diameter, for example, for a drill.

You can create with your own hands a more powerful stationary version of the grinder. For it, you can use the motor from the washing machine and equip with large diameter grinding wheels. In addition to polishing, grinding and abrasive discs can be installed on such a device.

The working element of machines of this type is an abrasive grinding belt. The principle of operation of the belt devices consists in the rotation of an abrasive belt connected in a ring, driven by a motor through a transmission and drums. One of the drums is the master and the other is the slave. The first of them is driven by an electric motor through a transmission, usually represented by a belt drive.

Some belt grinders are equipped with a device that allows you to change the speed of rotation of the drive drum, which allows for different modes of operation. The belt can be located on the bed vertically, inclined or horizontally, depending on the purpose of the device. A tension roller is used to adjust the degree of its tension. Since grinding work is characterized by the emission of a large amount of dust, it is advisable that the grinding machine be equipped with a suction device.

It should be borne in mind that many design features of the grinding machine, such as, for example, the diameter of the drums, rotation speed, grain size, the size of the abrasive belt, the design of the working table, which determine the main functional parameters of the device in question, are selected depending on its purpose. The following variants of working surfaces are classified, for the processing of which the grinding machines are oriented: curved, flat, edges and ends, intermediate layers of paint and varnish.

You can create with your own hands a belt sander based on an industrial design, which provides for the movement of the belt over the flat surface of the worktable with the abrasive part outward. In this case, the home-made device will differ from the proprietary counterpart in its large size and stationary installation. For these works, you will need an electric motor, for example, from a washing machine, a wooden or metal panel, chipboard, material for an abrasive tape, glue.

Since the transmission in the form of a gearbox or a belt drive significantly complicates the design of the tool in question, they try not to use it on homemade models. To do this, you can equip the device with an electric motor with a power of 2-3 kW with a rotor speed of 1500 rpm.

In this case, with a drive shaft radius of 10 cm, the tape will move at a speed of about 15 m / s. It should be borne in mind that the design under consideration does not provide for adjustment of the belt rotation speed. However, it is possible to adjust the degree of its tension due to the fact that the tension shaft, which rotates on bearings to reduce friction, is fixed on a fixed axis that can be offset relative to the work table. The drive shaft is fixed to the motor shaft.

A work table for such a grinder can be made with your own hands from a wooden bar or sheet metal. It should be borne in mind that metal options allow you to handle more complex objects. The dimensions of the working table of the tool in question are determined based on the dimensions of the tape and the distance between the axes of the shafts, as well as its purpose. Bevels should be made near the shafts in the working table in order to ensure smooth contact of the tape with it.

The drums can also be made by hand. Particleboard can be used as a source material for these elements. Squares with side lengths of 20 cm are cut out of the plate in such an amount that their total thickness when superimposed on each other is about 25 cm.Then these blanks must be turned into disks with a diameter of 20 cm by processing on a lathe. You can process the cut fragments separately, but it is more convenient to grind all of them at once by placing them on the axis and holding them. It should be borne in mind that the drums must have larger edges in comparison with the central part to automatically hold the tape.

The sanding belt can be made by hand on the basis of paper or fabric. The second option is considered more preferable. The fabric can be presented with calico or twill. It should also be borne in mind that the rare filling of the belt with abrasive grains, which is less than 70%, reduces the degree of filling it with dust during operation.

The main characteristic of an abrasive belt is the grain size. This parameter is determined based on the number of the sieve through which they can seep. By the grain size, abrasive belts are divided into coarse-grained (12-80), medium-grained (80-160), fine-grained (160-4000).

Abrasive grains can be represented by artificial materials or minerals with high hardness, such as, for example, silicon carbide, corundum. They are fixed on the base by gluing or electrically. In the first case, the grains are evenly poured onto the surface of the base, previously coated with an adhesive in the form of synthetic resins or flesh glue. The electric field is used to orient the abrasive grains with sharp edges upward, which increases the functionality of the belt.

A belt for a sander can be made with your own hands from sandpaper in the form of rolls, which are cut into fragments of the required size.

It should be borne in mind that the length of the tape is determined by the method of fastening the ends of the cut fragment. It is possible to connect them at an angle, butt and overlap. In the first case, the ends are cut at an angle of 45 ° and a linen patch is glued under the joint. The overlap joint involves preliminary cleaning of a fragment of one of the ends 8-10 cm from abrasive grains with hot water. Then the cleaned area is covered with glue and the back of the other end of the tape is applied to it and the junction is squeezed. The optimum abrasive belt thickness is 200 mm. A 1m roll of raw material is enough for 5 tapes.

The bed must be cut with your own hands from a thick sheet of metal. At least one of its sides must be cut straight to secure the motor platform by screwing three bolts through the holes pre-drilled in the bed.