Building A Home Made Belt Sander

Building a shop made Belt Sander
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Building A Home Made Belt Sander

by: Robert Frink
Once you own a stationary belt sander, it's hard to imagine life without one. Clamped to a bench in
your shop, these workhorses deburr, contour, polish, grind and shape almost any type of material.
The woodworker, knifemaker, home shop machinst, artisian, and craftsmen of all sorts need a belt
sander!
One of my addictions in life draws me to garage sales, estate sales, flea markets, etc looking for a
treasured piece (junk) for my shop. Almost always, when I find an old motor, I pick it up. Rarely
paying more than $10 or so.
The purpose of this site is to demonstrate a very simple belt sander that can be made from an old
motor very quickly in your shop. I encourage you to use as much "local resource" as possible. By
local resources, I mean any old junk you've already got laying around. If I say "use 3/4" plywood"
but you've got 5/8....then use what you've got! These machines are so simple that you really won't
need to measure much when building them. If it looks right, it probably is.
A quick note about safety

The photos shown here are the way I do things in my shop. I'm not implying that they are safe!
You must decide what is safe and you must work within your own capabilities. If you're not
comfortable with anything shown here, don't try it.
Getting started
I've reduced the full size plans and placed it here. I apolgize for the small size. Referring to the
plans or photos above; note the 4 main components to this belt sander.
1.
2.
3.
4.
The motor with the driver roller (on left)

The belt support (between rollers) or platen.
The idler roller and bracket ( on the right)
The base plate
This is the basis and order of construction.
file:///G:/Auto%20Masini/Building%20A%20Home%20Made%20Belt%20Sander/Bu... 06.02.2016
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Motors
The type of motor that you use will be
limited only by your imagination.
Generally bigger is better. I like a 1/4hp
1725 rpm, it's a popular size and I seem
to find more of them than any other
type. A 3450 rpm also works excellent
and if you use one, you'll need more hp,
like 1/2hp. The 1/2hp 3450 rpm will
give the same torque as the 1/4hp
1725rpm motor but deliver it twice as
fast. Since hp =torque x speed, if you
double the speed....you need to double
the hp to keep the same torque, and
torque is what keeps the belt moving.
The best choice frame would be a totally enclosed frame, simply to keep out dust. (TEFC...Totally
Enclosed Fan Cooled, TENV...Totally Enclosed NonVentilated) However, if your "local
resources" yield an open frame motor for the right price use it. To reduce dust ingestion in an open
motor, I simply run the belt direction away from the motor. Also a dust collector/shop vac is
recommended when sanding. If you breath dust then your motor is breathing dust!
Some motors are reversible, while others are not. If your motor is not reversible, take a minute to
see which way it turns. Looking at the end of the output shaft, if it turns clockwise, you can build
to the drawing. If it turns counterclockwise, then you should build a mirror image of the drawing.
For reference, the motor used on this sander is 1/4 hp 1725 rpm and has good power for a 2" wide
belt. However my rule of thumb here is "more is better".
Rollers
Since the rollers are the most difficult item to acquire, I had to design and make them. More info
is here: Belt Sander Rollers .
The driver roller is available for either a 1/2" or 5/8" motor shaft.
The idler roller is press fitted with 2 sealed bearings and fits nicely on a 1/2" bolt.
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Building the frame

First, I rough out some 3/4" plywood for the base plate, the belt support, and the idler roller
bracket.
The base plate was cut to 10" x 24" and set aside.
The belt support and idler roller bracket were made in one piece, then separated as one of the last
steps. They both fasten to the base plate and are located by a key. The idler roller bracket slides on
the key to adjust the belt tension.
Cut out a couple of gussets about 2 1/2 X 5 and set aside. On a 9" X 12" sheet of 3/4 ply, cut two
dados the same width as the gussets.
Note the triangle drawn on the face of the board. This helps figure out the orientation of the parts
after they are cut apart.
Rip the board into two pieces about 3 1/4 X 12, and 5 1/4 X 12. Don't get hung up on exact sizes
here, I just made every thing oversized so that I could cut it exact after glue up.
I used a butt joint with biscuits, but use whatever your comfortable with.
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After dry fitting, I glued and clamped everything up. I used the edge of my table saw to try to get
everything as flat and true as possible. Note the wax paper to protect the saw.
When the glue dried, I cut every thing to size at 4 3/4" high X 3" wide.
Then beveled the gussets.
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With the miter gauge on the table saw, I separated the idler roller bracket from the belt support.
* update.... I received a note from a gentleman who built this sander and made a change at this
step. You may need to read through to understand what I did and I think you may like his
suggestion better. Here, I seperate the idler bracket from the center belt support. This way I could
adjust the belt tension by moving the idler bracket around. His idea was to keep this in one piece
and simply slide the whole thing around. What a great idea! It is more robust and makes takes out
a step or two in the construction. The main advantage is that it really stiffens everything up!
The slot in the idler roller bracket must be sufficiently long to provide enough travel to tighten the
belt. Since I had a 1/4" carriage bolt for the fastener, I made the slot by first drilling several holes
with a 1/4" drill bit.
Then chopped out the waste with a chisel.
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The finished slot, down and dirty.
The keyway was cut in the idler roller bracket and the belt support using a dado. I then milled the
keyway in the base plate. Since there is nothing very critical about the size of the key, feel free to
change it so you may use something on hand. Instead of using a dado, you could use a router.
Assembly
From here we can start to assemble
everything. First, I placed the components
on the base board to be sure that I had
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plenty of adjustment for the belt tension.

Then spotted the holes for drilling. I used
a mixture of blind nuts and carriage bolts
because I had them on hand. Again, use
whateve2`you've got!
The base plate was counterbored on the
bottom to relieve the fasteners as shown.
After notching the belt support and

rounding the idler bracket, they were
assembled to the base plate.
* update... This photo shows how I made
the idler bracket and the belt support in
two pieces but consider keeping them in
one piece that slides on the keyway as
suggested above. You'll need to make
another slot but the additional stiffness
should be well worth it.
The idler roller slips over a piece of 1/2"

threaded rod which is bolted to the bracket.
Large washers help to stiffen the joint.
After adding the motor, tighten the belt, and complete the belt support by fastening the platen
which the belt rides on. I used 3 drywall screws, but an alternative might be biscuits and glue.
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A residential light switch and enclosure was mounted. Make sure the switch is rated to handle the
motor current. At 110V, a 15A switch is good up to about 1hp.
Adjusting the tracking

Don't let the tracking frustrate you! If your machine doesn't track perfect at start up,
congratulations, it's just like all of mine. Granted that every thing is reasonably rigid and aligned
and the belt is some tension, the belt will not wander due to the crowned rollers. However, initially
the belt may not track in the center of the rollers. This is easily corrected by loosening the motor
and toe-in or tow-out the rollers. Frustration is usually due to over compensation. A little
adjustment goes a long way here.
* update...I've had several questions about "how much tension". I usually tighten the belt just past
the point where it stops slapping, which is not very tight! But it'll have to be tight enough so it
won't slip. You'll quickly learn.
Operation
Ahhhh! Now that it's completed, notice the
designed features.
In front of the partial length belt support
(just down stream from the motor) is an area
for "free-form" sanding. The belt support
was notched out to provide clearance.
Basically, the belt is unsupported. Free form
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sanding is great for polishing and shaping

where the belt is allowed to follow the
contour of the work piece. Note the belt
deflection.
It is important that this "free form" area be

located on the exit side of a roller otherwise
the belt tracking will be upset and the belt
may be thrown off. In this case, the belt
support stabilizes the belt as it starts over
the idler.
Down stream from the "free-form area", the
belt rides on the platen. This area sands
pieces flat. Great for leveling, deburring
and beveling.....in the photo on the left, I'm
sanding the handle flush with the top of the
mallet head.
The work piece can also be sanded against the rollers. This shot demonstrates the capabilities of
the 1/4hp 1725rpm motor. It has power to spare... even during heavy contact wheel grinding!
To conclude: I hope that you enjoyed this posting and that perhaps you will build one of these
machines. My goal was to demonstrate the simplicity of this design and since I'm not "the sharpest
knife in the drawer" I'm sure that many people can find ways to improve it. I would like to
encourage you.
If you build it,.... have fun and feel free to drop me a line if you have any questions or comments.
Site map:
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Home
Best wishes,
Rob
Email: robfrink@beaumontmetalworks.com
Created: 03/01/99
Last Rev:07/15/00

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