DIY Rubber belt sander contact wheel

[Wicked_S10]

I have a couple of 4x36 3/4hp belt/disc combo sanders from sears. Fitted with norton zirconia alumina belts, they do pretty good for their size. Last year I stretched one of the two sanders to take a 54" belt. This worked great, and I love using this one. The short one pretty much serves disc sanding duties.

Anyhow, they use a cast aluminum contact/idler wheel. I really wanted a rubber contact wheel in a bit smaller diameter than the 2.25" wheel that comes on them. Searching for contact wheels, I came to the quick realization that they were way to expensive! The only stuff I could find in 4" width were far to large in diameter and several hundred dollars. I have found that rubber contact wheels seem to give a better "bite" by the abrasive and that belts tend to last longer.

I use the belt sander contact wheel mostly for cleaning up tubing notches, so you need a wheel close to the diameter of the tube joint you are making. I work most with 1.75" tubing, so a contact wheel of the same diameter would be ideal.

So, since I couldn't find a commercial one that would fit my needs for a reasonable price, I decided to try to make one. I figured I would try 4 hockey pucks bonded together and to a metal hub and see how it does. At $.99 each, hockey pucks are in my price range. I drilled the pucks to .75" on the lathe and turned an arbor to turn their OD on and keep it concentric. Turned them down to close to the correct diameter, and then took the old contact wheel off the belt sander that doesn't see much belt use. I made an arbor for the aluminum wheel and turned it down until I just had the center hub, just over .75" OD. I put a good layer of loctite super glue on the hub, and fed each of the turned down hockey pucks on the hub with glue between each puck as well. With a tight interference fit and the glue, hopefully they wont slip. After that, I turned them on the hub and arbor to the finished diameter.

I tried it out on the little belt sander, and it does give a lot more bite, but it now stalls the motor if I lay into it. I have a couple of 3hp motors around, so that will have to be the next evolution. I am thinking of cutting axial groves in the wheel with a tire groover. The axial groves should add more cooling capacity and even more bite.

Here is what I came up with.

http://www.rollmeover.com/bronco_fab/odds_n_ends/odds_n_ends068.jpg

This is the lengthened sander with it's original contact wheel

http://www.rollmeover.com/bronco_fab/odds_n_ends/odds_n_ends067.jpg

Here is the new rubber one, ready to go in.

Later,
Jason

[jeepnmatt]

mcmaster carr pn 2292T34 is a 1.5" OD with 1/2" bore cut to width polyurethane "wheel tube" that is 20" long.

i've used this stuff to make custom wheels before and it worked great...although not nearly as cheap as 4 hockey pucks!

[Wicked_S10]

Uh, $140 for 20". No thanks, it is just a chunk of rubber. It really blows my mind as to how much they think this stuff is worth.

[bluesman2a]

dude.
Boat trailer rollers.
You can get them in a variety of shapes/sizes, in a variety of grippy materials.
The last one I got was about $12 for a 12" by 2.5" round stick with a hole in the center already, and I used it for custom body lift on my 715.

http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10151&catalogId=10001&langId=-1&partNumber=9111&hvarTarget=search&cmCat=SearchResults

Just thought I would mention.

[drichard82]

Cool idea. I don't know why they are so expensive. The one we have at work ovalized. I was looking into buying a new one and they were over $150. No thanks, so we filed it round and it was good to go.

[Wicked_S10]

I have no idea why they are so expensive either, they are not anything special.

As for the boat rollers, good call. I am not so sure on the custom body lift... but whatever floats your boat :D No real price break on them though, and I would have had to order. Having one continuous piece of rubber would have simplified things, but the diameter would still have needed machined, and the nylon center bore would have had to have been machined out too, so no huge benefit unless you had them around. Course if you needed a 2x.5" bore roller, that would be pimping.

Later,
Jason

[bluesman2a]

You can typically get the boat-rollers at any marine/boating supply place... So if you or anybody else needs a replacement, it's around $10 or so.

The nylon center just pushes out for a larger center hole.

Yes, you still may need to machine, but if you look around they have these in MANY sizes, and it's a contiguous piece (no gluing).

Hope it helps.

[ScoutIITD]

http://www.grizzly.com/catalog/2008/Main/146

http://www.grizzly.com/products/Sponge-Drum-Hard-2-x-6/H5858

http://www.grizzly.com/images/pics/jpeg500/h/h5858.jpg

[Wicked_S10]

Where were all of you guys with your ideas when I was asking on here where to get the SOBs for a decent price???? I may order one of the grizzly 2"x6" rubber ones! $40 is a good deal. It will still need cut down to fit, but should be easy.

Here is an update on my sander:

I made a bit more progress on this belt sander. I changed my stretched sander over from quick release belt change to a screw tensioning setup that should maintain more even pressure on the belt than the old spring loaded setup. Pretty simple design. I have yet to cut grooves in the rubber contact wheel, but even with it smooth, it is proving to be too much for the 3/4 HP motor. It looks like it shouldn't be too bad swapping it over to a 3HP and it should be about impossible to stop with that sucker on it.

Here are the pictures:

http://www.rollmeover.com/bronco_fab/odds_n_ends/odds_n_ends069.jpg

http://www.rollmeover.com/bronco_fab/odds_n_ends/odds_n_ends070.jpg

http://www.rollmeover.com/bronco_fab/odds_n_ends/odds_n_ends071.jpg

http://www.rollmeover.com/bronco_fab/odds_n_ends/odds_n_ends072.jpg

Later,
Jason

[Wicked_S10]

I made a bit more progress today. This is rapidly becoming significantly different from the tool I began with. I knew my 3HP westinghouse motor would not fit in the old sander base, but I thought there might be a slim chance I could get away with it and my same timing belt length by using the motor as part of the frame. I cut a piece of 3/16" plate 15x6. Marked out the motor mounting location and drilled the plate. My intention was to have the motor hanging from the bottom of the plate, allowing me to tension the belt with it's mounting slots. The plate will serve as the top of the new housing. I will add a rectangular tube "leg" to the front and back of the plate, and a plate steel bottom as well. The plate still needs stiffened up, the plan for that is a .75x2 rail along the long (drive) side of the plate.

In the end, I was off by about .5 inches center to center of the two shafts. All my measurements said it was going to work fins with the original timing belt, but once it was all together, the belt was to short. Fortunately for me, XL timing belts are cheap, but I wanted to have it back up and running w/o any special orders. As it is, a 160XL belt will fit it perfectly. I am kind of wishing I hadn't tackled it today though, as I need the sander this week. I still have my little one, and it can go back together pretty easily, so I will probably just throw a belt on it and use it for the time being.

Here are the pictures. Don't mind the Dane, she is an attention whore.

http://www.rollmeover.com/bronco_fab/odds_n_ends/odds_n_ends073.jpg

http://www.rollmeover.com/bronco_fab/odds_n_ends/odds_n_ends074.jpg

Later,
Jason

[ScoutIITD]

Where were all of you guys with your ideas when I was asking on here where to get the SOBs for a decent price???? I may order one of the grizzly 2"x6" rubber ones! $40 is a good deal. It will still need cut down to fit, but should be easy.
Later,
Jason

Hey that looks good you are helping me find what I need when I go ahead and build one for my self. :p

I'm still looking a good disk so when I use a doulbe shaft motor I can have a 10" or 12" sanding disk too.

[Wicked_S10]

Hey that looks good you are helping me find what I need when I go ahead and build one for my self. :p

I'm still looking a good disk so when I use a doulbe shaft motor I can have a 10" or 12" sanding disk too.

I would suggest that you research the price of quality PSA backed sanding discs before you go much over 10"s for a disc sander. 6-10 are typically affordably priced, but anything over that will get expensive fast. I had plans to turn a old table saw into a 24" disc sander until I found the discs were about $30 each. I will still end up with a 10 or 12 inch one when I am through though.

You will have a tough time finding a disc for a reasonable price. I intend to turn my own, but if you don't have that option, then consider looking for scrap machines or spare parts for the imports like the grizzly stuff above.

Later,
Jason

[Wicked_S10]

Well, it is almost done. The 3HP transplant was more challenging that expected, once I got it all together, it kept throwing the timing belt. I finally decided no amount of shimming would make it track perfectly, so I machined a little bushing to go outboard of the timing belt pulley to keep it in place. The pulley originally had one cast in, but I broke it off pulling the pulley off the old motor. I faced the pulley flat, and then turned the bushing out of a little 1.5" cast aluminum V-belt pulley I had. It worked out nicely and now the timing belt stays put.

I grooved the contact wheel as well, it cuts like a dream! It makes a very evil whirring sound now with the grooved contact wheel. I like it. I am going to have to make a new drive wheel for it now though, the 3HP motor and grooved contact wheel is too much for the aluminum drive wheel. It now slips on the driven wheel if I put the bind to it. I may just coat the other wheel in rubber dip...

Here are the pictures.

http://www.rollmeover.com/bronco_fab/odds_n_ends/odds_n_ends075.jpg

http://www.rollmeover.com/bronco_fab/odds_n_ends/odds_n_ends076.jpg

http://www.rollmeover.com/bronco_fab/odds_n_ends/odds_n_ends077.jpg

Later,
Jason