# Sanding / polishing / buffing station



## black85vette (Jan 10, 2010)

The thread on polishing got me to thinking about a project I had in mind. Some of you remember the treadmill I got for free and ripped the motor and controls out of it. It just sat for months because I could not decide what to do with it. Until this weekend.

First thing I did was to remove the cast metal flywheel and mount it on my lathe. It was about .75" thick and had fins on the inside to provide air flow for the motor. I faced it until the fins were gone and I had a flat surface.  Ended up being just about .25" thick (almost as thick as the coating of swarf on the floor). Nice thing is that the flywheel was exactly 6" in diameter, just the same size as adhesive sanding discs. So I started with that.

Then I got to thinking about the shaft.  The threads are .5" 13 pitch left handed and then it steps up to a larger smooth part. I tried one of my sisal buffing wheels which just happens to have a .5" hole for mounting on a grinder.  Fit on there fine. Then grabbed a piece of scrap, drilled and tapped it for the threads on the shaft and it holds the buffing wheel well.

My next thought is to make a backing plate to go on the shaft and mount a 3" 3 jaw chuck on there. This will do two things. 1. I can hold round work and spin it to work with sand paper or files. 2. I have several buffing wheels mounted on arbors with .25" shafts that can be held in the chuck.

At some point I will have to come up with a permanent bench to mount this one. Right now it is just clamped in a really old Work Mate bench.  I tried it out with the sanding disc and the buffing wheel. It worked really well and has plenty of torque over a wide range of speeds.

Any suggestions on anything else I can add to it or do with it?Here are some pics of what I have so far.


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## Powder keg (Jan 10, 2010)

Looks like it will be a handy tool.


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## Deanofid (Jan 12, 2010)

That looks like a handy setup, Vette. Useful for your polishing, and not too big to stow away when you need the space for something else.

Have a care about the chuck you put on the motor. I think the one you have there will spin up to near 7,000 rpm.  Over the safe speed for some chucks.

Neat project! Good price, too.

Dean


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## black85vette (Jan 13, 2010)

Dean; not to worry. This is for low speed operations only.  I am going to put a rotary resistor in place of the sliding on that came on it. I can always put a resistor in line to prevent speed above a preset limit.

Well this is definately not as slick as ghart3's grinder set up. Mine is not intended for heavy use since I have a bench grinder to do that. This will just be sand, smooth, buff and finish. New addition tonight. Bought a rotary table that came with a chuck and back plate. Simple enough. Just drilled and tapped a .5" x 13 pitch left handed thread and bingo, I now have a way to spin up pieces for sanding or I can hold any kind of arbor with almost any shaft size.  Not too bad. Note in the photo that I removed the front flange and cut it down to the same diameter as the motor. A little cleaner I think.

By my way of financial accounting the chuck was bought for another reason and therefore does not count towards the cost of this project.  ;D

I think I have one more bit to add to this before I am done with this phase. Last phase will be mounting and any guides / plates / work rests or other additions. Any suggestions??


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## 1hand (Jan 13, 2010)

I'm jealous now................great idea. You done a heck of nice job on that mounting plate.......lol


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## lugnut (Jan 13, 2010)

I adapted a motor very much like yours to run my lathe. Having the varible speed on the lathe is the greatest thing since sliced bread! I've been looking for uses for the other two motors I have and your idea gives me some ideas. I think one will go one the drill press and the other for a sander/ poliser like yours. 
You ask for other ideas. Well as long as you have varible speed capabilies why not add a 1"X 42" sanding belt to the thing. looks like there would be room for the drive roller just behind the sanding disk.
Mel


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## Twmaster (Jan 13, 2010)

Good job 'vette....

I too have a couple of those treadmill motors and controllers. Work great. Once I get settled in OK I'll be adding one to the Taig mill and the other may go on my lathe.


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## black85vette (Jan 16, 2010)

Got some more done today. Another recycled bit of luck.  I pulled out a couple of the angle brackets that I get for free and have used before to make a vise mount on the band saw and adjusting brackets on the X2 mill.  Well here are two more of them. Turns out they are a perfect size for the motor to mount and sit flat on the bench. I can bolt them or just clamp them in place.  Worked out perfectly because I didn't even have to drill holes in them. The two holes on one side lined up perfectly with the mounts on the motor.

The other piece for today was a 1/4" collet that I made from a large tap handle. Just drilled and reamed it to 1/4" and then drilled the handle end and threaded it to mount on the motor shaft. Works well for some smaller buffing wheels I have with 1/4" arbors. Puts the wheel out away from the motor and gives some room to work. It was my first time to do an internal thread in a blind hole. Interesting.

Got started on the control box and have the components mounted in it but not finished yet. Took it for a test drive. The motor worked, lights in the house stayed on and no smoke escaped from the parts on the controller.  :big: So the rewire portion was successful.

Had to buy a Pot, a switch, and some hardware. Still under $20 so far!

I could use some suggestions. I would like a work rest for the sanding wheel. Needs to sit at about 6" high and I would like it to be on a bracket like the motor so it can be removed and stored. Any ideas or examples?


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## 1hand (Jan 16, 2010)

I've looked into these treadmill motors for a posible lathe mod. And haven't found any thing every cheap. Every thing in the 1 to 1.5hp seem to be around $150 on up. Am I not looking in the right spots? Do I need to do the yard sale tour to find a deal?


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## black85vette (Jan 16, 2010)

1hand  said:
			
		

> I've looked into these treadmill motors for a posible lathe mod. And haven't found any thing every cheap. Every thing in the 1 to 1.5hp seem to be around $150 on up. Am I not looking in the right spots? Do I need to do the yard sale tour to find a deal?



You can get these for free or real cheap. I found mine sitting on the curb on trash day. Check Craigslist you can find them worn out / broken but the motor runs for next to nothing. Kind of like Forrest Gump's box of chocolates "You never know what you are going to get".  :big:


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## shred (Jan 16, 2010)

Those motors used to be $20-$25 at Surplus Center, but they sold out of the 5000 they had


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## ariz (Jan 17, 2010)

nice work black85, that cheap motor would be very useful in the shop with those different setup 

uhmm... I 'm thinking to do something similar... ;D


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## black85vette (Jan 24, 2010)

Did some work on the motor controller.  Had an old antenna tuner that wasn't worth fixing so I gutted it and recycled the case it was in. Mounted the controller and choke and then made an new front panel for it. Used one of the knobs for the speed control pot. A little bit of wiring clean up to do but mostly finished.


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## black85vette (Jan 26, 2010)

Pretty much done with this.  I wanted a horizontal table to rest the work on for sanding.  Made it out of some scrap (and free) bits of plywood and bolted to a bracket (also scrap and free) that I could clamp to the work bench.


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## Deanofid (Jan 27, 2010)

The setup looks good, 'Vette. Tidy, and doesn't take up much space.

What is the purpose of the transformer that sits next to the controller? I have this same controller on my small lathe, but it doesn't use a transformer. 

Dean


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## black85vette (Jan 27, 2010)

Deanofid  said:
			
		

> What is the purpose of the transformer that sits next to the controller? I have this same controller on my small lathe, but it doesn't use a transformer.
> Dean



It appears to be a choke. It is in line with the AC and does not have a secondary winding. Not 100% sure of its function.

Yes, space is an issue for me. My working space is about 12' x 15' so making things that use temporary clamps and can be broken down and stored elsewhere is a benefit.


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## Noitoen (Jan 27, 2010)

You could wire that indicator as a volt/ammeter to give you an indication of speed/load on the motor


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## Alan J. Richer (Jan 27, 2010)

> It appears to be a choke. It is in line with the AC and does not have a secondary winding. Not 100% sure of its function.



AC line filtering - keeps the high-frequency backwash from the controller from getting to the AC line and messing other things up.

Unless you plug your treadmill into your line filter for your computer it's not a big issue in my opinion - could be removed but of it's there...it ain't hurting anybody.. 

           Alan


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## black85vette (Jan 27, 2010)

Alan J. Richer  said:
			
		

> AC line filtering - keeps the high-frequency backwash from the controller from getting to the AC line and messing other things up.  Alan



That explains something else. My 7x10 lathe messed with the florescent lights in the shop and it had no filter on it.


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