This is something I have been piddling with off and on for a few months. I finally got all the technical bugs worked out and just need to finish the cabinet/table and put it to use.
In short I converted an old bench top drill press into an oscillating spindle sander. A similar idea from an old FWW book was the inspiration although I made quite a few modifications. The main details are:
1) Remove head from drill and mount upside down on the shaft. This required a bracket and some cutting of the shaft but wasn't too difficult. In the FWW book they used a DP with a head cast so that it could be mounted upside down directly on the shaft but that wouldn't work for my DP.
2) Hook up a low speed motor with a cam to the feed arm. This was the part that took the most work, tinkering to get the stroke length correct and finding a cheap low speed motor. I ended up getting a 60:1 low speed motor running at 60 RPM. It was a vending machine motor and only cost ~$20 including shipping. That sucker may be small but it's got some good torque.
3) So now I have a 5 speed spindle sander that oscillates at ~60 strokes/minute. I optimized the stroke length to ~3/4". I'll probably only ever use the lowest speed to minimize burning. There are a few pics below showing an overall view, the spindle at the top of the stroke and the spindle at the bottom of the stroke. There's also a link to photobucket showing a brief movie of the oscillating part in action.
http://s24.photobucket.com/albums/c1...1010031MOV.flv
And yes, I could have bought one for $200 but what would have been the fun in that?
In short I converted an old bench top drill press into an oscillating spindle sander. A similar idea from an old FWW book was the inspiration although I made quite a few modifications. The main details are:
1) Remove head from drill and mount upside down on the shaft. This required a bracket and some cutting of the shaft but wasn't too difficult. In the FWW book they used a DP with a head cast so that it could be mounted upside down directly on the shaft but that wouldn't work for my DP.
2) Hook up a low speed motor with a cam to the feed arm. This was the part that took the most work, tinkering to get the stroke length correct and finding a cheap low speed motor. I ended up getting a 60:1 low speed motor running at 60 RPM. It was a vending machine motor and only cost ~$20 including shipping. That sucker may be small but it's got some good torque.
3) So now I have a 5 speed spindle sander that oscillates at ~60 strokes/minute. I optimized the stroke length to ~3/4". I'll probably only ever use the lowest speed to minimize burning. There are a few pics below showing an overall view, the spindle at the top of the stroke and the spindle at the bottom of the stroke. There's also a link to photobucket showing a brief movie of the oscillating part in action.
http://s24.photobucket.com/albums/c1...1010031MOV.flv
And yes, I could have bought one for $200 but what would have been the fun in that?
Attached Files
LCHIEN
Loring in Katy, TX USA
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