2023-4-6 High speed sander
This is my first post about equipment, and let me tell you, I love my equipment. So much that some people call me a tool, which I'm assuming refers to how much I enjoy using tools to polish rocks. In this case, I really wanted a better way to polish slabs and rock halves. I've used a vibratory flat lap in the past, but there's definitely a skill set associated with that which I don't have. There's a unit which uses silicon carbine sanding discs and sands dry just for this purpose. Some people love it, some hate it. I don't have an extra $400 to spare so I'm going to attempt making my own with a motor I have sitting around. My friend and male model Jake (for parkas mostly) donated some old church pew pieces to me, so let's see if I can make a "Holy Sander!"
Here are the pews. Not exactly sure how this is going to play out, but it's nice thick wood so want to use as much of these as possible.
Just roughing it out a bit. Maybe something like this? If i squint, I can see the outline...
With a few cuts, that looks like something I can work with. Keep in mind, wood working is not my strong suit!
Using a few of my cut pieces to make it in to a 3D stand for the motor.
Speaking of the motor... I bought an arbor shaft extension to use with it and a 7 inch floor sanding attachment. Some of these are too flexible so additional parts are needed but this one feels pretty solid.
Also - the motors wasn't turning the right way so I needed to change the wiring. It says how on the motor plate.
Everything is dry now, let's get that motor on it.
Starting to really look like something!
One of the main concerns with these is rock dust. The next step is to make a dust sheild with a vacuum port to collect it. Here's a piece I found at the local hardware store that fits perfectly.
Here's the bottom with the dust port in place.
And finally... the dust shield is installed and ready to go!!
Here's the back view with the vacuum port.
I haven't gotten a chance to use this yet since I will want to be doing this outdoors, and as we know, frozen fingers chop off much easier than thawed fingers, so I'll be waiting until the weather is a little nicer. Hope you enjoyed the process and I look forward to trying it out!