Texatdurango
Member
To anyone who has converted their Jet mini single speed lathe to a variable speed lathe, you might find this of some interest.
I was cleaning up my shop and came across the motor and pulley guide I removed from my Jet mini lathe when I switched from single speed to variable speed. Rather than toss it out I decided to make a mini disk sander.
My current method of squaring blanks is to use a small arbor chucked in a hand drill but to be honest, it's slow going if you have a bit to trim, the sandpaper clogs up real fast since the blank is hitting the same spot on the paper. My larger bench mounted disk sander is way too course with an 80 grit disc so I decided to make a smaller version.
I have a 5" Ryobi random orbital sander and had an extra pad so decided to use that for my mini pen squaring sander.
I just mounted the motor on a base, attached the pulley guide to the Ryobi sanding pad, made a table with a slot for the pen blank holding arm. I used the original on/off switch and mounted it on the side, just below a board I use to hold the different delrin bushings I use for different kits I make.
I will still use the small arbor that fits in a hand drill so I saved a spot for it to rest when not in use.
The disk uses common 5" fabric backed disks which are readily available and the sander is small enough to either leave on the table top or stowed away underneath if the space is needed and when running is vibration free so it doesn't try to walk across the table!
I was cleaning up my shop and came across the motor and pulley guide I removed from my Jet mini lathe when I switched from single speed to variable speed. Rather than toss it out I decided to make a mini disk sander.
My current method of squaring blanks is to use a small arbor chucked in a hand drill but to be honest, it's slow going if you have a bit to trim, the sandpaper clogs up real fast since the blank is hitting the same spot on the paper. My larger bench mounted disk sander is way too course with an 80 grit disc so I decided to make a smaller version.
I have a 5" Ryobi random orbital sander and had an extra pad so decided to use that for my mini pen squaring sander.
I just mounted the motor on a base, attached the pulley guide to the Ryobi sanding pad, made a table with a slot for the pen blank holding arm. I used the original on/off switch and mounted it on the side, just below a board I use to hold the different delrin bushings I use for different kits I make.
I will still use the small arbor that fits in a hand drill so I saved a spot for it to rest when not in use.
The disk uses common 5" fabric backed disks which are readily available and the sander is small enough to either leave on the table top or stowed away underneath if the space is needed and when running is vibration free so it doesn't try to walk across the table!
