Official Luthiers Forum!

Hello there i recently salvaged a broken robot coupe
for those who dont know what this is .....
its a heavy duty food processer thats got a 250w motor in it
and around 2 inches long of a 1/2" stainless hex shaft

I plan to turn it into a spindle sander
(ive heard that at this rpm it burns the paper but this doesn't matter because its
only for the very final sanding on forms )

Ive bought a sanding drum for chucking up to a drill press
thinking their was some kind of ingenious sandpaper locking device , their wasn't
Also ,from the pictures I thought from the picture it had a coupling to fit
the hex shaft on my motor .... it was round
Anyway
I managed to bodge a sleeve of cut pipe tight over the hex shaft and onto the drums coupling
turned it on only to find out its totally wobbley......
Basically i need a longer shaft for an axle at the top of the drum for stability

Ive looked EVERYWHERE for a 3" deep socket ,extension or coupling so i could mount it on the shaft
and fit a sleeve over that to make a shaft extension

The only other options i can see is to get some specialist to weld another extension on
or turn this project into a big one by attaching a pulley to the shaft and gettin more parts exc
Could i just remove the original shaft?
any suggestions folks ?
thanks in advance
tomas

It sounds like an interesting project but my advice is to save it as a third of a horsepower motor and look on Craigs List for a spindle sander. Mine cost $75 and does things adequately.

Bob

This small Oscillating Spindle sander from Grizzly has a 1/2" arbor. The rubber sanding drums may fit your application. An email to Grizzly customer service would confirm it.
http://www.grizzly.com/products/g0538/parts
I would hope the replacement sanding sleeves are available in Ireland.

After Googling those food processors I would try to trade it for a nice sander. They're the Rolls Royce of Food Processors!

Mcmaster-Carr.com?

Thanks for the replys guys
after looking everywhere for a "hexigonal tubing" coupling it seems like its
cheaper to get/buy/find other parts than get it from the usa

It seems im gonna go the full hog and make up a seperate shaft
thats belt driven from my motors shaft attached to a frame by
2 pillow blocks the same as on a drum sander
with the pulley in between them

The only thing ive got to find out is what kind of bearing to get to mount the vertical
shafts weight on .
So far .the diameter of the new shaft is depending on this bearing
ive got a broken bits of a garden mucher /shredder
and i presume that it has a vertical shaft bearing
ill report back when i get a better idea on the new parts im trying to source
any suggestions appreicated though
espically on the pulley sizes as ive never done this stuff before
Thanks again
tomas