So, I finally got time today to set the dish sander up. Works like a charm! Maybe not every floor sander would work for this conversion, but it looks like this one will do the trick. Fair warning, I don't build my shop equipment to be showroom furniture! Pretty is for the house, functional is for the shop.
So here was my original downdraft table. When I built this thing I had the bright idea of putting a backdraft on it, too, hence the panel on the back. In my old shop, I had the dust collector drop in from overhead to catch it. Not a bad idea, necessarily, but it left me crowded for real estate on the table. The base unit is powered by four JennAir downdraft cooktop fans.
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So I ripped the back panel off and reworked the rails to catch the body of the floor sander.
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Here it is flipped over on the rails. I just drug the panels off to the side to make room. You can see the platen, which I modified to give clearance for the dish over the body of the sander. You can also see the two bolts sticking up as dowels to locate and center the dish. All of these parts came from the sander itself, so the total cost is still zero!
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And the result. Just a stick of mahogany, but sanded to a 15' radius. The router speed controller did the trick great. I ran it at its lowest setting which I think will be just about right for sanding a rim set. I could have cranked it up a little bit for this task.
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I also took the remnants from the back panel and added shelves on the side for sanders and supplies. It always scared me keeping that stuff up on that back panel, anyway. Just an accident waiting to happen.
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So there it is! Nothing fancy, but I'm happy!
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