My New Burnisher/ Sander Setup.

[billymac814]

Here's my finished burnisher/sander I put together today. I've been wanting the one weavers sells for a while now but its expensive and I was afraid that the large diameter burnisher part wouldn't work on a lot of my inside curves.

Prior to this I had my wooden burnisher mounted directly to a motor, this allows me to add a sanding drum and it keeps the pressure off of the motor shaft as I went through 2 motors that way. I can't say for sure that's why they went bad though.

The motor I found at a flea market since my old one was hand start only as of lately and the other piece I got from Lee Valley. The sanding drum is one I had that mounts in a drill chuck, I removed the mandrel and drilled it out to fit over the shaft. The wood burnisher I've had for a few years now and below that is felt disks sandwiched between two washers, its good for creating heat and melting wax onto the edge. I also had the chuck as its what was on my motor. I have about 60 bucks or so invested not counting what I already had, it would cost about 100-150 if you had to buy everything to put it together, the biggest variable is the motor as they can be found for 10-15 bucks or bought new for 100+. Either way its significantly cheaper than the 500.00 Weaver one, the Weaver one is a lot nicer looking but that's not a big concern.

Edited February 18, 2013 by billymac814

[electrathon]

Looks good but I would recomend swapping sides with the sander and the burnisher. The poker on the burnisher is going to hurt you sticking out in the open like that.

[billymac814]

Looks good but I would recomend swapping sides with the sander and the burnisher. The poker on the burnisher is going to hurt you sticking out in the open like that.

Unfortunately that's not an option, one side is left hand thread. It won't hurt me though as there's a machine right beside it so its not anywhere I walk.

[Beaverslayer]

That looks real good Billy, well done. I would say that the main reason your old motors burned out, was because your burnisher was "direct mounted" to the motor. What this does, is cause side thrust on the bearings causing extra load and increasing the temperature of the motor, as well as prematurely killing the bearings. You won't have a problem with this setup.

One thing you may want to consider is a bigger pulley on the motor. This will increase the speed of the shaft that the burnisher and sanding drum are on, and will speed up your production time. I also noticed that your belt isn't that tight and there is not real easy way to tighten it as time goes on. If you were to change that 4L370 belt to an "A" section 37 inch belt, it will grip the pulleys a whole lot better even if it is a bit loose. An "A" section belt is "cogged" on the inside and has a much better power transfer ratio than a 4L belt.

Again, good work, it's nice to see ingenuity in the shop.

Just took another look at the "Business" end as immiketoo mentioned it. I see there are no grease nipples installed on the pillow blocks, unless they are "sealed" bearings on those, you should put grease nipples in them and keep them greased up, otherwise they will burn out in no time.

Edited February 18, 2013 by Beaverslayer

[immiketoo]

That's really slick. I like it and I want to make one, but I have NO idea how all the stuff at the business end attaches together!

[billymac814]

Thanks for the info, I was considering playing around with the speed, the reason I chose to go with the 1750 is mainly because that's what the Weaver one was set to, I don't think I'd want to double it but if I could go about 1/2" bigger on the pulley that would probably be good.

The belt isn't as tight as I'd have hoped however I don't get any slippage so I didn't worry about it, otherwise I was thinking about making some sort of hinge on the back of the motor with a screw type adjustment in the front to give me a little adjustment, Ill look into the clogged type belt though.

Lee Valley also sells one with the sealed bearings, I should have probably got that one, this one just has bushings, I didn't realize that when ordering it. Would grease cups still be a good idea? I did put a few drops of oil in the holes.

This stuff isn't my area of expertise so I'm pretty much winging it here with stuff I had laying around. Also I bought that motor and it didn't have any mounting brackets on it and none of the ones I had would work so that's why I had to make up my own, it would be much easier to buy one with mounting brackets.

That looks real good Billy, well done. I would say that the main reason your old motors burned out, was because your burnisher was "direct mounted" to the motor. What this does, is cause side thrust on the bearings causing extra load and increasing the temperature of the motor, as well as prematurely killing the bearings. You won't have a problem with this setup.

One thing you may want to consider is a bigger pulley on the motor. This will increase the speed of the shaft that the burnisher and sanding drum are on, and will speed up your production time. I also noticed that your belt isn't that tight and there is not real easy way to tighten it as time goes on. If you were to change that 4L370 belt to an "A" section 37 inch belt, it will grip the pulleys a whole lot better even if it is a bit loose. An "A" section belt is "cogged" on the inside and has a much better power transfer ratio than a 4L belt.

Again, good work, it's nice to see ingenuity in the shop.

Just took another look at the "Business" end as immiketoo mentioned it. I see there are no grease nipples installed on the pillow blocks, unless they are "sealed" bearings on those, you should put grease nipples in them and keep them greased up, otherwise they will burn out in no time.

It really just screws together, its not that difficult, if you decide to do it and have questions of where to get the parts let me know and I'll direct you to where I got it.

That's really slick. I like it and I want to make one, but I have NO idea how all the stuff at the business end attaches together!

[billymac814]

This thing is basically the same setup as an old fashioned grinder that you'll often see at flea markets and hard sales, someone could always start off with those too.

If I was doing this again I would run my 2x4s back farther towards the motor, I'm finding that the board is flexing enough because of the tension of the belt if it wasn't hanging off the edge I could screw it down and that would solve it but I wanted it hanging off to make it easier to do belts

[electrathon]

For belt tension you only want the belt tight enough to keep it from slipping. Any tighter and you are putting undue stress/heat on the motor bushings. For oil, if there are no oil ports, do not worry about it. If there are ports use only motor bearing oil. Many people use the wrong oil and do more damage then if they would let it run dry. Modern bearings are pretty good quality and hold oil well inside the metal.

[Northmount]

This shouldn't need much belt tension since there is not a heavy load on the belt. If you are pressing hard enough to make the belt slip, you will be deforming the edge of the leather. That said, you probably burned out the other motors due to overloading them (1/10 HP is not very much power). Also a lot of used motors have been run without being oiled for years, oiled with the wrong oil, etc. so the bushings get sticky, overloading the motor. If the bushings are an oil impregnated bronze, oiling them may actually wash the oil out of them.

Tom

[evandailey]

Lee Valley also sells one with the sealed bearings, I should have probably got that one, this one just has bushings, I didn't realize that when ordering it. Would grease cups still be a good idea? I did put a few drops of oil in the holes.

I can't tell exactly from the pictures, but are those holes on top of the pillow blocks perhaps for grease zerks? They may be set screws or something else. That just looked like where grease zerks would go.