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Tim McKnight has a nice design for a dish/rim sander. I am considering building one but am curious what size motor and final dish speed to use. (he used 100 RPM) I am concerned about having enough torque so the dish is a constant speed when sanding. Any ideas or feedback?

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Brad
Avon, OH

Hey Brad,

I built one of those machines about a year ago and posted the process on the forum. Here is the link to the thread in the archives. Mario (who Tim used for inspiration) and Tim both cautioned against the motor I used and their cautions should be carefully considered. It creates a lot of dust, I have a cover for my motor and it is used outside. But I have a 1/2 hp 1150 rpm washing machine motor and it works great. I am not wanting for anymore power at all. Along with rim sanding I make and sell dishes with this machine and have absolutely no problems with it. I have probably made 50 dishes on this machine now as well as sanding guitar rims. The most significant 'upgrade' on mine is the belt tensioning system that I borrowed inspiriation from the system on one of my drill presses. Anyway, any questions I am sure that Tim, Mario, myself or any of the others that have built these machines will certainly help you out.

Good Luck

Shane

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Canada

Shane,
Thanks for the feedback. I did read your post from the old threads. What speed are you running the dish at?

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Brad
Avon, OH

126 rpm, it is s bit slower than Tims and seems just right to me.

Shane

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Canada

I'm using a 1/4hp motor. I got that and the 12" diameter pully, the 1" shaft, and the belt off a junk blower from my local heating/AC shop for free. I switched to a 1-1/2" pully at the motor. Works just fine but I need to add on some better dust collection. It doesn't sling it much but more than I'd like.

Alan D.

With the 16:1 reduction that I suggested when i first shared my idea, it brings my dish speed down to 106 rpm, which I still find too fast. I'd like to see 25:1 reduction via 1" drive to 5" driven pulleys on both instead of the 1" and 4" I use.

Slowing it down this way would add a ton of torque, would be much safer, and wouldn't sling the dust as much.

I run a 1/3hp motor...