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Ok so I have home built thickness sander up and running. Went with a 1/2hp motor not enough. Only other motor I have lying around is 1hp but its running at 3450rpm (2in drive pulley to 5in). According to calculations. My drum will be spinning at 1380rpms. Will this be too fast or will I need to break down and buy a 1in drive pullley to bring it down to around 700rpms?

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How big are the pulleys currently? I'm running a 1/3 hp with NO trouble @1725rpm on a 2/5" pulley and a 6".

Maybe you have some other issues. Could you be trying to take too much material on each pass?



I'd be leery of going with the 1 hp at a higher rpm plus the 1" pulley is probably too small for the rig and it will just slip.


good luck on all fronts.

The 1hp actually works out great with a 2/5 pully. I went ahead and tried. Nice smooth and quick sanding running at about 1700rpm. I'll admit I was probably trying to put too much through. Though once I got the hang of it I am able to take off .002" each pass.

Thanks for the reply Dave.

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Build it cause then you know it's Made in the USA or **insert your country**

If your machine (frame) can handle it, the faster the better. I run mine at 1:1 so my motor is running at 1750 RPM and I have 2" pullies on both the motor and the drum. If I could, I'd run it faster, more like 2000 rpm or better, if I could ensure the paper would stay on (don't see why it wouldn't).

You should also be able to take off more than 0.002" at a time. What grit paper are you running? I use 80 grit and I can take off about 0.008-0.010" at a time running EIR through...

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