What Did You Buy Today?

[darkzero]

Oh, no- don't use casters. That's not just a no, it's a hell no. If a locked caster swivels around on you (like they always do) you might just feed your hands to the rotating belt. No, you want a steady, solid pedestal for your belt sander. Pull it into position by grabbing the heavy part and dragging it on two of its legs. Set it up so one leg points straight towards the operator, then put your foot on that leg while running your sander to keep it from walking away. Casters have their place, but this application ain't one of them!

I’ve been wondering how to deal with my belt sander because I’d like to roll it to the overhead door when grinding. A trio of locking casters should do the trick.

Edit: even just carrying the thing the ten feet would be fine
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Uh oh Pontiac, that's exactly what I am doing to my belt sander but a bit different than just using casters alone. I'm mounting my belt sander on a bench grinder stand but I'm using a HF mobile base. I snagged 3 more of them before they excluded the CM brand from their 20-25% coupons.

The HF mobile base is to be used with wood for the frame but I use square steel tubing. Has adjustable feet to raise it off the 2 casters in the front. First one I used was for my 3 ton arbor press. It's heavier than my belt sander & I roll the arbor press out of the garage everytime I need to work on my truck, has been holding up fine over the years.



My little brother told me when the Wen bench grinder stands dropped down to $20 shipped on Amazon, I bought 2 of them. I'm glad you pointed that out about using casters cause that's what my lil brother is going to do with his but not sure what he's mounting on his. We both bought ours like 2 yrs ago & still haven't used them yet lol. I went & bought the square tubing a few weeks ago & bought the alumn plates last year so hopefully I'll get around to building mine very soon.

 

[DavidR8]

Good points @pontiac428 and @Papa Charlie... I'll ditch the caster idea and just go with dragging it to the door.

 

[Aukai]

Keep a hand truck handy.

 

[Janderso]

Few eBay pick-ups over the last month or two. First, some 3/8" Melin drill mills with 90 deg. tips. Plan to use these as chamfering bits on the CNC mills.

View attachment 332260


I did a stupid thing on my Tormach a few weeks ago. Was running the Superfly across a piece of steel and jogged down to close to the surface to check Z for the first pass. Then used the shuttle to rapid to the RH side so when it passed over the stock from right to left it'd throw the chips away from me. Well, the RH side was a little taller than the left. Dug in the insert and snapped it. . . eBay seller Zimi-hk to the rescue, bought 10 each inserts for aluminum and steel. As an aside, does it really make a difference on steel vs. aluminum inserts? My Superfly has an aluminum-cutting insert on it but I use it on steel and get a mirror finish.

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I'm pretty good on tooling but always look for deals for more. I saw this lot of 3/8" and smaller Garr supposedly new carbide end mills for $20 buy it now and took a shot. Three or four have some signs of use, but the others are very sharp, so maybe lightly used.

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Thanks for looking, Bruce

Are you running out of room yet Bruce?

 

[Janderso]

One of my ongoing shop projects is reproducing parts for Erector sets. The company made a number of parts in 0.020" steel and brass plated them. I picked up a 1-gallon brass plating set up from Caswell Plating (around $200). Will give some updates once I mix the electrolytes and plate something. I've had a Caswell 2-gallon nickel plating set up for around 20 years, figure this brass one will use the same power supply, grounding bar, tank hangers, variable resistor (for current control), etc.

Bruce


Everything neatly packed in a the plating tank
View attachment 333034

Kit includes a couple of brass anodes, cheesecloth for covering the anodes, electrolyte, plating tank and a manual.
View attachment 333035

Can't wait to see what you do with the kit.

 

[pontiac428]

The solid bases look great. I know there are lots of fancy new casters out there that lock and don't move. I'm really just speaking on normal swivel casters, the kind that are free to orbit when locked; the affordable kind.

I have a few tools on pedestal mounts. My Jet belt sander, disc sander, bench grinder, "big" vise, and arbor press are all tools that I drag out onto the work floor, use, then drag back to an out-of-the-way spot where they interleave together to save space. Some are on plow discs, some on tripedal bases, my chop saw is on a 4-leg mount but is still considered (by me) as part of the pedestal mount collection. None of these tools weighs more than 70 lbs, probably closer to half that in most cases, so they are easy as pie to move around.

My big point is that you don't want your tools moving around on you. You also want to be able to put some arsch into your work, and don't want your machine rocking (oscillating) back and forth like a penguin on too much gin.

A good rule for these pedestal mounted tools comes from motorcyclist logic: never ride a bike you can't stand up yourself if you lay it down. I translate that as never pedestal mount a machine tool you can't move into place yourself. I'd rather anchor a heavy tool to the floor and work with a rigidly mounted machine than risk injury. End enduring rant...?

 

[DavidR8]

The solid bases look great. I know there are lots of fancy new casters out there that lock and don't move. I'm really just speaking on normal swivel casters, the kind that are free to orbit when locked; the affordable kind.

I have a few tools on pedestal mounts. My Jet belt sander, disc sander, bench grinder, "big" vise, and arbor press are all tools that I drag out onto the work floor, use, then drag back to an out-of-the-way spot where they interleave together to save space. Some are on plow discs, some on tripedal bases, my chop saw is on a 4-leg mount but is still considered (by me) as part of the pedestal mount collection. None of these tools weighs more than 70 lbs, probably closer to half that in most cases, so they are easy as pie to move around.

My big point is that you don't want your tools moving around on you. You also want to be able to put some arsch into your work, and don't want your machine rocking (oscillating) back and forth like a penguin on too much gin.

A good rule for these pedestal mounted tools comes from motorcyclist logic: never ride a bike you can't stand up yourself if you lay it down. I translate that as never pedestal mount a machine tool you can't move into place yourself. I'd rather anchor a heavy tool to the floor and work with a rigidly mounted machine than risk injury. End enduring rant...?

I hear the motorcycle analogy!
I'm thinking about how I'm going to mount my pedastal mount bender and wondering if a 'universal' floor mount bolt pattern may be a idea.
Recessed anchors that will take a SHCS when not in use so the holes don't fill up with crud.
Pondering....happy to hear ideas on this...

 

[pontiac428]

I hear the motorcycle analogy!
I'm thinking about how I'm going to mount my pedastal mount bender and wondering if a 'universal' floor mount bolt pattern may be a idea.
Recessed anchors that will take a SHCS when not in use so the holes don't fill up with crud.
Pondering....happy to hear ideas on this...

I think that is a brilliant idea. A bender needs to have room to work, and for me that means front center of the roll-up door. Insert nuts would allow easy removal/swapping of tools as work dictates. Fasten with wing head bolts. Yep, honey, all those JD2 boxes are "parts for the car"...

 

[Janderso]

Recessed anchors that will take a SHCS when not in use so the holes don't fill up with crud.

Outstanding idea!

 

[slagueux]

Some more recent pickups.

Paid $20 for this Baldor. I repainted it.

Paid 60 for this old Foley

Found this Craftsman horizontal bandsaw on Facebook. Paid 60 but I’ve redone the whole thing.

Buffalo Number 15 bench top drill press. I also refurbished this from head to toe.