Rockwell/Delta 12"disc / 6" x 48" belt sander

Bryan Cowing

Member
Messages
728
Location
Ridgetown, Ontario, Canada
My 1st and maybe last try at fixing old equipment!:bang:
Advertised at $75 so I bought it, a 30+ yr old sander, tore it apart, then painted the parts. But the belt table & bracket & handle was missing along with top and side guard. It needed new bearings and a motor. After a week I found parts online but they would be close to $300 with shipping and fees to Canada. A new motor would be a minimum of $250. Then I spied another sander for sale, newer maybe only 10 yrs old or less, and no parts missing :thumb:, but with a 2 hp 575V 3 phase motor and the belt and top guards cut up by the belt :eek:. So I bought it at a great price :D, & sold the 1st one. So far #2 sander's cost to get running will will be $100 for a used 2 hp TEFC 3400 rpm motor, about $50 for the bearings on order and another $50 for some Rustoleum light and dark grey machine paint and a power cord & 240V plug. The motor took the best part of a day to get mounted after modifying the motor bracket and it has to hang out the door opening for clearance. To repair the guards I tried J Bweld, great stuff!
Some pics of this adventure so far

the $75 sander
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#2 sander :D
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damage to the side guard
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side belt guard with J Bweld and auto spot putty
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Top guard with lots of J Bweld spread on the inside
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painted
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old motor painted
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waiting for 3 more bearings to show up
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My Powermatic 30 sander, which is a similar design had its belt cover completely cut apart by errant belts. Someone had poorly welded it back togethter but I ended up cutting out the welds and am replacing some of the metal. Some of these machines lived pretty hard lives.

There's a thread on owwm.org on truing up the drums. They frequently wear to a W shape which makes them track poorly. You might want to check yours before you get it too far back together.
 
My top drums need work, may replace them as they were loose on the shaft, wearing the hole in them larger. Bottom still has the crown. I should have kept #1 sander for a while till I got this one torn down. Now I have to buy back the top drums.:huh: Some parts of this sander look like it's almost new. Sure had a lot of gunk on it. It came out of a small shop. Having a welder would have been great to repair the side guard. One tool I should have.
 
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Bryan, I am guessing that you know this now. ;) But number one thing in any old machine is completeness!! Are all the parts there?

That is the only machine I am (sort of) looking for BTW.
 
Bryan, I am guessing that you know this now. ;) But number one thing in any old machine is completeness!! Are all the parts there?

That is the only machine I am (sort of) looking for BTW.

I seem to learn everything the hard-way :huh: . I got my $75 back from the 1 st sander and I gained a new 1/2 hp motor from it, which I put on my old Jet strip sander.:thumb: Way better than the old tired 1/3 rd hp washing machine motor I was using on it. I really hate waiting for parts!! Can't wait to get it together and try it out! :D

I was looking at the new Delta disc / belt sanders today. They have a huge cabinet! I don't like the look of them, really Chinese looking now! No parts on the machine look to be from the old Rockwell/Delta design. All kinda squarish looking.
 
Finally done!

I got it back together today, took about 7 hours. Glad it's done, having parts spread all over, I could not use the shop for anything else. Sander and parts, about $400 :D
 

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Looks great, and at the prices I've seen those advertised at, $400 total plus your time is a great deal. I'll probably end up at about $500 in my Powermatic plus a lot of time.
 
I rearranged some of the machines to get the sander to fit in along the wall. I had to pull my rolling tool chest out and tuck it behind the TS for now. I better not bring any more orphans home to the shop! I hooked up the DC and did some test sanding ... sweet! :thumb: I think I am going to like having a belt/disc sander :D
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I picked one up about 3 weeks back pretty much complete missing one of the knobs on top and a handle I broke moving it. Yours looks great and thank you for the idea about JB weld mine has the same wounds your did. I paid $200 motor works and fits in cabinet. I hope it looks as good as yours when done
 
That came out looking sweet, Bryan. Great job on it. :thumb: And for $400? Even sweeter.

And Bob, we'll be expecting pictures. :D
 
Bryan and co.

Not to dampen the spirit of this thread but I question the merit of this concept of refurbishing old machines. Here is my logic.

My spare time is valueable to me.
I want to do woodworking not being a mechanic.
If you put a hourly rate to your time you spent fixing this sander you could have bought a new one even at min wage.
New machine comes with warranty hence peace of mind (assuming correct dealer and brand)
I did not set out to be a doctor resusitating old iron. If it was a sentimental hand down from a parent or grandparent different story.
But guys where is the merit in buying someone elses old junk and paying to fix it up with precious free time.
If you are a pro woodworker even more of an issue.
I dont by the story that the old machines were better. Tolerances in maching nowadays are far greater than the past. You surely would not like to go up against a new jet in a sopwith camel would you?:huh:

Not trying to stir it up but please explain to enlighten a obvious dummy.:D

In the time that you have taken to fix these sanders, research, waiting, shipping repairing selling research buying, shipping fixing waiting for spares and finally finishing......wow you could have done a dozen new projects with WOOD. You probably could have afforded to buy decent exotic wood as well.

OK hit me now
 
Well Rob, you do make some good points, but I will quibble with a few of them :D

Certainly these days things can be made to much higher standards and often they are, but, lots of tools do not need to be "supersonic" the good old solid train will do just fine, and often, the well made older tools are very well made.

The other thing I'll say is that some times I just don't have any other options but to buy used, as the new ones here are stu-pid expensive.

I know that well "new" made tools are out there, but they are often spendy.

Some of us like to bring life back to old tools, part of our fun of our hobby that is woodworking.
My spare time is valueable to me.
I want to do woodworking not being a mechanic.
If you put a hourly rate to your time you spent fixing this sander you could have bought a new one even at min wage.

I can use this same analogy to say "Why do you build stuff out of wood?" have you not heard of Ikea :D :wave:

Cheers! :)
 
another opinion

well rob i cant say i agree completly either,, been on both sides of the fence and things can go wrong either side.. you can buy a good tool that is made well, and it will cost you usually alot more to get what they were in the old days..table saws are great example.. there is alot folks that wouldnt sell there uni saws for the news ones today at all.. you can cut wood with the new ones and sometimes there accuracy is good but soemtimes it isnt.. compare the new cars with todays cars try to fix the new ones ...not!!! the old ones at least you could get inside and get to what was wrong:) but they are times that we can pay alittle now and alittel then to get where we are heading.. easier than coming up with the big no. now.. on a differnt subject but similar reasoning with yours, is i had some excavation done last wknd, could have had a dozer come in and do it and be gone, but i chose to do it with a tractor,, which i had,, well after having to dig the last part by hand cuz the tractor got stuck to much ,i decided to late i would have been further ahead to pay someone to do it with dozer.. sometimes we just dont see the storm till its upon us:D
 
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