I stumbled upon a Sears Craftsman combo sanding machine at an online auction. At the time, I had no idea what these were worth. I managed to snag it for $30, and given its condition, I’d say that was a fair price.
When I picked it up, the top sanding belt was missing, so I bought replacements. The front disc wobbled, and it was mounted to a heavy but poorly constructed stand that barely fit into my car.
Once I removed it from its old stand, I tried firing it up with a new sanding belt. Tensioning the belt on the rollers was straightforward, and the tracking adjustment was easy enough. However, as soon as I applied any pressure to the top belt, it stopped, and the screeching sound of the drive wheel slipping on the belt was deafening.
A bad belt, maybe? Not too difficult to fix—I just needed to remove the cover and swap it out. Unfortunately, the previous owner had used large amounts of what I assume was super glue, Loctite, or some other bonding agent on the grub screw, making it almost impossible to remove the disc.
So, I did what any impatient 30-year-old would do: I bent the plastic guard off, breaking it beyond repair in the process. I even said out loud, “Pfft, I don’t need that anyway.” I did, in fact, need that guard. The very next day, while sanding a board, it caught and pulled my hand into the spinning disc. I quickly realized why that guard was there.
I immediately went to my computer, designed a replacement guard, and 3D-printed it before doing any more work on the sander. While taking the machine apart, I noticed the belt was fine. The gear, however, was completely stripped, and a large amount of black plastic residue had accumulated inside the now-destroyed dust cover. I found a replacement gear file online, specifically listed for this model, and printed it without bothering to check dimensions.
A few days later, my Ender 3 finished printing, and I had a mostly functional sander for about $45. That includes the cost of printing and a Band-Aid.
While I was measuring for the disc cover, I also designed and printed a dust collector hookup to slide onto the end stop. It’s a mediocre collection system at best, but whenever I use the sander, I roll it to the center of my shop and connect it to my small dust collector. This process helps keep my garage cleaner than it would otherwise be, as it forces me to keep the floor tidy for rolling.
Maybe I’ll write about my thought process on that someday, but for now I'm very happy with my little sander, and it gets more use than just about anything else in the shop.
