I make little things mostly, lures, jewelry… belt sanders that I found in stores were big and heavy, not so easy to carry and store. I have a small corner where I work at home, so size does matter.
When weather is good, I work outsides, it makes cleaning easier, so a lightweight sander equipped with a cordless rotary tool sounded like a good idea.
I like the idea of recycling materials, all that I used for this, except paint, nuts, and bolts, were found from a dumpster (steel) or unused (old skateboard).
So, even the small belt sanders ain’t really expensive (if you find one), but this one was even cheaper costing nearly nothing.
But the most important reason was that I like to use tools that I have made or modified by myself.
It gives a little extra spice for making things when you make something by yourself with selfmade tools.
Bonus was that I kinda liked the idea because it follows A. J. Dremel’s original rotary tool & attachments idea.
It takes less than 10 seconds to attach the rotary tool and adjust the belt tightness.
Everything can be improved, and with this one I planned to add different supports and guides… but I decided to keep it as simple as possible.
Making the belt was the most difficult part, I needed to make 3 of them until I figured out how to get them glued straight, after I tried to make different jigs… Then I realized that I could just place the edge of the belt against the table top… Sometimes solutions are just too simple.
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