Aldi belt sander modification

[Biker]

Morning chaps and chappeses,
Having bought an Aldi grinder/belt sander machine a few months ago I found myself wondering why I needed yet another grinding wheel. I'm a carpenter and a sanding disk would be a lot more useful. So with a bit of head scratching I came up with this modification:

Here's the partially dismantled business end of the grinder

I bought a 150mm plastic back plate which has some durable velcro on it as standard. The plate cost €15 (£13) and a pack of 20 assorted grit 150mm velcro sanding disks for €9 (£7.50) on special offer

I then glued and screwed together two 70mm disks of 19mm birch faced plywood (this ply is strong!) I cut out to use as a sleeve over the shaft. The one with the large hole accepts the nut on the end of the shaft with some packing washers and leaves it flush for the plastic disk to sit directly against the plywood.

I then drilled and screwed the plastic disk to the plywood backing plate.

Next, I screwed the whole thing to a piece of plywood and fitted the resting plate for the disk onto it. I figure I can clamp it to my saw table as and when I needed it.

I also hinged the resting plate so that I didn't have to dismantle it to change the sanding disks as they wear out.

And the whole completed thing as seen from the south face

Thanks for reading, hope this inspires you to have a go as well if you needed a bench mounted sanding disk or you ladies needed a powered nail filer.

Biker

 

[Radix lecti]

Thats a great bit of modification there biker, i like the hinged resting plate, sorry i'm going to...ahem.. pinch your idea. Thanks for sharing.

Darren

 

[telwebb]

Thats done it! I've managed to stay away from these beasties so far on the basis that I don't need another grinder, so it would be a waste.....

 

[Wayland]

Good mod.

If you look around a bit you may be able to find a wooden cored flap wheel that would fit where you have the wooden block at the moment which would give you even more flexibility.

 

[TeeDee]

Nice Mod and Tutorial Biker.

 

[Big Geordie]

Very nice mod and something else Im going to steal!
G

 

[Retired Member southey]

Great tutorial there Biker, i'm still gutted i missed these.

 

[Timbo]

nice mod, have you used the belt sander for knife sharpening? I have a large fixed blade that takes forever to sharpen with a stone, the smaller knives I don't mind using a stone

 

[Ph34r]

Handy, it's just unfortunate that my aldi grinder passed away a few months back...

 

[Biker]

Bump for Luckylee who PM'ed me asking for pix of the mod I did on my Aldi bench grinder.

I have since modded the other end as the belt alignment was too tempremental and would go out of whack with each belt change... plus I ran out of belts. So I took off the whole belt shebang and fitted a polishing/buffing wheel from a kit I bought from someone here (I forget who it was now, sorry). Just used spacers to get it far enough away from the main chassis. Does what I hoped it would. Well chuffed with it.

For the clean ups I'm doing on the tools, like that Adze, I use the sanding wheel without the resting plate in postition, it allows me to tilt the tool to the required angle and to get to places I normally wouldn't be able to reach had that resting board been fixed in place. Hope that makes sense.

Thanks for the heads up LuckyLee about the BB group buy thingy. I'll check it out soon.

Thanks for reading hope this helps.

 

[ged]

Good to see somebody else using 13A plugs in France.

 

[Biker]

Good to see somebody else using 13A plugs in France.

Yeah, mostly cos' I couldn't be bothered with the time and expense of changing them all over to the two pin ones, plus I'm a bit paranoid and like the idea of electrical tools having fuses in the plugs.

 

[luckylee]

thats fantastic when me new bench grinder comes from the group buy, i will make this mod, bloodt brilliant, is there any chance i could see the other mods you have made please, the ones after this please.?

 

[telwebb]

which group buy? did I miss it?

 

[Biker]

Hi again,

Been a bit busy again modding my Aldi sander to my own needs. I had fitted a small buffing wheel to the linesher end but it was too small and too close to the motor chassis, so with the hekp of good ol' ebay I invested in a mandril that fits over the 12.5mm shaft and secured with an allen keys. This accepts assorted buffing wheels which I also bought from the same outfit.

If you go with this option of modification be sure to get the screw for the right hand end of the grinder. It's important the buffing wheel tightens as it spins else you could get a surprise.

This set up works a treat. Did the whole mod for under £20 which included the mandril (screw threaded shaft thingy) 4 assorted buffing wheels and the cutting soap.

Anyway here's some pix. Thanks for looking.

 

[luckylee]

Hi again,

Been a bit busy again modding my Aldi sander to my own needs. I had fitted a small buffing wheel to the linesher end but it was too small and too close to the motor chassis, so with the hekp of good ol' ebay I invested in a mandril that fits over the 12.5mm shaft and secured with an allen keys. This accepts assorted buffing wheels which I also bought from the same outfit.

If you go with this option of modification be sure to get the screw for the right hand end of the grinder. It's important the buffing wheel tightens as it spins else you could get a surprise.

This set up works a treat. Did the whole mod for under £20 which included the mandril (screw threaded shaft thingy) 4 assorted buffing wheels and the cutting soap.

Anyway here's some pix. Thanks for looking.

i also got one of them for mine, and what a difference it makes to be able to use the bigger wheels.

 

[DaveBromley]

What power rating is the motor on this Aaron?

Dave

 

[Biker]

What power rating is the motor on this Aaron? Dave

Just checked the blurb on lable on the back of the casing. It says:

Rated Voltage 230v 50hz
Rated Power 240w / S2 30mins
No load speed 2950rpm

Hope this helps. It was bought in the UK and brought over here and was modded by me back in 2010 and still works fine even now. French voltage is the same as the UK, though the HZ is slightly different (I believe) but nothing that you'd really notice on machines like this.

 

[awarner]

Nice, wonder when Aldi will stock them again if ever. Their prices are normally very good.

 

[grey-array]

Superb that gives me some Ideas for the future,
Great mods thanks for sharing
Yours sincerely Ruud