Rubberised drive wheel for linishing machine

I won't go to the trouble of googling sources for you (you can do THAT yourself) but I might venture to comment on the type of wheel you should be looking for. I purchased a wheel from Eastwood (www.eastwood.com) that expands to hold a sanding belt in place. It is about the size you are looking for. I have one, and love it. For industrial jobs, you might think about loose compound with sisal buffs, or just use hard sewn or sisal buffs, preferably double wide with greaseless compound. Its available in 80 grit down to 320 grit, then tripoli on flannel buffs, then of course, finish with white rough on a loose flannel buff.

questions? email me at stag@cyberus.ca

Make the drive roller and have it covered with rubber of a durometer of your choice.

Good quality lawn mowers have just the right wheels. Offset flat tread @ 90 deg. works well even for direct sanding against the wheel. different dia wheels will give variety of belt speeds for different materials. Good luck. Bushdriver. South Africa.

In college shop we made a bench mount belt-sander. Drive wheel was fabricated from an aluminum wheel blank machined to required OD and shaft bore (everyone had salvage motors so shaft sizes varied all over the place). Then we glued 3 or 4 plys of inner tube. That was over 25 years ago, and the sander still works since it is very occasionally used.