Sweet Freebie

[stummel bum]

I was visiting my grandmother up in NC this weekend and decided to venture down into my late grandfather's tool room under the house. I've always loved going in there and messing around with the myriad tools collected over a lifetime of tinkering.

I found something that I had seen many times, but since I never made pipes before it didn't seem very useful to me until now. It's an old 1/4hp motor that he used as a bench grinder (I guarantee because it was cheaper than buying one). I asked my grandmother if anyone ever used the thing and she said I'm welcome to it. I know it's a bit low on power, but it was free It's a Delco 1725rpm motor with a 5/8" shaft so I'll definitely be getting one of Kurt's arbors sometime soon.

The cool thing is that I found a craftsman keyless chuck with a 5/8" arbor in a drawer, so I can use buffing pads, sanding discs, or whatever you can chuck in a drill. And my wife loves it because it's practically silent. She wasn't too crazy about me buffing pipes inside with a corded hand drill that recommends the use of ear plugs in the instructions

Here are some pics





He even wired in an on/off switch!


I know that most of you go with 1/2hp, so a question I have is will this be able to get the job done?

[Tyler]

<snip>

I know that most of you go with 1/2hp, so a question I have is will this be able to get the job done?

It's better than a drill!

[Skip]

I have four of those that are about the same vintage. I have used them since the beginning and never saw a need for more power.

[T3pipes]

1/4 horse is better. Odds are the velocity of the pipe will be lower when it ripped out of your hands because you are distracted by how great a deal you got.

[stummel bum]

1/4 horse is better. Odds are the velocity of the pipe will be lower when it ripped out of your hands because you are distracted by how great a deal you got.

[KurtHuhn]

In my experience, 1/4HP is perfectly fine. I've never seen the need for more torque (0) than 1/3HP on a shaping wheel setup, but that may be my preference. All my shaping wheels are attached to 1/3HP motors, but only because that's what I was able to find inexpensively. That said, there's nothing wrong with using a 1/2HP or even a 1HP motor if that's what you have. Use what you've got....

And I feel I should also mention the rotation speed of the motor. When doing fine sanding on a wheel, you should look for motors that spin at 1725 RPM or less. The 3640 RPM motors, in my experience, tend to burn through sandpaper and sanding discs very quickly, and have a tendency to burn the wood as well. However, for rough shaping, I find I like a much faster motor than 1725, and in this case I use either my belt grinder running at 5000+ SFPM or a 7" resin/fiber grinding disk spinning at 3640 RPM. This may or may not work for you, but I figure the info can't hurt when you're looking at how to setup your shop.


(0) The real measurement here should be torque, not HP. HP is the amount of work being accomplished, while torque is the strength (or power) of the motor. This is a bit of a pet peeve of mine. The way that HP is measured is by taking a reading of torque and applying that to a formula - the resulting number is the amount of work being done, not the power or strength of the motor. It's a measurement of strength at a given RPM over a constant period of time. For instance, I could have a 1/2HP motor that spins at several thousand RPM, and stop it easily by grabbing the shaft with a gloved hand. But I could also have a 1/2HP motor that spins at 500RPM, and not stop that motor without tools if my life depended on it. To get a better idea of the ability of your motor to handle load and stay spinning at its rated RPM, look at the Amperage draw on the placard. More Amps at lower RPMs means a stronger motor.

[stummel bum]

Thanks Kurt. Just what I was looking for.

Used it for the first time today to rough out a stummel and I have no problems with the lower rpms. i'd be scared to use anything higher I used a 6" 40 grit pad and the wood just flew off. Just slow enough for me to not overdo it. Still waiting on my stem material so I'm done for now. I hate waiting on supplies.

[KurtHuhn]

Excellent! Like I always say - use what you've got, and use what works.