Jolomite
Well-known member
Not a terribly vintage item, though I hope the level of wear makes it permissible here. This is a small Kalamazoo sander that I polished up. Bought it for $65 or $70 at the flea market. The switch was cracked off inside the body, so I had to replace that. The original platen was looking pretty worn, so I made a new one out of bed frame.
In the third pic, you can see how I made one to roughly the same dimensions of the original. I installed that and felt that the platen was short, or rather too low for me to lean in and see finer work I'd want to do. So, a made a longer platen, with the top inch narrowed to the width of the belt for getting into corners and such.
This machine has a much lower sfm/ rpm than my old Craftsman Taiwan 1X42 sander. So far that has not hindered working on anything. I like the 1x42 size for sharpening drills, doing rough shaping/ sharpening of larger knives and tools. I also find this handy for small wood projects, like fitting new handles to chisels. I must say that my Craftsman 1x42 is really nice because you can rotate the position of the belt from vertical to horizontal. You'd be spending over $400 for a Kalamazoo that can do that. For as spindly as I thought this model looks, it actually feels quite solid in use.
In the third pic, you can see how I made one to roughly the same dimensions of the original. I installed that and felt that the platen was short, or rather too low for me to lean in and see finer work I'd want to do. So, a made a longer platen, with the top inch narrowed to the width of the belt for getting into corners and such.
This machine has a much lower sfm/ rpm than my old Craftsman Taiwan 1X42 sander. So far that has not hindered working on anything. I like the 1x42 size for sharpening drills, doing rough shaping/ sharpening of larger knives and tools. I also find this handy for small wood projects, like fitting new handles to chisels. I must say that my Craftsman 1x42 is really nice because you can rotate the position of the belt from vertical to horizontal. You'd be spending over $400 for a Kalamazoo that can do that. For as spindly as I thought this model looks, it actually feels quite solid in use.
