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Dropped $340 on a used edge sander at a yard sale in Garland, and it almost cost me my thumb and my sanity
So about 8 months back I'm driving through Garland on a Saturday and see this old Rockwell edge sander sitting in a driveway with a $340 tag on it. The guy selling it says his dad ran a cabinet shop for 30 years and it "just needs a new belt." I hand him the cash before my brain even catches up. Get it home, plug it in, and the thing screams like a banshee and the platen has a dip in the middle you could hide a pencil in. Spent the next three weekends tearing it down, new bearings, new belt, shimmed the platen flat with feeler gauges and about four hours of cursing. First real job on it was a set of maple drawer fronts and it cut so smooth I actually laughed out loud in the shop. Then the tension spring let go on a face frame pass and the belt shot past my hand by about an inch, which is when I learned why the old man sold it. So now I'm the guy who checks tension springs on every used tool before it comes in the door. Anybody got a source for old Rockwell springs that doesn't involve paying more than the machine cost?
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claire_butler11mo ago
How did you actually figure out the spring was the problem before it bit you? I ask because on my own rebuilds I have caught cracked platen welds and shot bearings, but a spring that still holds tension at rest can look fine right up until it lets go under load. Did you test it under real cutting pressure or was it just luck you found the wear? Also curious what the belt did when it shot, did it scar the platen or just scare the daylights out of you?
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