Material: Steel and Aluminum
Units: (in)

Here’s another nice set of plans for the Miscellaneous category, submitted by Bill P. Here’s what Bill had to say about his 2″ x 42″ Belt Sander:

“A little background: 2-3 years ago I got them off the HSM forum from member George B. The sander is a good resemblance of an existing commercially available sander – I have seen pics of a couple but don’t know what brand. At a later time I asked George – through the HSM forum – if he minded my giving copies to a couple friends and he readily agreed, so Ive been parceling them out here & there ever since.

As typical of us HSM’ers my friend and I tinkered around with the plans — as drawn, they are for a 2×42 size, but 2×42 belts can be a bit of a problem to locate, and get a selection of grits, whereas 2×48 are readily available and in a wide assortment of grits, so — we just added 3″ to the height of the frame! Also the plans don’t show a table & platen or any type of belt guard so we got that on our versions also.

There can be a bit of a snag to making the sander in being able to find the 2 wheels – especially the 6″. Since I had done all of Dave Gingery’s projects and had a furnace, I just made a mold and cast the wheels. Have heard of guys using casters, and supposedly, laminated wood!. And apparently, there are some commercially available wheels the knife makers use in making their big belt sanders — that’s where the scrounger in you can shine!

And speaking of “scrounging” — the first one I made was in the 2×42 size (how I discovered the scarcity of that size belt!) and I used what ever was laying around the shop. I had a 1hp 1750rpm motor and a piece of 1/4″ plate steel, so I made it up using that. The motor was non-reversible so I had to devise a jack-shaft. I later got a 1hp 3350rpm (you really need the 3350rpm!) motor and a nice piece of aluminum so I made the next one in the 2×48 size and added the table, platen and guard.”

- Bill P.

Update (12/18/2009): Fransisco sent me pictures of his completed sander a few weeks ago. Here’s what he had to say:

Hi Tyler!!
I want to tank you for share this plans. I built it and can say this sander is very useful tool. I’d love it!!. I Live in Brazil and the belt used was 1″ x 48″.
Well, tanks again!!
Regards
Francisco

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Material: Steel
Units: (in)

These plans are for for a tube and pipe bender similar to the Hossfeld #2 bender (pictured). It looks like these plans may have been circulating for some time. I found them on Don Kinzers’ website, and Don found them on a website that no longer exists. These plans don’t exactly fall within the Mill or Lathe category, so I’m going to put them in a new Miscellaneous category.

Below you’ll find links to 2 different zip files containing identical plans in 2 different formats. The first is in .jpg format, the second is in .dxf format (only useful if you have AutoCad or similar software installed on your system).

  bender.zip (2.1 MiB, 2,198 hits)
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  bend_dxf.zip (242.3 KiB, 950 hits)
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Material: various
Units (mm)

As luck would have it, I came across a site by a fellow from Florida named Ernie. Ernie is an accomplished machinist and hobbiest who will happily share his engine plans with others upon request. I asked Ernie for a set of plans for his internal gear engine and he quickly fired a set off to me via e-mail.

In his email Ernie recommended that I visit the site of a machinist that Ernie considered to be of truly exceptional talent – a man from the Netherlands named Jan Ridders.  Now, I had just finished admiring Ernie’s work, so if there was a machinist out their that produced work that Ernie admired, it was definitely worth a look.

I was amazed. Jan’s website documents several of his projects, most of which are engines, all of which are amazing. And again, as luck would have it, Jan is also willing to share his plans with his visitors upon requets. I quickly emailed Jan and mentioned that I had set up projectsinmetal.com and I asked him if he would be willing to donate a few plans for my visitors to enjoy. He agreed.

Because this site is focused on offering plans suitable for the beginner, I asked Jan for his most simple, straightforward set of plans for each of his 3 categories. Stirling Engines, Internal Combustion (IC) Engines, and Flame Eaters. Obviously all three plans would be considered advanced projects by anyone new to the hobby, and therefor they will all be listed under the “Advanced” category on this site.

Below is the PDF file that Jan provided for his “easiest and most reliable” stirling engine – the Coffee Cup Stirling Engine. Here’s a video of a few different versions of this engine in action:

Be sure to visit Jan’s website for more inspiration!

And if you don’t have enough materials in your scrap bin to build a stirling from scratch, they’re are tons of great kits on Ebay and books on Amazon to get you started. Just look below. Be aware, however, that most kits on Ebay aren’t ready to assemble, they just save you the time of gathering up all the necessary materials. Usually machining is still required to complete the kit . . . which is kinda the whole point.

  Stirling_Coffee_Cup_-_Jan_Ridders.pdf (1.6 MiB, 7,155 hits)
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