I’m looking to take on a product that requires finishing/polishing/sanding 2” extruded aluminum tubing.
Finish doesn’t need to be anything fancy just removing the raw extrusion marks and making it look nice - a simple brushed or sanded finish.
A belt grinder centerless grinding setup like the Fein GX75/GXC setup would be great if I had more shop space and 3 phase power…
Any great ideas for small shop low budget here? I bought and Vevor tube polisher/grinder and am experimenting with how to fixture the tubing for best results.
Any DIY centerless grinder setups for a regular belt sander?
If you have a lathe (metal or even wood) you could look to mount tube blanks between cone centers and either wire brush/wheel the rotating tube or manually sand it with sandpaper. All depends on the tubing lengths and the number you have to do. After getting rid of the extrusion marks you could even easily polish the pieces on the same set up.
Yes, I’ve thought about that very thing. I have a circa 1900 metal lathe but it isn’t quite long enough for 48” workpiece. And I don’t want all that sanding dust all over the beat up ways.
But I have thought about building something like that out of wood, bearings pulleys, and a motor that slowly rotates the tube on centers.
You might try supporting the tube to be “finished” on plastic rollers (cheap skate wheels or casters) and applying a suitable finishing disk/wheel in a angle head grinder or buffer, or one of those Harbor Freight surface conditioning tools w/ a fine drum.
Here’s a short video of a set up I made to polish brass tubing. I used my Reeder belt grinder that has variable speed control (just make sure you start at the slowest setting ) and pulled the drive wheel off and made a coupling to hold the tube. Other end has a bearing the Perfect size but won’t be hard to make a spacing collar if needed. Works exactly as I needed it to.
I tried grinding between fixed centers, quick improvised setup. About 1 minute per foot with a pretty even finished product. Worked pretty well but room for improvement in a few ways before its ready for show time.
So I’m building a pioneer style wood lathe, minus the drive system, but with pillow block bearings at both ends. Then I’ll turn a couple plastic cone centers and be in business. Adjusts to any size up to over 48”. Add a motor, drive pulley, and tool rest and I’d have a dedicated wood lathe.
Long enough wood with adjustable “tailstock” to turn 4 ft + tubes. 1/2” pillow block bearings with oak cone centers from a salvaged table leg. Let the tube sander auto-rotate the work or better, put a drill on there to set the pace. It’ll probably get a few improvements as I go along, but this works really well and is a great place to start.
What do you guys recommend for sandpaper - zirconia or ceramic? And are those “surface conditioning” belts that look like Scotchbrite any good on aluminum?
I’ll put the corded drill on there once I really get into it. The spring clamp holds the trigger down. 3/4” gr 8 bolts are total overkill but were in stock and the right length.
The cordless drill for first test I ran on slow. A corded drill with the trigger clamped down will go full tilt which is probably ok. The tube sander is variable speed if I needed to slow it down for some reason.
) and pulled the drive wheel off and made a coupling to hold the tube. Other end has a bearing the Perfect size but won’t be hard to make a spacing collar if needed. Works exactly as I needed it to.