patting my younger self on the back (even though he only got a C+ or a B-)

  When I was in high school metal shop, for my senior year project (or one of them, I don't recall) a few of us built belt sanders, from scratch. Now, when I say from scratch, I don't mean we made our own ball bearings or motors or sanding belts.  Don't be silly.  But we did make both the top and bottom pulleys from scratch: we turned them on a lathe after cutting disk from billets we had cast under Mr. Lurie's watchful eye in the shop foundry from recycled cans and VW engine scrap from the auto shop.

 We bent plate steel and stick-welded it to make the frame.  And so on.  That's what I mean by "from scratch".

 It was a pretty dope school project for a high schooler, now that I think about it.

Now, the backing plate which went behind the belt was supposed to be TIG welded in place, because using stick would warp the 1/8" material too badly. No student I ever knew managed to get TIG qualified somehow, so in theory, Mr. Lurie, the instructor, was supposed to do that one weld for us.

 Somehow, he was always too busy working on his airplane project to get that part welded on mine.

 Also, I never got around to putting on any top coat, only primer, because I was busy working on Mr. Lurie's fucking air plane.

 So because it was incomplete, I got either a B- or a C+ for the project (I don't recall which) and it wasn't even my fault!  Oh, I was mortally outraged, I was.  Then I was mad at myself for not seeing it coming.

 But here's the thing; it is now forty years later, and I used that same belt sander again yesterday.  Not a week goes by that I don't use it for something, unless I am sick in bed.  It has been one of the best gifts I ever gave myself.  It is fucking indestructible.

 And it still only has primer paint on it, but I did just order some new rubber feet for it.  I noticed last week that the ones I installed 40 years ago are really showing their age...

 -={0}=-

 

<-- the upper pulley holder is just two straps with notches slotted into each other.  A compression spring inside the square tube riser keeps the belt tight.

 You can't hurt the top pulley by using it as a contact wheel, but it's solid aluminum, not soft, so it's not friendly toward delicate work.

  Note crown angle on pulley to help belt stay centered.

 Side shot of top pulley support showing simple construction from .125 x .7 cold-rolled strap.

 Mr. Lurie must have sold us pretty damned good dust-sealed bearings for those top pulleys, because they are still quiet and smooth.

 I wonder how many of my fellow students who built these over the years, kept them their entire lives, all the way into their retirement?

 Hey, we were rank amateurs at casting, and the "aluminum" was a really random mixture of stuff, so there were a few casting defects in our pulleys... but we did use actual top and bottom steel mold casings, "green sand" mix, a wooden form to make the billet, sprues, parting compound, all that.  Pounded the sand in ourselves, and so on.

 In 1976, when I entered Peoria High School, Peoria, Illinois, a student could graduate after taking metal or auto shop for four years, and go straight into a well-paid professional apprenticeship in any number of local large businesses.

 By the time I came home on leave from the USAF in 1981, one year after I graduated, not one of those jobs remained in existence.

 The midwest was a good place to be FROM...