Thread: Mystery Gilbro piece

I reckon it was a power supply for a lineshaft system, the drum is about smack bang on for size for one

Thanks DJ,
That had crossed my mind too. I guess if someone had line shafting in their shop and wanted to install a single, smallish electric motor to power the shop it would have been a reasonable way to do it.
I'll probably use the table to mount an old Power King 10" combination disc and belt sander machine that I picked up in the US when I was living there. It needs a motor and a stand so this will work as the stand and I can mount a motor on the lower shelf.
RG

Definitely intended as a drive unit for something, my first guess was a linisher using a long belt (2.4m x 150-200mm wide) and a turn around at the far end, as used in metal polishing shops. Speed would probably be about right with a 1440RPM motor, but changing belts could be slow with supports on both ends, would need to use tools etc. Other option would be a line shaft drive update unit, but the motor would need a relatively small drive V pulley or the line shaft would need a relatively large pulley to map motor speed to an appropriate line shaft speed.

I suspect that the wooden drive wheel may have been custom made by the original users to sort out speed issues, though it appears to be in the size range for a long belt linisher. I'm leaning toward a line shaft drive unit at the moment.

I have a Gilbro 10inch table saw/ 4 1/2inch jointer combo and have seen a number of these combo's, plus the individual saw or jointer with or without a single unit or double unit heavy pressed sheet metal frame around over the years. The spelling used for these units was always Gilbro. I worked in the metal trade from 2002 to 2006 and Gilbro was still operated by the brothers in Preston then, though they were getting on in years and only doing jobbing work at the time. One of our product ranges was a various size/shape chrome plated plate legs for chairs and sofas, and we were regularly having the plates laser cut elsewhere and having Gilbro grind both faces in their Blanchards, then we were pre polishing them, welding them, dressing and final polishing, then shipping them out for plating.

Hi Malb,

I am trying to make contact with you coz you seem very knowledgeable about Gill Bros in Preston and I was hoping that you might be able to help me with a couple of pieces please. Thanks Jane

Have replied to your message, fire away

I thought that I'd post the images of the marriage of the Power King Disc and Belt Sander to the Gilbro modular cast bench.
I glued a couple of pieces of yellow-tongue flooring chipboard together to make a benchtop, attached those to the assembly of the 4 Gilbro cast panels making up the small stand. Then I used a 1hp motor from an Onga pump that I had lying about. I needed to turn up a small bush to fit an old 3" pulley to the shaft and I routed a slot for the belt to go from the drive pulley down through the benchtop to the motor and it was all done apart from the mounting and wiring of an on/off switch on the end of the bench. Et voila!

Now to find a belt in the extremely common 4" x 37 and 13/16 inch long size...

Here's a few pictures.
Power King Belt and Disc Sander Manual-compressed.pdf
Disc and Belt Sander (1a).jpgDisc and Belt Sander (3a).jpgDisc and Belt Sander (2a).jpg

I tried to attach the manual for the sander but I'm pretty sure that the attachment will fail.
Cheers,
Richard