Found an old Hobart sander

[SlowCoder]

Hey guys. Been a long time, but I've always remembered you

I ran across something I think is pretty cool. I've always liked old equipment, whether it be woodworking or vintage electronics. Today, as we turned into the neighborhood, we came across a trashed cabinet laying in the middle of the road. Obviously the owner had left it on the side of the road standing up, and it had toppled. We stopped so that I could push it off the road and behind it was a really cool old sander. I ran home and grabbed my truck to pick it up. The owner says it worked, and was just not being used and he needed to get rid of it. The owner's father had fashioned a table on the front (seen in the pics).

I remember using sanders similar to this in Shop class in high school 20 years ago, but haven't seen one since. I know the ones in Shop were old even then because the teacher, who I still periodically keep in touch with, was very good at their upkeep. Unfortunately, when the school was torn down, and they decided to discontinue the Shop courses in favor of Technology, all of the equipment was dumped. What a waste.

Anyway, I've attached pics of this sander. It's a Hobart. I couldn't find a year, but one of the labels says Model 2727. A search on the web was unfruitful.

So, what I'd like to see if you know is:
Is it a good find?
When was it made? (I'm thinking around 1950's-60's)
Is it easy to get or make replacement sanding discs?
Are parts easily available in case it's not working properly?

[HayZee518]

looks like a table type disk sander. you can use a product made by 3M - DISK ADHESIVE to hold the disks on the face. It seems to me that the motor is a split phase fractional horsepower motor with a centrifugal switch in one end bell and its start capacitor is on the base of it. shouldn't be any problem getting parts.

[SlowCoder]

looks like a table type disk sander. you can use a product made by 3M - DISK ADHESIVE to hold the disks on the face. It seems to me that the motor is a split phase fractional horsepower motor with a centrifugal switch in one end bell and its start capacitor is on the base of it. shouldn't be any problem getting parts.

Ok, so lets break this down a bit ...

you can use a product made by 3M - DISK ADHESIVE to hold the disks on the face.

Do you just peel the old paper from the disc and glue new paper on, or do you replace the whole disc?

I see the sander has course paper on it. Is it most common to utilize this type of sander for course work, and use smaller sanders for the fine jobs?

the motor is a split phase fractional horsepower motor with a centrifugal switch in one end bell and its start capacitor is on the base of it.

By its name, is a centrifugal switch designed to keep the sander at a certain RPM? What is a start capacitor?

Forgive the ignorance. I'm no guru.

[HayZee518]

the product made by the 3M company is called "feather disk adhesive." it is available at any automotive repair store [advance auto parts, autozone etc] it is smeared on the backing plate - allowed to dry. then a disk of paper is applied to it. when that wears out you should be able to put another clean disk without smearing the goo on the disk again.
A split phase motor has two windings. a run winding and a start winding. the start winding is used just to start the motor spinning, then it cuts out. Inside one end bell of the motor is a start switch that is used with something called a "flyball." the flyball is fastened to the motor shaft and is spring loaded. when the motor rpms is up to running speed, the flyball "kicks" in and disconnects the capacitor from the circuit.

[SlowCoder]

Thank you HayZee518. That helps a lot. Believe it or not, I actually understood most of that.

I was showing the sander to a friend of mine here at work. He told me that Hobart makes/made food preparation machines; slicers, grinders, etc. So now I'm thinking this device may not have actually started out as a sander, but was fashioned into one. Interesting indeed.

[HayZee518]

Besides what you said, Hobart also makes/made welders. They got their start in the food preparation business. Hobart meat slicers is the majority of products they made.