Belt sander

A tracking mechanism for a belt sander comprising:

• a roller mount configured to hold a front roller of the belt sander;
• a pivot pin in contact with the roller mount and a sidewall of the belt sander;
• a tracking shaft extending through the sidewall and movable against a yoke attached to the roller mount, for rotation of the roller mount about the pivot pin;
• and
• a spring on an opposite side of the yoke from the pivot pin and tracking shaft and loading the yoke against the pivot pin and tracking shaft.

A belt tracking mechanism for a belt sander, comprising:

• a frame supporting an idle roller;
• said idle roller having an idle roller axle, said idle roller revolving about said idle roller axle;
• and
• a yoke supporting said idle roller axle, said yoke lying substantially orthogonal to said idle roller axle and allowing said idle roller and idle roller axle to freely translate along a longitudinal direction, while constraining said idle roller axle from movement along a vertical direction substantially orthogonal to said longitudinal direction,
• wherein a side wall of said frame contains a hollow groove, said yoke having a protrusion received by said groove to allow said idle roller axle to freely translate along said longitudinal direction while constraining said idle roller axle from movement along said vertical direction substantially orthogonal to said longitudinal direction.

A belt tracking mechanism comprising:

• a frame supporting an idle roller, revolving about an idle roller axis, a drive roller, revolving about a drive roller axis and a platen disposed between said idle and drive rollers;
• a longitudinally extending side wall of said frame;
• a longitudinally-extending yoke slideably supported by said side wall, said yoke supporting said idle roller, said idle roller axis substantially orthogonal to said yoke;
• said yoke freely translatable along said longitudinal direction while being substantially constrained from movement along a vertical direction orthogonal to said longitudinal direction;
• and
• a mechanism for adjusting a degree of parallelism between said idle roller axis and said drive roller axis, said mechanism connected to said frame and configured to adjust a degree of angular separation between the side wall of said frame and said longitudinally extending yoke, said degree of angular separation formed by said mechanism moving said yoke in a lateral direction relative to said side wall, said lateral direction substantially orthogonal to said longitudinal and vertical directions, wherein:
• said mechanism for adjusting the degree of parallelism between said idle roller axis and said drive roller axis comprises a threaded thumbscrew extending along said lateral direction, a fork slideably supporting said yoke and attached to said thumbscrew;
• said yoke contacts said side wall at a protrusion contact point received by said side wall, and said threaded thumbscrew is located at position longitudinal to said protrusion contact point;
• and
• said side wall of said frame contains a hollow groove, said yoke having a protrusion received by said groove to allow said idle roller axis to freely translate along a longitudinal direction while constraining said idle roller axis from movement along said vertical direction substantially orthogonal to said longitudinal direction.

A tracking mechanism for a belt sander comprising:

• a roller mount configured to hold a front roller of the belt sander;
• a pivot pin in contact with the roller mount and a sidewall of the belt sander;
• and
• a tracking shaft extending through the sidewall and movable against a yoke attached to the roller mount, for rotation of the roller mount about the pivot pin, wherein the yoke is mounted within slots of a tracking box that is mounted on the sidewall.