How many use a fixed belt sander ?

[nearnexus]

It's always interesting looking at photo's of peoples workshops and seeing what machines are featured - it's usually the bigger expensive stuff like lathes, surface grinders, pillar drills and mills.

Yet one machine I use on a very regular basis for deburring, facing, and polishing, seems absent in a lot of those workshops and I wonder whether many people use or own one of these great items.

It is of course the humble fixed belt sander.

I built mine up many years ago from a unit I got at a garage sale which was originally intended to be driven by an electric drill via a flexible drive cable.

This was pretty cruddy arrangement and explained why it appeared to be relatively un-used.

I modified it to something more practical and it's now direct driven with a 1250 rpm 240 volt motor I rescued from a hard refuse throw out day.

Doing it this way the relatively slow belt speed enables me to hold small items against it without them going into orbit, taking out a window, or grinding my finger tips down.

Really useful machine.

So how many of you modders have one of these?

[Pete49]

I have a el cheapo gmc sander. Has a disc on the side and he belt can be vertical or horizontal.
It works on both metal & the brown stuff so its a win/win for me
Pete

[nearnexus]

I've seen those units in Bunnings.  I wondered how fast the belt goes.

Is the belt speed slow enough that you could hold the flat side of a steel washer against it with one finger without the washer taking off?

[PekkaNF]

Those sanders save a day, when you have to break a corner (sometimes cut some corners too:) or shape some mysterymateria with secondary geometric requirements.

Most of those comes out of chinamarts are more or less useless (too litle power, wrong type splice on the sanding belt, wron size of sanding belt, too weak shoe behind of the belt.....) but they are beter quarded. I would fit guards to protect my fingers from inrunning nips close to rolls.

I think these or something like that are called linishers in UK? Other names?

Pekka

[GerryB]

G.Day Each,
I purchased a small vertical Linisher in the UK .
It was cheap and worked well.
I tried explaining the unit to the company i was working for and in the   end took it to work where the boss was very pleased with it.
He never purchased one so i took it back home.
It sits on the bench and is used on most items that have been through the Miller or cut on the Band Saw.
Its a marvel at removing sharp edges and will also give a polished finish if needed.
The belt supplied with the Linisher lasted quite  some time so that when i tried to  get a replacement the usual suppliers did not have any information on it so i had to order 10 that they had made to special order.
I would not be without it now.
GerryB

[Baldrocker]

Is the belt speed slow enough that you could hold the flat side of a steel washer against it with one finger without the washer taking off

Nearnexus
Try holding the washer or other workpiece with a magnet. A stack of 6 or 7 20mm rare earth magnets works well.
Readily available on Ebay. Have to say my small GMC linisher is used often.

br

[nearnexus]

A magnet sounds like a good idea.

These linishers/belt sanders are great as others have also said - particularly for removing burrs and sharp edges.

I use mine on most jobs to finish off the sharp bits.

Sometimes I even just rub the metal on the belt without the machine even going, to just polish up a small piece.

Here's a good tip regarding the belts - mine also takes a non available (obsolete) narrow width belt.

So what I do is get one the right loop size but twice as wide (readily available) and tear it down the center to make two out of one.

Being cloth backed you just cut a small slit in it in the centre with a knife, fold over at that point and tear down.

Got that idea from a local mob selling the belts.  Works a treat and they cost half the price of a regular belt as you get two out of each one  

[loply]

I have a 3hp one which takes 2m belts, with a VFD it can do up to 30sfm/s, it absolutely EATS metal alive, but can also be slowed down to a crawl and used with smooth belts for gentle polishing etc.

I built it for knife making but never really made any knives  Will post some pics of it at some point.

[fixerup]

Greetings everyone,
I can't agree more, the belt sander is one of my favorite shop tool.
I use it a lot for sharpening knives, axes and tool bit. I find doing the tool bits on the belt sander is easier for me, maybe because I'm working against a flat edge and it also gives them a nice polished sharp edge. Breaking the edge of a part is so easy do to and quick with a belt sander. I like to sharpen pointy things on it, example I'll put a center punch or an awl in a hand drill and spin it opposite the belt and sharpen them off, not precise but it will do the job. I also do my screw cut deburring the same way.
I've made a holder to put my motorcycle rockers on a shaft and rotated the rocker to  polished the damaged edge from a wrong valve geometry adjustment.
Just be careful if you use it for wood and metal, I've once started a little fire    Make sure you vacuum up the wood dust before doing some serious metal sanding.
I've bought this used, Craftsman 6X24 and 8" disc sander, for $65, 20 years ago and I'm still in love with it. My favorite shop tool the belt sander.
 
Phil

[Jonny]

I have had three of those cheap and nasty B&Q also known as other brand names inc Nutool. None have lasted more than a couple of hours when i used to do a bit of woodwork. Steels and alloys, forget it the friction generates too much heat which appears to come through should we say rather quick, like 3 secs.
Didnt remove hardly any material either but left rounded edges, major grooves which needed filing out, better off with wet and dry from scratch , far quicker to end product.

A specific batch production job 4 yrs ago required a lot of deburing on small parts, went out and bought one of them cheap Machine Mart 1" belt and disc sanders. Did what it was asked to do and payed for itself, however its not even been started up since whatever i want to do i have a better tool for the job.

In all not for me.

[Bryan]

Love my Multitool: http://www.justtools.com.au/prod3183.htm.

[doubleboost]

Hi
Fancied a one for a while now i will buy one
I use a 12 inch disc sander for pattern making it is just the job for putting tapers on to patterns
John

[nearnexus]

These are the sort of machine you could easily make up, especially if you have a lathe.

They are just two (or three if you use one for tensioning) rollers and a motor.

I looked at a Ryobi one yesterday in passing and it was junk, and quite expensive junk at that considering the amount of plastic in it.

[Pete49]

I've seen those units in Bunnings.  I wondered how fast the belt goes.
Is the belt speed slow enough that you could hold the flat side of a steel washer against it with one finger without the washer taking off?

no a bit fast but I got used to it. It keps the figernails trimmed The magnets is a great idea, thanks br
Pete