I have the larger version & the belts available from MM are adequate for all metals.

George.

Standard brown/red emery belts eat metal at a surprising rate, I even rough out HSS on mine these days as it is easier to set up angles accurately than offhand grinding

I find the lapped joints on the MM belts lead to rapid wear at the joint followed by earlier failure when used on metals.

I sourced some belts with taped joins from MSC recently and so far still on the first one.

Neil

Stan Bray in his book "Introducing the Lathe" advocated the use of the belt sander for sharpening HSS lathe tools. With the belt vertical, and a suitable tool rest, just the thing.

Ian S C

I'm told that the industrial ones that usually have a 4" or so wide belt can get things surprisingly flat. Not sure how it would work out on the hobby come woodwork ones as the belt run is a lot shorter.

The Chinese have also been know to finish off certain lathe beds with a linisher of sorts – belts in other words rather than grinding wheels. They must be similar to the wood working ones for sizing very thin panels with some added complications. The machine I was told they used this on had a dovetail bed. Saddle fit to the bed wasn't it's problem. That aspect was fine.

John

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Edited By Ajohnw on 02/12/2016 13:27:26