Belt and Disc Sander

[Tony DimnickParticipant @tonydimnick84271]

I bought this machine basically for use sharpening lathe tools etc.

I was testing it, and on using the belt a great amount of vibration occurs when applying pressure to the belt with the work.

Does anybody have experience of using a similar tool? Can they tell me the reason and hopefully cure for this problem

[Tony DimnickParticipant @tonydimnick84271]

[HOWARDTParticipant @howardt]

Vibration can be caused by the joint of the belt. I have a 6" belt with 9" disc that I bought from Axminster about 20 years ago and the skived belt does rattle a bit. I use belts from Machine Mart and they do the job but the skive is a bit lumpy. I have used industrial ones and even they can be lumpy. Perhaps some one here has used belts from other suppliers and can comment.

[not done it yetParticipant @notdoneityet]

These items come in differing quality – from cheap and cheerful to the high end where they are far more robust. What is yours?

I've got a couple. One is far better than the other.

[Speedy Builder5Participant @speedybuilder5]

Not really the right tool for sharpening tools. Its for sanding etc isn't it ?
BobH

[VicParticipant @vic]

I have a belt and disc sander that I regularly use for sharpening tools. Robert Sorby actually sell a dedicated belt sander for tool sharpening.

**LINK**

It's sounds like you may be using "scarffed" jointed belts rather than butt joined. Look for belts that are joined with the blue tape on the back.

[Tony DimnickParticipant @tonydimnick84271]

Thank you guys for suggestions. Yes, this is a cheap one I got from a friend. So do you think I can just replace the belt? Or should I buy a new machine?

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Just replace the belt.

The lapped belts are OK for wood, but I managed to burn them out in minutes on metal. Blue tape butt jointed belts work wonders and will even rough out HSS tools.

Neil

[Clive FosterParticipant @clivefoster55965]

Try a decent belt first then consider replacing the machine.

I swopped my Draper belt & disk sander, about 1/4 decent so it did an acceptable job, for a RJH Antelope band-facer which is much, much better performer than I'd anticipated. Proper pro ones are better still but this beast runs them fairly close. Objectively I paid far too much money for it and its Gryphon grinder mate but both have effective built in vacuum dust collection stands and, after 30 odd years, all the sweeping, hoovering, wiping and complaining about dust getting everywhere was getting a bit old. £900 worth of old in this case!

The uber cheap belt and disk sanders can be awful. Wide tolerances and "Customer paid, passed QC" issues. Depends on your luck. Some are, accepting their inherent limitations, fine out of the box. Some need a bit of titivation and some will always be ruff as a badgers backside. Rare to find one that is irredeemable but considerable sensitivity to belt tracking adjustment is common and can test your patience. You'd have thought that the spring tension systems would have lessened the sensitivity as compared to the solid screw adjuster type but thats not been my experience. Quality belts really help here. The Draper OEM ones I got with mine usually needed a tweak at each start up and about every 15 to 30 minutes in use.

Bargain belt multi-packs aren't good idea. The joint doesn't last forever in store and decent belts last so long that you will rarely change them. Best to get the disks when you needed them. The stickum stuff is pretty much past its sell by date after a year or so. Takes a lot longer before it really won't stick any sense but everything works better with a properly stuck on disk.

I found a cheap Picador plain bearing spindle linisher to work much better than it had any right to do. Objectively a rather better performer overall than the Draper belt and disk one that replaced it. But I needed the disk and bigger belt. Soon learnt the little tricks and techniques to get the best out of the Draper. The Draper was a perfectly adequate tool but I was always aware of working around its limitations.

Clive.

Edited By Clive Foster on 25/09/2017 11:13:44

[Annia PalmerParticipant @anniapalmer22032]

You didn't mention the brand of machine.

The vibration could be coming from the platter running out. If you can see the back corner of the platter and could put a pencil point up to it, and turn the platter by hand, then you could see if the platter has run out in relation to the pencil point.

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

Stan Bray sugests that a belt sander is a good idea for tool sharpening in his book "Introducing the Lathe".

Ian S C

[Brian WoodParticipant @brianwood45127]

I got fed up with the poor lifetime of cheap belts and splashed out on German made Klingspore belts for my machine.

These are 150mm wide of 1220mm length, 80 grit which looks like garnet. I bought a pack of 10 from the local tool hire shop and paid £54 for them, VAT included. These were classed as wood working belts but I use them for everything including dressing up the bruised faces on lump hammers used by the dry stone walling group and finishing the re-cut chisel ends on their walling hammers, having shaped them roughly with an angle grinder.

I still have 7 of these left to use after nearly 6 years from that purchase, the usual cause of failure is belt drift sideways which rips up the sides of the belt caused by the rather imprecise tensioning device on the machine which suddenly lets go before you can catch it.

The machine is a cheap Chinese Perform belt and disc sander with the comic single bar wobbly fitting for the side table. The belt however runs flat and does what I want of it and is now infinitely better for replacing the disc faceplate with a home made version in place of the flimsy distorted horror it was equipped with that gave nothing but vibration.

The professional belts are worth the cost in my view

Regards

Brian

[mechman48Participant @mechman48]

I have one of these, cheap & cheerful, and can easily stall if you put too much pressure on. Good enough for wood, aluminium, cleaning up brass, MS, etc. only two grades of belt available though, 80 & 120 grit, would like to see finer grits e.g. 280, 320,400 etc. The scarfed joints do click as they come round but overall it does what it's designed for simple DIY & tidy up. tracking is simple enough with a yellow adjuster & stays fairly on track once set up. It will move with excessive lateral pushing tho'

Any finer polishing I have to resort to emery paper/cloth, starting out with 180 grit & working my way through 240, 320, 400, 600, then onto wet & dry 800, 1000, 1500, plus elbow grease! I do have a couple of buffing wheels & polishing rouge for any last bit of clean up.

**LINK**

George.

[VicParticipant @vic]

I use 60 or 80 grit belts on my machine but I do have some 240 grit paper belts that give an almost polished finish. Although my machine is designed to take 150×1220 belts I’ve fitted a 50mm wide auxiliary platter to my machine so I spit the standard belts into three for tool sharpening. I’ve also had some success with making my own belts from rolls of abrasive.

[MWParticipant @mw27036]

Contrary to what some others have said, I actually find the Chinese sanders okay, I got a 4" warco belt sander and ive only ever used the standard belts on it, and it works fine if you use it properly. Make sure the tracking is right, make sure the belt is going in the right direction for the joint.

The drive can get gummed up with wood dust but it's not a major issue.

Michael W

[Author]

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