I bought a stick of abrasive belt cleaner from Woodcraft. I then read online that you could use old rubber soled shoes for the same purpose. Anyone ever try this? Know of anything else that cleans sandpaper belts?
Stoutman, wrote the following at or about 5/17/2007 4:07 PM:
Finding them is the trick. They are referring to those old crepe soles. You'll recognize it you can find them as they look (same color and texture) the same as the belt cleaner you just bought. Amber/tan and semi-translucent?
They do work. Came across a pair of kid's shoes at a garage sale and figured "for a quarter, why not?" It worked but obviously a bit thin and flexy for my tastes.
I would not use black sole shoes, Desert Boot soles maybe. The real deal is pretty cheap and lasts a very long time. Much longer than the soles on your shoes. ;~)
Also, this is pretty good for cleaning a belt that is loaded with saw dust. Not so good for removing paint, varnish, or burned spots.
Needs to be _pure_ rubber, without non-rubber fillers in it. Otherwise you clog the belt with carbon black faster than you're cleaning it.
Yellowish-tan translucent soles are OK, so long as they're not polyurethane. Really cheap canvas sneakers made in South East Asia (but not China) seem to still work.
My own belt cleaner is a slab of pure rubber that was a salesman's sample of liquid latex -- around 40 years ago, before it set in the jar!
The old Pro-Keds sneakers had a rubber sole And the newer canvas off shoots from Wal-mart have them also.
RE: Subject
IMHO, strictly over priced and under peckered.
A poorly performing belt is a waste of both time and money.
Lew
I had a tube of silicone set up in the tube. Stripped the tube off, works pretty well on the 6x48.
Power off, of course, but I use a file card or a brass flux brush.
Rubber soles of the crepe type work fine. You can get a belt cleaner that works as well as any other from Harbor Freight for a few dollars. It looks like a giant eraser, about 2X2X8 inches when new.
II found a pair of those shoes, but I can't get my leg up that high to clean the belts.
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