Belt Sander Recommendations

I've put off getting a benchtop belt sander for some time but really cannot rely on my ancient hand belt sander or 1" dremel sander anymore. I'm leaning towards belt/disc for versitality but may go belt only if those exceed my budget. Recommendations? Hoping to stay under $100 if possible but will consider up to $200.

Reply to
Casper
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There are several varieties of benchtop belt sander that are intended for different purposes. Could you say a little bit about what you plan to do with it?

Reply to
J. Clarke

I have an old reliant brand (from Post Tools) 6" belt, 9" disc sander that sits on a bench (came with a short sheetmetal stand[*]). I haven't found the belt part of it particularly useful, however. I occasionally will use it as a grinder substitute when cleaning a badly chipped plane blade or chisel, but haven't found it particularly useful for wood. Bought for $179 in 1995.

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Looks just like this:

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[*] Repurposed to support a General International bench mortiser after adding castors to the stand and raising it by 12"
Reply to
Scott Lurndal

Specifically what do you want to do with it. What size parts or job?

None that I have seen are impressive, IMHO. I have one with a 6" disk and 4x42 inch belt. I am not sure exactly where it is.

The small disk sander is good for light work. I have a dedicated 12" disk sander for heavier type work. The belt tends to bump with every revolution as the splice passes underneath. I'm sure this is a belt issue but every belt that I have bought does this. I would hope that larger belt machines would have a better belt available.

ANYWAY, most likely all of these small type combo machines will be of very similar quality and meant for light sanding.

Reply to
Leon

It is a good plan to get one with a dust collection fitting. Those things can make a lot of dust. I have a Delta which I have had for years and use it all the time. The disk is aluminum and the set screw will not stay tight, but otherwise it is handy. Belt change is a snap but it has a peel and stick disk which I dislike.

Reply to
G. Ross

I was looking at this one. It seems like the best deal in its class (one from Sears for instance looks the same at a higher price). You can also get it for 11% off periodically, and it was on sale last December (Christmas sale) for $179.

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Bill

Reply to
Bill

What size do you want and what do you want to use it for? You won't get much for $100, even $200.

I have a 9"/6" disk/belt combo. I use the disk with some frequency but rarely the belt. And when I do use the belt, I am generally using the idler to sand a concave curve.

Some things to consider...

  1. Get something with a good, solid table. Preferably cast iron and attached in such a way that there is NO deflection. Decent miter gauge too.

  1. For the disk, slower (1750 rpm) speeds are better . I never use anything finer than #80 grit on it but I still have to be careful not to burn the stock (it is 3500 rpm). Grizzly has a 12" disk sander in your price range, speed is right but table is aluminum. I could live with that and if I had it to do over I'd spring for the largest disk (no belt) I could afford.
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They have other sanders in your price range too, I have always found their tools to be decent value for the money.

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Reply to
dadiOH

A little smaller and with more power,

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or if you are going to do quite a bit of sanding, bigger might be better.

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Reply to
Leon

At $100 you won't even find much at ToysR'Us

For double that you can get this.

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Decent for the money, I've found it to be adequate for my needs. It has dust collection and is easily changed from belt to spindle and back.

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

EB4424/100061671

Agreed. I like mine. The spindle is of more use to me than a disk would be. And if you really need a disk, I like the one that mounts on my tablesaw. One with a tapered disk.

Reply to
Larry Blanchard

Yes, at closer to $500, the Jet 12" disk sander makes the others look way-overpriced (I've run my fingers accrossed the cast iron...a comparably huge table too...). . It's like comparing Bessey clamps to those from Harbor Freight... That said, I don't need one yet. I'm sure if I had a Grizzly store nearby, I'd have more machines! :)

Reply to
Bill

Casper wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

I have a Delta, 4xsomething belt and 6" disk, dates to the early 90's. This model used to be exceedingly common as it was sold by Home Depot et al.

I use it extremely rarely. The disk is somewhat more useful than the belt, since you can fine tune miters and the like, but you can do that with a block plane just as easily. It does generate vast amounts of sanding dust which get all over everything.

*If* you were set on getting a stationary sander, I'd say bigger is better, especially the disk, and effective dust collection is essential.

However, my reccomendation would be to kill two birds with one stone, and replace the ancient hand-held with a newer model that can be clamped upside down on the workbench in the rare cases a stationary sander is needed.

John

Reply to
John McCoy

To be used mostly on projects that require lots of sanding or edge treatment. Scroll saw or handcarved pieces. Used on multiple things like smoothing and rounding edges, small to medium (less then 12" square) pieces and rounding certain handcarved edges.

The 1" Dremel I currently have is ok for small things but not great. I've thought about replacing the belt with leather and using it to hone my carving knives. I know carvers that use the HF 1" belt unit.

I tried an oscillating sander on a scroll saw piece and found it too aggressive. I can see where is it useful for curves but not so much for straight lines.

To make simple frames for my work I thought an belt/disc sander would work keep things flatter. Also I could swap out the belt and touch up my knives when neeeded.

I would love to have a floor unit but I do not have the room. Ergo my looking into benchtop units. I need a versatile sander that isn't huge in size or price.

Thanks for all the input so far!

Reply to
Casper

I saw this unit at Lowes this morning, on sale for $159 (instead of $179, I think) It is 4"x8". In comparison, the 6"x9" unit from Menards is 7.5 Amps, instead of 5. But to it's credit, the Porter Cable at Lowes had more metal parts AND

*2* tables/fences.

PORTER-CABLE 5-Amp Benchtop Sander

ORTER-CABLE 5-Amp Benchtop Sander

Reply to
Bill

-------------------------------------------------------------------------- I have always found these combo disk/belt sanders to be total losers.

OTOH, a spindle sander is most useful.

The combo unit from HD for $199 looks like a winner for the $.

I made a 12" disk sander and got a lot of use out of it. The belt sander combo was my personal loser.

Lew

Reply to
Lew Hodgett

I've put off getting a benchtop belt sander for some time but really cannot rely on my ancient hand belt sander or 1" dremel sander anymore. I'm leaning towards belt/disc for versitality but may go belt only if those exceed my budget. Recommendations? Hoping to stay under $100 if possible but will consider up to $200.

This recommendation will likely be unlike anything else you'll read here, but I'd suggest that you look around on eBay and try to find a good used Bosch 1274DVS 3x21 belt sander. Here's an extremely old Rockler link that talks about it:

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It's no longer offered new but you can occasionally find a good used one on eBay, as I did. The thing that makes it really useful is that in addition to its normal use as a hand-held sander it's designed to be mounted temporarily on a bench either belt-up or belt-vertical. It takes me no more than a couple minutes to mount mine on my bench in either orientation, and it gives me most of the utility of a stationary sander. If you can find a full kit on eBay you'll get most of the attachments you need to set it up this way, and other attachments can also be found on eBay without too much difficulty.

Tom

Reply to
tdacon

If you're talking about the Ridgid combo belt/spindle oscillating sander, it works quite nicely. Might need some fiddling to get the platen flat--they use some special sticky tape as shims behind it and sometimes it's not quite shimmed right. As it comes sanding is quite aggressive, but it can be tamed quite easily--Klingspor has belts up to

600 grit and McMaster has sleeves up to 320.
Reply to
J. Clarke
:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------->> I have always found these combo disk/belt sanders to be totallosers.>>>> OTOH, a spindle sander is most useful.>>>> The combo unit from HD for $199 looks like a winner for the $.>>>> I made a 12" disk sander and got a lot of use out of it. The belt>> sander>> combo was my personal loser.>>>> Lew----------------------------------------------------------------"J. Clarke" wrote:> If you're talking about the Ridgid combo belt/spindle oscillating> sander, it works quite nicely. Might need some fiddling to get the> platen flat--they use some special sticky tape as shims behind itand> sometimes it's not quite shimmed right. As it comes sanding isquite> aggressive, but it can be tamed quite easily--Klingspor has belts upto> 600 grit and McMaster has sleeves up to 320.-------------------------------------------------------------That's the one.Lew

Reply to
Lew Hodgett

I didn't find the sander on eBay but I did find this...

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What about this one?

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Reply to
Casper

i do not know about belt sanders but my bosch jigsaw is pretty nice

what ever you get it will be interesting to know your experience with it i have been thinking about getting a belt sander

Reply to
Electric Comet

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