I was in the hardware shop looking at the Belt sanders (they remind me of a electric planer)
Has anyone ever tried one of these for sanding the filler coat, instead of or in combination with a normal disk type sander? I was thinking if used on the bottom (especially the bottom rail overlap), as it is quite flat it would give a flat finish if long tail to nose strokes were used.
I tried to use one for sanding down some plugs the other day. It sucked. If you try it, make sure you don’t put it on an egde or you will be sorry. Damn powerful things. FWIW I think your better of with just about any other type of sander as long as it has flexible backing pad.
regards,
Håvard
Thanks for the feedback I have never used one or seen one in use.
agree. a belt sander is not the ideal tool for sanding boards. too powerful and lacking the finness necessary to do the job. The belt is to narrow to get a large surface area which would lead to a very uneven sanding job. Plus, like Haavard said, get the thing on edge, even by a fraction and you’ll burn through to foam a lot quicker than you’d think.
Stick to a 7" sander/polisher and leave th belt sander for wood floor refinishing.
Drew
MichaelJohn,
Not impossible, but hard to develop the “touch” you need with a belt sander. A small belt sander will just roll front and back and defeats the purpose you’re after by not having the longer deck as a longer planer sole has. On the other hand a large belt sander is so heavy it can go to China on you in a hurry. With a regular orbital sander it’s hard to make a major mistake, but a belt sander can cause a big “oops” in a milisecond. Just not the right tool for the job on foam in my opinion, since there are more efficient and “safer” alternatives to getting the job done.
You may have already done this, but take a piece of wood, any length you desire,8’,12", 18", make sure it’s dead flat (run it through a jointer). Buy an appropriate length sanding belt that you would have put on your belt sander and cut it open and to length so it can be glued with spray adhesive (3M 77 works good) to the board. Not as fast as electric, but only takes a few more minutes than the loud electric version with a lot less chance for the big mistake.
Last year I glued up a beautiful multi stringered balsa blank. I admit I used a large 4"x24" belt sander to true up the blank, but it’s a tool I’ve had for 15 years and I knew the feel of it (still scary). Decided then to make a tricked tricked out sander in teak with cork sole, with handle and a knob in front that’s fashioned like a long hand wood jointer plane. It’s equipped with fancy pressure hold down wingnut fasteners to hold the sand belts by wrapping them instead of gluing (to change grits). The kind of deal Doc would like. Took longer to make than to shape a board. Pretty overkill, but makes me smile as I sand, and a conversation piece in my shop. You’d think I could figure out how to post a pic, but I don’t have a clue. Trade shop instruction for computer knowledge??
Thanks to Doc’s instructions, I’m attempting to enclose a pic of my teak sander. I can quickly change out different grit paper by loosening the wingnut screws and clamping in a new paper, but prefer to just leave on the 60 gt. for flattening down and smoothing out. Just an overkill version of glueing sandpaper on a 2x4.
Impressive work. How’d you make it?
a much simpler one can be made with two 2x4’s two cabinet knobs and some thread all drilled 1" into the bottom 2x4 and glassed in. Put a small ridge on each end to hold the paper and your done.
unplug that idea
OK thanks guys Idea is now unplugged I’ve got the message. I will stick to the 8’’ sander /polisher I have, but I will give the sand paper glued to the wood a go, Thanks