Lets talk sanding belts

S

skeetlee

Active member
I bought a china special, belt grinder/polisher/sander on line a few weeks back. This unit takes 2"x82" belts. 2"x72" belts are a lot more common for this type of sander, so i am having a hard time finding the belts i need. I want belts with 320, 400, 600, 800, 1000, and 1500 grit but the only thing i am finding is aluminum oxide. From my research it appears to me that there are better choices out there for stainless, compared to the aluminum oxide.
What type of belts do you fellas use and prefer, and where can i get some belts made?? Lee
 
I have a strong preference for Norton "Norzon" belts. BUT they don't cover all grits, so for those others I fall back to 'regular' Norton belts. I'm not one of those folks that thinks you can't do good work with import stuff, but abrasives are one place you will really notice a difference. I'm sure there are other good brands, I certainly haven't tried them all, but when I got around to trying Norton they were so much better than anything else I'd tried that I've been brand-loyal ever since.

I have never heard of anyone making belts to custom length - good luck with your search. You might also take a hard look at your machine and see if there's a way you could modify it to take a more common size.

GsT
 
You might look and see if you can shorten something on your machine to make it a 72"

McMasters might make belts to size.
 
3M makes great belts as well. As good as Norton in my experience. No other brands seem to last as long. I have never needed them, but apparently custom belts are readily available. Here is one supplier: http://customsandingbelts.com/ Google has lots more.

RWO
 
I can use 72" belts with my unit, but im polishing on the top side of the unit. The dust spins right into my face. With the double wheel attachment the barrels spin just above my belt line. Much better positioning.
what type of belt do you all prefer? Do you simply use aluminum oxide, or something other than? Lee
 
Call Sandpaper of Texas at 214 340 8383 and talk to Jared. They have the belts available in the 2X82 size in all the grits. I get all of my Klingspor products from them. They are a complete abrasive supply and will drop ship to you.
 
skeetlee said:
I can use 72" belts with my unit, but im polishing on the top side of the unit. The dust spins right into my face. With the double wheel attachment the barrels spin just above my belt line. Much better positioning.
what type of belt do you all prefer? Do you simply use aluminum oxide, or something other than? Lee
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Greg, You need to use a face shield with a belt sander. Never had a belt to come apart?

It just an extra protection that might save serious injury,

Do it for the girls...


.
 
Full face shield on a belt sander working as you described would be a much better option than just safety glasses. Wouldn't hurt to add a respirator to the mix as well or at least some sort of dust mask. The dang grit and such has a habit of bouncing in the most unorthodox ways. I 've had a couple situations where someway/somehow crud got past the face shield and safety glasses and into an eye. Believe me when I say those nano sized tools the doc uses to get something out start looking like steam shovels real quick, quite un-nerving.
 
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skeetlee said:
I bought a china special, belt grinder/polisher/sander on line a few weeks back. This unit takes 2"x82" belts. 2"x72" belts are a lot more common for this type of sander, so i am having a hard time finding the belts i need. I want belts with 320, 400, 600, 800, 1000, and 1500 grit but the only thing i am finding is aluminum oxide. From my research it appears to me that there are better choices out there for stainless, compared to the aluminum oxide.
What type of belts do you fellas use and prefer, and where can i get some belts made?? Lee
Click to expand...


The blue Zirconia ceramic abrasive belts I think last somewhat longer than the brown aluminum oxide belts. Both are made by Norton. There's some other belts made like the orange Blaze belts. The problem with many of those for sanding barrels, is that you can't really take advantage of their self sharpening properties if you are using a slack belt setup for sanding and polishing barrels. They require a lot of pressure at the point of contact to really cause the abrasive to fracture and self sharpen for aggressive stock removal. They work well if you are using the platen and can really put a lot of pressure against the belt with your part.


For the finer grits, 3m makes a trizact belt where they carefully control the abrasive particle size. The belts leave a noticeably nicer finish at any grit size. And for the belts above 320 I'd recommend looking at scotchbrite belts. They work pretty well for polishing.
 
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