Jump to content
I Forge Iron

Cheap reliable high grit belts available belt sander


Sam Salvati

Recommended Posts

What size of sander are you looking for? If you want cheap, you can always check out Harbor Freight. They stock a couple of 1" x 30" (one with a 5" disc attachment, the other without), and they also have a couple of 4" x 36" sanders. The 1" x 30" go from $40 for the standard and $60 for the one with the disc. Both 4" x 36" are about $90. I dont know exactly how reliable they are per say, after all you get what you pay for, and its not the $$$$ professional equipment. I have/had a couple of their 4" x 36" grinders (for linear grinds on long blades). I burnt the motor out of one of them due to heavy use (grinding 3-4 hours straight, every day). What happened was the upper roller got cloged and jamed with a bunch of grindings, and when I turned it on, the belt wouldnt move, rather than shutting it off immediatly, I grabbed some WD40, and tried to loosen things up, and as a result of the motor not turning and circulating air for awhile, the motor overheated. I got a new one, which I oil often, and I havent had any problems since. Dont know if that would be what you are looking for, but I thought I would throw it out there.
And if you need abrasives, I get mine from Abrasives, buffers, grinders, handle material, knife making suplies and more They have a good selection of belts for just about any sized grinder, and in the higher grits as well, and they are fairly reasonable price wise.

Personally I am hoping to build myself a grinder soon, one with more versitility and design specifications for blade work. Just need the time, and to wait for the budget to loosen up a bit.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

ApprenticeMan,

I got the 4x36 belt sander from Harbor Freight about four weeks ago. So far it has been a decent tool. I have only two things that I have noticed that could be better. One, the belt will track a little goofy belt to belt, so it requires a little track adjustment. (which the adjustment is pretty simple to do) And two, if you really wail away at the metal and try to hog off alot of stock at once, it does bog a little. Othe than that for now it is an OK tool for me.
Oh, FYI, arbor freight sanding belts are relativley cheap and hold up very well.

Good Luck

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I bought the Grizzly knife grinder for armouring. I like it. I will probably make some curved plattens for it, and I wouldn't mind having a smaller diameter drive wheel for grinding deeper into inside curves. I will probably get some flap wheels to solve that, though. I bought the belts from a merchant on ebay. I don't recall if I just used her site, or purchased multiple auction lots.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...