wrote:
Hello,

Can anyone tell me: what is a belt sander used for? Is it more
powerful than other types of sander or are they all pretty much the
same; is a 120 grit a 120 grit no matter what machine it's attached
to?


A highy skilled carpenter once suggested I give my belt sander to someone I
didn't like very much :-) He described them as 'the fastest way to ruin a
piece of wood'!

I hardly ever use mine.

120 grit on a belt sander is completely different to 120 grit on an orbital
sander.

I have a 1/3 sheet orbital sander which is pretty good but for
stripping paint it can be slow, I thought a belt sander might be
quicker?

As others have said random orbit sanders are the way to go.


--
Dave
The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk
01634 717930
07850 597257

On Wed, 09 May 2007 21:16:32 +0100, The Medway Handyman wrote:

wrote:
Hello,

Can anyone tell me: what is a belt sander used for? Is it more
powerful than other types of sander or are they all pretty much the
same; is a 120 grit a 120 grit no matter what machine it's attached
to?


A highy skilled carpenter once suggested I give my belt sander to someone I
didn't like very much :-) He described them as 'the fastest way to ruin a
piece of wood'!

I hardly ever use mine.

120 grit on a belt sander is completely different to 120 grit on an orbital
sander.

I have a 1/3 sheet orbital sander which is pretty good but for
stripping paint it can be slow, I thought a belt sander might be
quicker?

As others have said random orbit sanders are the way to go.

As others have said they have their uses! I use my cheap LiDL jobbie for
taking off large amounts of material or smoothing wood (where I should
really use a plane :-)) and also rounding ends of bits of wood and
smoothing end-grain.

I also have on eof these
http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/cat/pro.jsp?id=12118
I bought it for stripping paint off a window frame but used it for much
else besides. Pretty useful.

--
John Stumbles

Fundamentalist agnostic