Belt sanders - will cheap and cheerful do what I want?
 

I have a couple of doors on my boat and sundry other bits of woodwork
that need the flaking varnish removed before starting again.

I have detail sanders and an 'orbital' sander (doesn't go round and
round, it vibrates orbitally I think) but they don't really remove
stuff quick enough.

So, I'm thinking of getting a belt sander, anything from £30'ish up to
silly money (to my mind) for the 'posh' names.

This cheap one from Screwfix seems to do the job according to reviews
the-

http://www.screwfix.com/p/energer-en...230-240v/55570

Will I miss much by not spending ten times a much?

--
Chris Green
·

Belt sanders - will cheap and cheerful do what I want?
 

On 28/11/16 20:29, Chris Green wrote:
I have a couple of doors on my boat and sundry other bits of woodwork
that need the flaking varnish removed before starting again.

I have detail sanders and an 'orbital' sander (doesn't go round and
round, it vibrates orbitally I think) but they don't really remove
stuff quick enough.

So, I'm thinking of getting a belt sander, anything from £30'ish up to
silly money (to my mind) for the 'posh' names.

This cheap one from Screwfix seems to do the job according to reviews
the-

http://www.screwfix.com/p/energer-en...230-240v/55570

Will I miss much by not spending ten times a much?


A belt sander isn't really a good tool for flaking varnish on doors. If
you need to remove the varnish completely it needs to be stripped with
chemicals or heat and scraping. If you are going to varnish on top of
the old finish it needs only light sanding.

A belt sander will maybe melt the varnish and make a mess, maybe sand
too deeply into the wood, maybe the belts will clog. Even if you find
you can delicately remove the finish from the flat areas you will never
get into the corners and crevices in the same way.

TW

Belt sanders - will cheap and cheerful do what I want?
 

On 28/11/2016 21:57, TimW wrote:
On 28/11/16 20:29, Chris Green wrote:
I have a couple of doors on my boat and sundry other bits of woodwork
that need the flaking varnish removed before starting again.

I have detail sanders and an 'orbital' sander (doesn't go round and
round, it vibrates orbitally I think) but they don't really remove
stuff quick enough.

So, I'm thinking of getting a belt sander, anything from £30'ish up to
silly money (to my mind) for the 'posh' names.

This cheap one from Screwfix seems to do the job according to reviews
the-


http://www.screwfix.com/p/energer-en...230-240v/55570

Will I miss much by not spending ten times a much?


A belt sander isn't really a good tool for flaking varnish on doors. If
you need to remove the varnish completely it needs to be stripped with
chemicals or heat and scraping. If you are going to varnish on top of
the old finish it needs only light sanding.

A belt sander will maybe melt the varnish and make a mess, maybe sand
too deeply into the wood, maybe the belts will clog. Even if you find
you can delicately remove the finish from the flat areas you will never
get into the corners and crevices in the same way.

TW

A belt sander is a great way of ruining timber. A random orbit sander
with a coarse 40 grit disc will quickly strip varnish & also give a
smooth finish with a finer 80/120 grit.

http://www.screwfix.com/p/energer-en...230-240v/3065g


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman

Belt sanders - will cheap and cheerful do what I want?
 

On 28/11/2016 20:29, Chris Green wrote:
I have a couple of doors on my boat and sundry other bits of woodwork
that need the flaking varnish removed before starting again.

I have detail sanders and an 'orbital' sander (doesn't go round and
round, it vibrates orbitally I think) but they don't really remove
stuff quick enough.

So, I'm thinking of getting a belt sander, anything from £30'ish up to
silly money (to my mind) for the 'posh' names.

This cheap one from Screwfix seems to do the job according to reviews
the-

http://www.screwfix.com/p/energer-en...230-240v/55570

Will I miss much by not spending ten times a much?

The first belt sander I bought was a budget affair (NuTool) and with
hindsight it was pretty poor and soon became unusable. It was large,
loud, the belt speed was quite slow, dust collection poor, and the real
killer was the belt tracking. Like most it had a knob to adjust the
tracking, but the chassis of the machine was made of plastic, and that
could not maintain the alignment of the belt well enough. So as you
changed sanding pressure it caused the belt to track one way or another.
Over time the tension on the belt also deformed the chassis until it was
no longer possible to actually track the belt at all.

(not saying the above will be like that - but just an illustration of
what a poor one can be like)

I replaced it with a s/h Makita from ebay (paid about £60), and that has
been a radical improvement - small, quiet (ish), fast, and rock solid
tracking. The dust collection is very very good (it captures pretty much
all of it).

A 3" belt sander is probably a better bet than a 4" wide one IMLE unless
you are doing larger areas.

Belt sanders seem to get a bad press due to their ability to gouge wood
if not used with care, however I would say that the reputation is a
little undeserved - and no reason to avoid using one. Although have a
bit of a practice on something not important first if you have not used
one before!

Used with care they can give a very good finish. They can remove stock
fast or slow depending on belt. The key to success IME is to keep it
moving, and keep it flat on the work. Don't apply much force - just
slight pressure in addition to the weight of the machine. Sand mostly
along the grain - but you can rotate it off the axis a little to
increase stock removal rate. So long as you don't leave it sat in one
place it won't burn or gouge.

Align yourself with the grain. The power on the sander and lower it onto
the work. Keep it moving in a nice flowing motion - perhaps 6" per
second travel rate. Sand up toward the end (don't let it tip over the
edge though) then start pulling it back toward you. shift over a bit to
the side on each stroke. You may find for really aggressive sanding you
can use a combination of up and down strokes, first with with it canted
clockwise a bit (say 30 degrees), then again canted the other way, then
again straight on, slowly working across the width each few strokes.
Always work back and fourth in the same axis the belt is running in -
never side to side as you might with other sanders.

I use mine frequently for fine furniture work. With an aggressive belt
(40 or 60 belt) its great for tidying up panel glue ups - taking off
squeeze out, and getting rid of any slight level mismatches. (it can
actually be difficult to make much impression on the harder hard woods
otherwise). For a belt sander 120 is about as fine as you need (the
grits don't seem as aggressive as they sound on this type of machine)
After that you can go to a random orbit or orbital for final finishing.

Both of these surfaces were done mostly with a belt sander:

http://wiki.diyfaq.org.uk/index.php/...teSideView.jpg
http://wiki.diyfaq.org.uk/index.php/...terFromOil.jpg

That's the sander:

http://wiki.diyfaq.org.uk/index.php/...ardSanding.jpg


--
Cheers,

John.

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Belt sanders - will cheap and cheerful do what I want?
 

John Rumm wrote:

[snip long and very useful post]

Thanks John, that's given me lots to think about.

--
Chris Green
·