Looking for a cheap price on drive belt (rubber) for belt sander
 

I have a Ryobi belt sander that uses a Bando S4.5M drive belt (with cogs on the inside).
The web sites I've checked are selling this belt for $15 to $20. This is a small belt
about 4 1/2 inches long. These prices seem to be way on the high side, I know that much
larger automotive fan belts wholesale for $1-3.00. I'd like to find somewhere to
purchase this belt, or a generic version, for a price that reflects its real value.
Anyone know about this?

John

"jbclem" wrote in message
...
I have a Ryobi belt sander that uses a Bando S4.5M drive belt (with cogs
on the inside).
The web sites I've checked are selling this belt for $15 to $20. This is
a small belt
about 4 1/2 inches long. These prices seem to be way on the high side, I
know that much
larger automotive fan belts wholesale for $1-3.00. I'd like to find
somewhere to
purchase this belt, or a generic version, for a price that reflects its
real value.
Anyone know about this?

Hate to bust the balloon, but you're paying for rarity, not weight.

jbclem wrote:
I have a Ryobi belt sander that uses a Bando S4.5M drive belt (with
cogs on the inside).
The web sites I've checked are selling this belt for $15 to $20.
This is a small belt
about 4 1/2 inches long. These prices seem to be way on the high
side, I know that much
larger automotive fan belts wholesale for $1-3.00. I'd like to find
somewhere to
purchase this belt, or a generic version, for a price that reflects
its real value.
Anyone know about this?

John

You might try your yellow pages for a bearing distributor in your area.
They normally carry drive components such as toothed belts.

Or search McMaster-Carr at www.mcmaster.com

They may be cheaper, but not likely by much.

Good luck,

Tim

I have this belt sander, and was interested in buying one myself 'cause
I have a tendency to burn the belts up by stalling the drive roller.
I'm pretty sure this is the mcmaster carr part number, but I would
check. 7887K72 I don't have my sander handy, so I wasn't sure of some
of the dimensions and tooth shape. Go to the mcmaster carr homepage at
www.mcmaster.com and scroll down to the section called power
transmission. Click on the entry called timing belts. then follow the
menus clicking on the specs you know. It will gradually tighten the
criteria until it finds your belt. My guess is the belt has
trapezoidal teeth, and you want an endless spliced belt.

I called Ryobi customer service and they sent me a new belt for free.
Mine was about a year old, but they didn't care, and didn't even ask
for any proof of purchase. It took a couple of weeks, but free is
good.

Be sure and keep the belt tight enough that it doesn't skip cogs when
you load it down. On my unit, that means tightening the belt until the
unit stops somewhat faster when you turn it off. It seems like that
would be too tight, but it works fine this way and I can stall the
motor without jumping cogs. It's the jumping that eats up the belt.

One of the local belt supply stores (here in Idaho Falls) cuts them for
me from a piece of wide belt stock to the sixe I need. I just called
them with the part number. they run about $7.00 each.

You should check with a local industrial belt supplier and see what
they can come up with.

Thanks for all the good suggestions. I'm trying Ryobi first, even though my belt sander
is an older model it hasn't been used much and the belt that broke looks almost new.
We'll see how generous they are...

John


"jbclem" wrote in message ...
I have a Ryobi belt sander that uses a Bando S4.5M drive belt (with cogs on the
inside).
The web sites I've checked are selling this belt for $15 to $20. This is a small belt
about 4 1/2 inches long. These prices seem to be way on the high side, I know that
much
larger automotive fan belts wholesale for $1-3.00. I'd like to find somewhere to
purchase this belt, or a generic version, for a price that reflects its real value.
Anyone know about this?

John

Actually, according to suppliers I've spoken with, what we're being asked to pay for is
corporate greed. In this case Ryobi's greed, as they've refused to provide much
information to consumers and suppliers in order to force them to use and provide only
Ryobi OEM parts. I'd bet they sold at least 100,000 of these sanders, each one with a
drive belt. Does that sound like a a rarity? Graingers sells similiar looking belts
for $3-4.00, which is about what they are worth.

I tried Ryobi to see if they would let me have a free belt...no luck there, I'll next go
to the local Graingers to see if I can match up with a $4 belt.

John




Hate to bust the balloon, but you're paying for rarity, not weight.






"jbclem" wrote in message ...
I have a Ryobi belt sander that uses a Bando S4.5M drive belt (with cogs on the
inside).
The web sites I've checked are selling this belt for $15 to $20. This is a small belt
about 4 1/2 inches long. These prices seem to be way on the high side, I know that
much
larger automotive fan belts wholesale for $1-3.00. I'd like to find somewhere to
purchase this belt, or a generic version, for a price that reflects its real value.
Anyone know about this?

John

"jbclem" wrote in message
...
Actually, according to suppliers I've spoken with, what we're being asked
to pay for is
corporate greed. In this case Ryobi's greed, as they've refused to
provide much
information to consumers and suppliers in order to force them to use and
provide only
Ryobi OEM parts. I'd bet they sold at least 100,000 of these sanders,
each one with a
drive belt. Does that sound like a a rarity? Graingers sells similiar
looking belts
for $3-4.00, which is about what they are worth.

I tried Ryobi to see if they would let me have a free belt...no luck
there, I'll next go
to the local Graingers to see if I can match up with a $4 belt.

John




Hate to bust the balloon, but you're paying for rarity, not weight.



You get a crick in your neck from looking over your shoulder for those
conspirators sneaking up on you?

This is probably the only company/sander/blurfl in the world which uses
unique parts.

Here's the final result of the search for a cheaper drive belt. The local Ryobi repair
parts dealers were selling it for $17-22 plus shipping (it was a special order and no
one was really sure it was available). Some web sites were selling it for between
$15-20. Graingers sold its version (made by DixieSales) for about $15 but wanted $5
handling charge plus shipping of $6-7. Graingers tech support was very good and
supplied me with a lot of information, sent me a parts breakdown w/Graingers parts
number for the belt sander,and gave me the DixieSales part number, and also confirmed
the Bando part number. Checking Graingers web site was a waste of time, they list Ryobi
as a manufacturer they carrry but their search machine couldn't find anything from
Ryobi. Same with the Graingers 800 number for sales. But fortunately Graingers has a
repair parts division whose computers are different, and they had all the Ryobi parts
information.

After all that I checked the Bando web site, found about 10 Bando distributors in the LA
area, the list price for this belt was $10.30. I ordered it, plus $5 for shipping plus
sales tax.

Lesson learned: next time Ryobi will be last on my purchase list. I heard over and over
from tool dealers and suppliers how hard it was to deal with them. And contrast this
with buying repair parts for my high speed Dremel tool. Most of the parts were $1-4,
shipping was free...one time they sent me the wrong parts (it was my fault and I
admitted that to them) and they didn't even blink before they offered to send the
correct ones for free. Free shipping, reasonably priced parts. That's a company that
wants repeat customers.

It was a lot of work to save a few bucks, but I learned a few things so it was worth the
effort.

John



"jbclem" wrote in message ...
I have a Ryobi belt sander that uses a Bando S4.5M drive belt (with cogs on the
inside).
The web sites I've checked are selling this belt for $15 to $20. This is a small belt
about 4 1/2 inches long. These prices seem to be way on the high side, I know that
much
larger automotive fan belts wholesale for $1-3.00. I'd like to find somewhere to
purchase this belt, or a generic version, for a price that reflects its real value.
Anyone know about this?

John