Belt sander wanted
- Thread starter Pat M
- Start date
What make/model did you have? Did it perform satisfactorily when it was working?
That should give people an idea of the quality level tool you're expecting to get.
That should give people an idea of the quality level tool you're expecting to get.
Bob. It was an old B&D that I got as an Airman back in my Air Force days.
It worked well for a long time. Now I'm looking for a 3x24 model since I have tons of belts already. Makita or Porter Cable maybe.
The only currently-produced 3x24 I see out there is the Makita. It's $300+, but will last you for decades.
I was going to suggest a Porter Cable 360 as a cheap alternative, but they've been discontinued. They had good balance over the platen. The Makitas I've worked with all had a balance point on one edge of the platen and thus gave that characteristic Nike swoosh when you changed directions.
I've spent a lot of time restoring the Porter Cable 503 sanders and those are my absolute favorites for a light weight sander. The Porter Cable 500 4 x 27 is, of course, king of the hill since Porter Cable discontinued the BB10.
I see lots of 360s on the bay but the condition varies from ragged out junk to mint condition and they all seem to be offered at the same price range.
You don't want to get into restoring the 503s. It will take me about three days to rebuild one and good parts are getting hard to fine. I've got five restored ones and probably would do more if I came across some that were worth restoring.
For reference, Model 500, BB10, and 503 (shown without dust bags.)
The 25 pound PC 500 next to a hand plane
I've spent a lot of time restoring the Porter Cable 503 sanders and those are my absolute favorites for a light weight sander. The Porter Cable 500 4 x 27 is, of course, king of the hill since Porter Cable discontinued the BB10.
I see lots of 360s on the bay but the condition varies from ragged out junk to mint condition and they all seem to be offered at the same price range.
You don't want to get into restoring the 503s. It will take me about three days to rebuild one and good parts are getting hard to fine. I've got five restored ones and probably would do more if I came across some that were worth restoring.
For reference, Model 500, BB10, and 503 (shown without dust bags.)
The 25 pound PC 500 next to a hand plane
If the belts you have are joined with a skive (lap) joint and are of a good abrasive, getting another 3x24 is good strategy. Those good belts with a good joint are getting harder to find. Sungold is the only one I know of these days but there may be others. The taped joint belts are a sorry cheap-out belt makers have gone to. That joint deteriorates over time and the belts become useless and frustrating, popping loose with less than 30 seconds of use. I've got some skive joint belts that are easily 20 years old that are still good but are of a grit I don't use often, but they still hold.
Belt popping loose within 30 seconds of use.
Belts from a 10-pack box of tape-jointed belts ready for the trash can. I had two boxes of these belts. The other unopened box went in the trash also. I've got far better abrasives for hand sanding.
There's only so many sanding block you can make out of those old belts.
These seem like very heavy units?
The 4x27 belt Model 500 weighs 25 lbs. It seemingly floats across a wide surface. I handle it with one hand generally.
The 503 that uses the 3x24 belt I use for smaller things. It weighs in at 15 lbs so I'll often use two hands on smaller surfaces.
The charm of that design sander is the gyroscopic stability of an in-line motor plus they are built to collect dust with a very powerful venturi fan.
PC 503 that uses the 3x34" belt
PC 500 that uses a 4x27" belt (the one on the left is a worn out sander that I was rebuilding)
I have stated here my taped sanding belt experience on NCWW before (skip this if you have read my monologue already), but I will re-post anyways. Please do note this is my experience, this is not necessarily predictive of what you will experience.
Short version: I have belts 10+ years old, stored in my cool dry basement that I can pull out and use anytime. This may or may not work for you.
Detailed version: I have purchased belts for my 6x48 floor model sander - well over 10 years ago. They have a taped joint. I have a box with a variety of grits from 80-320, After a bit of experience with taped joint deterioration on a few belts (but not understanding the cause), I bought this box of new belts and stored it in the basement of my house; there was no room in the shop for something accessed relatively infrequently. Now 10+ years later I am 100% confident that I can pull a belt out of the box and use it without issue; I have done this in the past 6 months, and that belt has been fine in (occasional) use for 6 months. My basement is climate controlled on the same system with the rest of the house, but is almost always cooler. So cool dry conditions. My shop is only climate controlled when I use it -occasionally heated in Jan/Feb and occasionally AC in other months to keep humidity down (like might need that today!).
I will tell you that these belts were purchased form Industrial Abrasives, before I knew much about Klingspor's or their product line; I can speak highly of the product, although I would likely use KWS as a local supplier today (and skip the mail order).
In my opinion only, I would expect that other brands would perform similarly under similar storage conditions, but I have NO experience and NO 'data' to back that up. I also doubt that I will ever buy such a large quantity of belts again (knowing what I know today about belt issues), so I may never be able to test my theory/opinion. I do have some offcut/bulk/bin purchased belts from Klingspor's that have been in my basement for a few years already - but these don't fit my sander so i won't be able to test them in use (I bought them to cut up for hand sanding).
6x48 belts seem to me to be in a totally different category from the smaller 3x24 as far as joint durability goes. My experience is much the same as Henry's with the 6x48 size.
Lots of great advice on your post, I plan on going to Klingspor next weekend and pick up some new belts.
