From:
Don Dougan <hidden@xxxxxxxx>
Date:
Wed, 25 Oct 2000 23:58:56 -0400
Subject:
belt sander
John;
Quoted text begins.RE: ". . . thought I'd get a belt sander. How's that for an idea? Can
I buff with it as well as sand?"
End of quote.
For alabaster (or other soft stones) no problems
sanding, even to finer grits. As far as buffing --
What do you plan to use? I don't know of anything a
belt sander would drive that could be used to buff the
stone. Of course the type of sanding you can do with a
belt sander is somewhat limited: excellent on flat
surfaces, good on broad convex surfaces, and in concave
surfaces you are limited to the radius of the front
roller of the sander. For what they are good at they
are great.
For efficient sanding on marble or stones harder than
alabaster you need to use silicon carbide (SiC)
abrasive. The standard belts for a belt sander are
brown/dark red aluminum oxide, or the more expensive
blue/purple color-coded belts (aluminum zirconia?). The
standard belts dull very rapidly on harder stones and
marble, while black silicon carbide belts do not.
The trick is to find silicon carbide belts - they are
not very common. I don't know where in the world you
are, but in the USA the following information will
apply:
Silicon carbide belts are used by stationary water-fed
power sanding tools the glass industry employs to
sand/grind the edges of flat glass. At least one of the
belt sizes that these machines take is also a size of a
commercially-available portable belt sander. This size
is 3" x 24", which Makita, Porter-Cable, and several
other manufacturers make. The belts to fit the glass
grinding machines are stocked by the local supply house
for the flat-glass industry, as well as being supplied
to some of the stone industry supply houses - Gran
Quartz is one.
Silicon carbide belts can also be special-ordered
through mail-order houses that cater primarily to
woodworkers, such as The Sanding Catalog or Klingspor.
They can also be special-ordered directly from the
abrasive manufacturer like 3-M or Norton if you do it
through a retailer (or directly - in the unlikely event
that you have your own retail distributorship set up).
Special-ordering of belts allow you to purchase sizes
that do not fit common sanders -- I have special ordered
3" x 18" belts to fit a handy little belt sander that is
lighter weight and less tiring to use than my big belt
sander.
A word of advice about "industrial" special ordering
from Norton or 3-M: often you will have to order a
minimum quantity per size of belt, subject to discretion
of the 'manufacturing run.' That means that when you
sign the order for 5 boxes of ten belts you might be
agreeing to purchase up to 10 boxes of ten belts . . .
and if you are ordering a range of 4 grit sizes times 5
boxes each of belts the price quickly mounts. Several
years ago this writer ordered what is described above
for a estimated price of about $250 - when the order
was delivered however, I received almost twice as many
belts which I was obligated to pay for by the terms of
the written order, and the resulting bill was almost
$500. I said to myself, "Well, OK, it will just be that
much longer before I have to re-order." Unfortunately,
the adhesive that is used to join the belts degrades
with time, and about $100 worth of belts never even got
a chance to wear out before the adhesive failed, leaving
me some rather expensive hand sanding 'strips' 3" wide
and 18" long. Live and learn.
Good Sanding to you,
Don Dougan
- Follow-ups
- message 00644: belt sander - Janet Roddan & Reto Marti (28 Oct 2000)
- message 00651: belt sander - aaron johnson (26 Oct 2000)
- References
- message 00647: belt sander - Elvin (25 Oct 2000)
- Previous by Thread: message 00649: belt sander - GeorgeJulieJessie Graham (26 Oct 2000)
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