Another belt sander thread

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I've had a 1x30 HF belt sander for about ten years. It wasn’t perfect by any standards, but for the $25 I paid for it was a very useful, even nice little cheap sander. Well it died this winter and I picked up another. I wasn’t looking for anything better just another that was at least equal to what I had. They were selling for over $40 ish and the darn thing was crap to put it nicely. It was missing one of the rubber feet, the belt tension didn’t work at all and the tracking knob didn’t work either. Basically it was an unusable sander. I took it back and wile at HF I looked at another one and saw the same problem with the belt controls. So I am now on the hunt for another cheaper but useable belt sander. Any suggestions? Hopefully anyone I’ve recommended these HF sanders too got something much better than the current batch of sanders I saw.
 
I definitely second the Kalamazoo. I'd buy mine again in a second, it works tremendously well.
 
WOW doesn't look like there are many 1x30 out there. Does anyone have the Grizzly? The Lee Valley 1x42 without a moter looks like a great price. Anyone useing that one?
 
That's a Viel S5. I bought mine with a 1/4 hp motor directly from Viel Tools. I also have a 1x42 Kalamazoo and a 2x42 Craftsman. All have their place, but the Viel is the most used and most versatile grinder of the three.
 
I've heard good things of the Veil as well, although it seems that a lot more people use the Kalamazoo. That may just be due to ease of availability in the US, however.
 
The best spot I've found for the Kalamazoo is ENCO, they've always got them in stock and for a reasonable price. That's where I got mine from. :)

They're running a sale right now, just got the email the other day, actually:

While the summer may be coming to a close, there's still time to take advantage of some great summer savings! With the Enco end of summer sale, you can take an additional 15% off your entire order (excluding machinery), with no minimum order requirement!

To take an additional 15% off*, simply enter Promo Code: ESUMC prior to checkout.

Hurry! Offer ends Friday, 8/12/11.

All The Best,
The Enco Team

I know they say "excludes machinery" but that seems to apply to only the larger stuff they have (lathes, bridgeports, etc) and not to grinders, you still get the 15% off on it.
 
Ditto that. One caveat though, call them to make sure they have the item in stock. Although I didn't mind, I had to wait a month to get mine while it was on backorder. They won't call or write to tell you there is a wait. And they don't post the info on the website.

Do the same thing if you order from Viel. They ship once every two weeks via freight into the US. With customs, etc, it will take a long time to arrive anyway.
 
Ouch, didn't know that one! I must have just gotten blind lucky then, they shipped mine within twelve hours. Call is never a bad idea, I guess!
 
Too me the Grizzly looks to be the same as the HF. Made in the same place maybe? I'm really leening towards the Viel. Couldn't find it on their web site just found motors for it, wierd. The Lee Valley without a motor will most likly
be the one I get. Looks like that can be set upright or on its side. changeofseasons is there much difference between the Viel and the Kalamazoo? With the Enco summer discount that one looks like a winner also.
 
http://vieltools.com/detail.php?p=NTQy
Everything is under the "sharpening" category

Motors... the Viel has a 1/4 hp Marathon motor. The Kalamazoo has a much nicer Baldor motor. Both motors are reversible, but it's easier to accomplish with the larger control box on the Kalamazoo.

Beyond that, I'm not sure the Kalamazoo has much on the Viel. They are both vertical 1x42 grinders, although the Viel can be put on it's back and run horizontally. Both have simple spring loaded tension. The idler/tracking wheels have opposite issues. Both are metal; aluminum on the Viel and painted steel on the Kalamazoo. The Kalamazoo has a rubber drive wheel that can conceivably be used for some contact grinding. The Viel's drive wheel is aluminum, a larger version of the idler wheel. The platen and table is much lower on the Kalamazoo than it is on the Viel. The Viel's platen is night and day better than the Kalamazoo's. It's thicker, straighter, and exactly 1 inch wide. The Kalamazoo's platen is a painted piece of bent steel sheet. It's impossible to do any real knife grinding on the Kalamazoo platen. The Viel also has an optional knife sharpening attachment for putting flat bevels on knives. There is a scissor sharpening attachment and many more.
 
Thanks changeofseasons that is a great amount of help. Looks like the viel is going to be my choice.
 
I agree, the platen on the Kalamazoo is AWFUL. There's a guy on another forum that makes a superb fix for that, though, so it doesn't really bother me. My use of the platen is extremely infrequent anyway, I do all my sharpening about a half inch above it in the slack.

The Baldor is an extremely powerful, quiet and long-lived motor, I've run it for over an hour straight without any trouble or even any significant heating.
 
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