Belt Sanders

Triquetra

Triquetra

Joined
Mar 7, 2002
Messages
759
I hope this is the right place to post this. I am looking for a belt sander to start working on my knives. I was curious as to what width belt would be the best to get and what inexpensive models could be recommended.
 
I would recommend a 2" X 72" Grizzly sander. There is no other inexpensive belt sander that does as much.
Bill
 
For just sharpening..... Harbor Freight 1" about 40$ it'll do more than enough to pay for itself.

The grizzly is a step up but the wider belt can make it difficult on some blades such as major recurves and smallish size blades.
 
Harbor Freight has their own website, www.harborfreight.com . I have the $40 belt sander, have for awhile, and have no complaints about them. IIRC, I could also buy 4 of them for the price of the Grizzly that I was looking at.

Also, in regards to the question about putting a 1" belt on a sander designed for a 2", I have never tried this, but my sense is the belt would tend to travel left or right, thereby making sharpening difficult at best.
 
I'm not sure if there are any Harbor Freight outlets near Singapore. A little immigration to the USA could save Spyken tons of money on Matt Lamey knives and sharpening gear.
 
haha...yep Thom. it's a pity I'm 12 time zones away. makes it difficult to get good tools. actually, renting a 12x14 room in this urban jungle makes it difficult to set up any nice sharpening station...unless you wanna breathe all that dust when you sleep.

still, I'd like a belt sander set up someday, it would be nice to be able to put those Lamey edges on personally...
 
Hey spyken, For a similar sander to the harbour freight, try to find a RYOBI model EMBS200 belt/disc sander. As far as I can see from the HF pics on the net it is identical. I have one and found it easily here in OZ as I was just browsing through the local hardware store. It cost me about $100AU.
 
Go to sears.com and order their 2 X 42 sander, I think they are around 139 dollars and they have 6 inch disk. Motor is 1/3 horse power so will get hot if you run for long periods. Best belts and prices I have found are at Supergrit.com. Order the CERAMIC based belts, worth every penny, last longer and cut steel very fast. 40 grit for fast removal, 100 then 220 to clean up. Order the 600 grit for putting final edge on blade.
I have lost count of the knives I have build with this set up, at least 150. I forge my blades some too before I go to stock removal. I am saving pennies for a 2 x72....
 
spyken said:
haha...yep Thom. it's a pity I'm 12 time zones away. makes it difficult to get good tools. actually, renting a 12x14 room in this urban jungle makes it difficult to set up any nice sharpening station...unless you wanna breathe all that dust when you sleep.

still, I'd like a belt sander set up someday, it would be nice to be able to put those Lamey edges on personally...
Click to expand...

Harbor Freight are purveyors of only the finest Chinese-made tools. The same tools (with different labels, and usually higher price tags) are available from many suppliers in the US; I'd be surprised if they're not available there.
 
Nice!

Thanks for the supergrit.com link. I've got a Harbor Freight 30" sander, and it does a great job, but sometimes it's difficult to get the grits I want in the 1" x 30" belts. supergrit.com has pretty much everything I'm looking for, and with some great prices.
 
spyken said:
still, I'd like a belt sander set up someday, it would be nice to be able to put those Lamey edges on personally...
Click to expand...

With a 1200 grit diamond benchstone and a leather strop loaded with an aluminum oxide buffing compound, you should be able to put a Jimmy Fikes edge on your Lamey knives. They both live in Alabama and are friends, so maybe that'd be close enough to work?
 
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