Belts wearing out too rapidly... Possible cause?

R

R.C.Reichert

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Jul 26, 2008
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So I think I figured out why I was wearing out so many belts on my 6x48 belt sander so rapidly before. I did not realize that the 1095 I was getting was not fully annealed.:( Also used up quite a few drill bits.:grumpy: I guess I will either have to start annealing before grinding or buy stock that is already fully annealed. Maybe that's why it also seemed to take forever to grind out a blade. Does that seem like a logical assessment? Perhaps a big 2hp 2x72 will grind through just about anything though.:cool: Just wish I had one.

Just today I got what I think was a really good deal on some Zirconia Alumina belts. 6x48 inch belts at $8.50 a piece. I've seen elsewhere these blue Zirconia belts were twice that much money. Actually the guy at the counter said he thinks they made a mistake and someone put an "A" for Aluminum Oxide rather than a "Z" for Zirconia on the order list. Got them for half the price.:D Oh well, that kinda makes up for all the belts I burned up grinding that really hard steel before. Have any of you guys used the SAIT/United Abrasives belts before?
 
The harder the material the more it wears belts. Sound like know exactly what's happening. 2x72 belts still wear out, but there are a lot of quality belts in that size.
 
Don't buy cheap (junk) abrasives. You're better off getting an $8 3M ceramic belt, for instance, than three $3 junky belts.
 
Guess I'll just have to try the Sait belts and see. The regular Aluminum Oxide belts I was getting before were $10 a piece and they didn't last very long, so maybe these new ones will be at least better than those.
 
JCaswell said:
Don't buy cheap (junk) abrasives. You're better off getting an $8 3M ceramic belt, for instance, than three $3 junky belts.
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In the Acklands-Grainger catalog here they have some Norton blue zirconia belts that are supposed to be really high-end for grinding metal, but they are $26 a piece.:eek: Maybe I'll have to try Lee Valley or some place like that to get 3M belts. I really want to try the ceramic belts. How are Klingspor belts? Are they better quality?
 
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Blaze orange are the best ive used I have the red ceramic from klingspore , the yellow ziconia coated, the alum oxide structured abrasive for finishing and even some hermes belts but they arnt very good in my opinion. I like the ceramic but use zirconia belts for wood. The ceramic really are good and the norton blaze orange really grind fast.
 
Ya I dream at night about the orange blaze belts :D thy are the best in my book. I have found that thy love high speed. To slow seams to strip the grit off faster. I was running some blaze the other day at 9000 SFPM and man it was smoothe as silk and just eats the steel.
 
Thanks for the advice on belts guys! Klingspor belts I can get custom ordered here from a place in Red Deer.
 
Another thing... does the 1095 you are using have a scale/bark coating? That stuff will ruin a belt in short order. If this is the case, try soaking the steel in vinegar overnight followed by wire brushing, this will weaken and remove it.
 
GHEzell said:
Another thing... does the 1095 you are using have a scale/bark coating? That stuff will ruin a belt in short order. If this is the case, try soaking the steel in vinegar overnight followed by wire brushing, this will weaken and remove it.
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Do you mean the dark gray appearance it has when I buy it, or the scale that forms after quenching it?
 
GHEzell said:
Another thing... does the 1095 you are using have a scale/bark coating? That stuff will ruin a belt in short order. If this is the case, try soaking the steel in vinegar overnight followed by wire brushing, this will weaken and remove it.
Click to expand...

I have found this to be true as well, on almost all the steels I've used, I've gotten into the habit now of using wd40 and a palm sander to remove the scale from the blanks first instead of wearing out belts prematurely, seems to work well.
 
A few minutes in Muratic Acid (Diluted HCl) or a long soak in vinegar will strip most heavy scales.
 
GHEzell said:
Another thing... does the 1095 you are using have a scale/bark coating? That stuff will ruin a belt in short order. If this is the case, try soaking the steel in vinegar overnight followed by wire brushing, this will weaken and remove it.
Click to expand...

This helped out a lot. I did not even realize before that I had to grind the bar stock down to shiny metal before I could start grinding. I just used my angle grinder to do it, but I think I'll try the vinegar tonight. I always thought you could just cut out the blank and start grinding away. The dark scale is really tough stuff. Thanks for the advice.
 
Oh, and actually I had a closer look at those zirconia belts I got. They are not made by Sait/United Abrasives like I had thought, they are actually made in Switzerland under the name Sialox. Hope that means they're better.
 
The SAIT ceramic belts i buy in Australia are very good especially in the courser grits. I reckon they are as good as the Blaze. However when i get to the 220g-400g i thourght they were pretty ordinary.

Cheers Bruce
 
very nice vinager tip. i am going to try that as well.

I like to keep two separate sets of belts going at all times. My high quality fresh ones for steel and older or lower quality belts for handle material.
 
I should mention that ferric chloride does a good job weakening scale, it is what I typically use instead of vinegar. I mix it weak, maybe 1 part fc to 8 parts water, and soak overnight... a stronger mix works faster, but I'm stingy with my fc. I stumbled upon this knowledge by accident, peaking in on the pattern in a bar of damascus while there was still quite a bit of scale left on the billet. A quick wire brushing removed the scale on the parts that were immersed, but didn't have any effect on the part that was not. I've since noticed a few other makers doing the same thing, sometimes with different acids. I've tried vinegar and it works, and it is easier to find than fc and safer to deal with than muratic.

I do suggest that if you use fc, understand that it gets nasty quickly if you use it for scale removal. You would not want to use the same batch for both scale removal and etching/patination because of this.
 
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