Good Bye & Good Riddance

David Wesner

David Wesner

Joined
Jan 5, 2005
Messages
2,531
I think thats how you spell riddance, riddens, rid ens :confused: And No, you'll never be so lucky as to be rid of me. :D I was talking about the belts in the pics. Does anyone else have a hard time throwing away grinding belts or is it just me ? Today I had enough. No more dried out, wore out junk hiding the new ones I know are there.......somewhere :) I've still got "issues" ;) , I had to leave a few on the rack that had a little life left in them. I'm trying to get over it. You guys doin the same thing :o
 
Is that the "before" or "after" pic of the rack? :)

They do have a bad habit of hanging around, it seems. :o

It's often been said, "Use belts as if they are free."
 
Hey I think you might be tossing out some good' uns. I think I see a speck of grit on that one there in the middle near the bottom!
 
I live by the motto "use them like they are free, as soon as they do not have much performance I cut them in half and use them for hand sanding. Every sunday many go in the can.

Its hard to do but if you dont they will get in the way, good job.

spencer
 
I have a friend who says he won't throw one away until it is so worn you can polish glass with it. I now take a big pile of belts (maybe 60-100) over to him about twice a year and say, "Happy Birthday". He seems to think that spending 20 minutes on a worn out belt is better than spending three on a new one. I pull it off when it starts to not cut by about 50% of the original cutting. Wasteful - maybe. Cost efficient - probably. Time efficient - definitely!
Stacy
 
do you guys seriosly throw away belts? i have some 60 grits that have turned into wonderful 1200 grtit.......... there just sooooo expensive when you only have 50 a month to "blow" :<
 
Man, i need a friend like you Stacy =D When i'm in the shop working, i dont really care how long it takes me, i just enjoy working on stuff with my hands. I've been sapping this 120 grit AO belt that Norm Coote tosseed in with my grinder for all I can for the last few weeks, i really should get rid of it, but i just cant bring myself to do so, because it still removes material.. if i'm patient !
 
fitzo said:
Is that the "before" or "after" pic of the rack? :)."
Click to expand...

Unfortunately its the after pic :o New shipment on the way, but until then........

fitzo said:
It's often been said, "Use belts as if they are free."
Click to expand...

Well thats 2 votes for that theory fitzo :)


Yeah Stacy, new belts make a huge difference. I've found that my grinds start getting uneven when using a dull, worn out belt. Too much pressure on the platen or wheel and the nice sharp grinds go right down the tubes. For me anyway. Not that my grinds are perfect by any means. They're getting better though, and that's one of the things that has helped. Sharp belts. And more important than that..........Time ;)
 
I'm getting "better" at throwing them away eventually....
I actually had some "help" a few months back when one of my house cats (NOT to be confused with Merry my trusty shop cat) came in when I wasn't looking and hosed the whole pile which had fallen off of its specially designated cabnet door edge.
If you've never experienced a cat piss soaked belt going at about 2800fpm combined with hot steel, and water.......well let's just say its a real motivator to clean out all those old belts and start fresh. GOD I LOVE MY RESPIRATOR!!!
Ed
 
I toss when I get tired of digging through them to find a little grit only to put the belt on and be dissapointed. I still put back on rack until about 3-4 mounts and removal. We need another use for belts.
 
who heres been a real scrooge and tried spraying a beltwith superglue in an atomiser bottle, then sprinkling sand over them?

given the stories about being hard to throw belts away, surely someone must have?
 
Worn belts are just that worn. If you figure you want to use them some more well go ahead. Then they will really allow you to screw up your work. If a 60 grit will end up as a 1200 then why do they sell 1200 or 120s for that matter? Using sharp belts to to the jobs they work best at will bring you far better results. Leaning on that piece of stel to try to save 50 cents only means your work is going to show the lack of a sharp grind or unevenness. If you concider the belts as important as the steel to get results then the cost of using sharp belts will start showing up in better looking completed work. Certainly there are things like contour grinding that will allow you to get rid of a lot of the worn ones . I wish you were close by so I could give you a hand off of the ones many call "worn" but still usable. It's truly wonderful how new belts or those with only little use will cut and help get the grinding done in a fine maner. So you can't afford that? Don't expect to see your work improve then Frank
 
I try to subscribe to the "free belts" motto too. Nothing makes life harder than a belt that won't cut well. Worn belts heat up the work much faster too, which makes it even harder to grind cleanly. But I'm really cheap, and it's hard for me to throw anything away!

One thing I've learned to do, though it doesn't get much traction when I mention it here, is to record the grits of all my belts when I throw them away. That way I have a record of the proportions that I use the various grits in. When I do my annual belt order I can get the quantity of each one that I actually use instead of having too many 60s and too few 400s just when I'm trying to finish a project that's burning to get done...
 
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