I have had belts split and tear at the edges before and that is attention getting. Tonight I experienced my first belt blow up. It sounded as if the entire grinder had dissentigrated and the blade had snapped into pieces. What a bang it made. The belt snapped in two and missed me completely. The only harm it really did was bang the blade a little but the blade was in early stages of grinding so nothing was comprimised. I know now it was my fault because I had the grinder up pretty high and I was really leaning into it. But I gotta tell ya, it is an experience to have a belt blow up - one I am not looking forward to having again very soon. I do know I was very lucky. I remember Fitzo telling us about his last grinder fault. So far the worse I've been hurt by a grinder is to cut my finger in half by swinging around to hear the phone ringing while the belt was rolled over the wheel.
RL
RL