Sanding Belts, Suppliers and Brands and such

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BradleySmall

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Mar 6, 2022
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Are belts a commodity item or do the brands/manufacturers matter?
Are there suppliers that are better than others?
Are any of these ads that I am getting bombarded with (like Combat, or Maveric or whomever the belt of the week on Facebook ) good suppliers, or is there a good to deal with goto, that most folks like?
Is ceramic that much better than zircon that warrants double the cost?
Is the grease/lubricant stick "worth it"? Or does it just make a mess? Can you just use wax or cutting fluid on the belt? Or water for that matter, since I assume one would be dipping a lot while grinding in the hardened state?
 
Red Label Abrasives for belts. Ceramic belts are awesome but if you want a less expensive belt don't hesitate to get the zirconia. They cut great and they hold up just fine. I don't know about the belt grease but one thing that is very useful is one of those belt cleaners made out of rubber.
 
eric brinkerhoff said:
Red Label Abrasives for belts. Ceramic belts are awesome but if you want a less expensive belt don't hesitate to get the zirconia. They cut great and they hold up just fine. I don't know about the belt grease but one thing that is very useful is one of those belt cleaners made out of rubber.
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I do love a good belt cleaner. I have used them on all sorts of sandpaper from my ROS to stuff I use on the lathe. Just hold it flat on the jointer table and rub-rub-rub. I would imagine they would work well on these as well. Although, I think I might want some bigger ones, because I would think these belts would eat it up quick. I have heard that you can cut the top off of a big tube of silicone caulk and let it cure solid and that works just as well as the crepe rubber in the sticks. I haven't tried it yet. But I will at some point.

Rubber is an interesting thing. Trend sells the equivalent of a white drafting/art eraser for cleaning their diamond plates like the "credit card" and such. In a pinch I have used a big pink one and it worked just fine.

I know lube makes everything better. Even on files, starting out with a little chalk seems to make life much easier. And I do have SlickStick for my CBN wheels. So I only assume that there should be some kind of lube for belts. Perhaps some canning wax or even a bar of soap or old candle?
 
One of the best things you can do to improve grinding and belt life is put a Kool-Mist sprayer on your grinder. The clones sell for $20 and work OK. The genuine Kool-Mist system is probably a bit better, but both work. You do want to use the genuine #77 coolant additive.
Make sure the belts you buy are waterproof.

A mist spray system allows you to profile and HT a blade and do all the bevels and other grinding post-HT.

With sufficient air pressure and adjusted right they blast a cold mist on the blade and belt, not a shower of water.
 
None of the suppliers make the belts, some may work with the manufacturers to customize the abrasives but in reality even the ones that advertise they make the belts like combat are only cutting and taping the premade abrasives. I like to order my belts from Popsknifesupply because they carry a good selection from multiple manufacturers and I can get handle materials and blade materials along with belts or epoxy or basically anything else I need. VSM makes in my opinion belts that are the best value for performance, Norton are my next choice, then 3m. Certain require different pressure to break down properly so someone could prefer 3m if they grind with enough pressure. Couldn’t tell you who makes red labels abrasives but I’ve rarely had good results with some of those off brands.
 
Everyone grinds differently and everyone's grinder is different. This means my favorite belt may be your least favorite. I've had great luck with the VSM ceramics. I usually buy from Pops and Phoenix Abrasives. I don't buy from suppliers that claim "made in the USA", but are selling Korean made abrasives (which are decent abrasives).
 
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