How To Sharpening with a belt sander

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wj556

Joined
Apr 11, 2010
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Hello to everyone, first post here. I'm planning on making a belt sander for sharpening, not a full blown belt grinder. The question I have is the direction of travel of the belt in relation to the blade. I have seen it both ways, into the blade and away from the blade.

Is there a correct way, or is it a preference thing?

Also, with the motor I have turning at 1740 rpm I'm looking at about 1800 surface feet with a direct drive on a 4" drive wheel. Wondering if I should use some step pulleys to vary that.
 
I'm a hobbyist and mine runs belt towards operator. I have enough room to turn blade either direction depending on what I'm doing. Making convex edges I face edge down.
 
Not sure if the image loaded, but this is drawn up as a horizontal machine, so spark direction isn't a huge issue. What I'm hearing, though, is running the belt into the blade. I thought that I read running the belt into the blade will create less of a burr, but there's a lot of different opinions out there.

Belt running away from the blade might work better as I wouldn't need to change direction if I use a leather belt to strop.
 
wj556 said:
Not sure if the image loaded, but this is drawn up as a horizontal machine, so spark direction isn't a huge issue. What I'm hearing, though, is running the belt into the blade. I thought that I read running the belt into the blade will create less of a burr, but there's a lot of different opinions out there.

Belt running away from the blade might work better as I wouldn't need to change direction if I use a leather belt to strop.
Click to expand...
Direction doesn't matter. It's all personal preference.*

*(Obviously with a strop you always go away from the edge).
 
Thank you, after seeing both methods used I assumed both were valid, but have no personal experience. Going away from the blade seems a lot less "exciting" if you break a belt.
 
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