For why you no tell me sanding belt?

[J Tiers]

A bit ago, I ordered some stuff from Traverse tools, and saw they had 3M Cubitron belts in 1 x 30". I got two of the coarsest ones I could get. I have one of those reasonably wimpy DELTA disk/belt sanders, and to get anything done, I have to use coarse grit.

Well tonight I had a piece of 1 x 1 x 1/8 steel angle to deburr after cutting it (on the bandsaw!), so I took off the Diablo belt and put one of the cubitrons on there. The abrasive is fairly sparse on the belts, so I did not know what to expect.

Dang... that belt is a monster.... All I wanted to do was break edges and get the burrs off, maybe round the edges some, and take off two corners, but that belt, even on the little Delta, wanted to eat metal big time. I actually had a hard time holding it back to what I wanted, and ended up with a fair bit more ground off than I expected. I am going to need to be less heavy-handed when using the Cubitron belts.

The belt looked absolutely brand new after the work was done. The other belts I have used would have shown use.

The belts were just a little more expensive than the Lowes Diablo, but a world of difference. Recommended.

I am surprised nobody has talked much about these belts, they are really impressive. Anything that can get that little Delta to perform like it just did for me today is some good stuff for sure.

[MattiJ]

I think I have mentioned couple of times the Cubitron belts..

Imagine when I upgraded from 350w PMPO chinese mini belt grinder and cheapest auto store belts to 6” wide 4kW belt grinder with cubitron belt

[epicfail48]

3M doesnt screw around with the Cubitron belts, theyre pretty expensive compared to other options but they really do eat metal. Nortons Blaze belts are the same way, they make your money disappear as fast as your metal!

[Bob La Londe]

I may want to look at those belts, but I figure a fair mention is the Zirconia belts I picked up at Harbor Freight. I've got a 1x30 HF belt grinder that's been in the shop for years. The hold up an order of magnitude better the AlumOx belts and do a good job on most things I need to hit with them. I have not seen them in finer grits.

[J Tiers]

I think I have mentioned couple of times the Cubitron belts..

Imagine when I upgraded from 350w PMPO chinese mini belt grinder and cheapest auto store belts to 6” wide 4kW belt grinder with cubitron belt

That's getting to the "who needs a mill?" point. Kinda like that disk grinder Tundra has... that was eating 1" thick steel like it was a stick of butter. Don't recall what he had on it.

You might have mentioned it. But I never got the message on just how much difference it makes.

[Glug]

I have read that the cubitron's prefer to be fed aggressively, and if you feed light they.. something.. I think maybe get dull? Or wear? That made me think that, for more casual light use, they are not an optimal choice. But for doing production work, where time is money, they are great.

Here is a comment I saved about it. It echoes Jerry's "no visible wear" observation, but perhaps not in a good way:

"I'm currently doing testing ofdifferent belts to optimize costs and time. I have found that most ceramic belts cut great new but start glazing over after one chefknife. The curious thing about this is that most of the belts look brand new even after this happens. It seams like the compound that holds the ceramic grit doesn't break up the same way on a flat platen that it does when grinding on a wheel (which makes sense)."

In regard to belts for the home shop, there are some considerations that are different from production. How long do stored belts last before the seam fails? Some belts last a very long while, others seem to fail quickly. Do the belts take a bad set on the pulleys if not used for a while? Other considerations?

I need to get some belts for my 1x42. Mostly for light work and especially for sharpening kitchen knives. I read good things about Klingspor. I also have a 2x72 square wheel wilton that needs belts.

[BCRider]

You guys are reminding me of how much I need/want a belt grinder..... sigh....

I'd give a seldom used body part for a proper 2x72 size full featured knife maker's style with interchangeable bits and bobs. But the reality is that room in the shop is budgeted already and there's nowhere to put something that size..... but I do have a cunning plan....

On the "someday" list is a 2x48 machine that is a bit more vertically oriented so it'll fit onto the grinder shelf over my stock rack. Minimal back to front is the name of the game.

[Dan Dubeau]

I've got some norton blaze belts awaiting the completion of my belt grinder. Abrasives and cutting tools are definitely 2 things that you get what you pay for. I've never found any economy buying cheap abrasives. Heard good things about the cubitron belts too.

[J Tiers]

I have read that the cubitron's prefer to be fed aggressively, and if you feed light they.. something.. I think maybe get dull? Or wear? That made me think that, for more casual light use, they are not an optimal choice. But for doing production work, where time is money, they are great.
,,,,,

That's an interesting point, and I don't know the answer. Time will tell.

But, for what I usually want, aggressive is fine, the time spent cutting aggressively sets the amount of cut done, hit it hard but not for as long. I've got several types of belt, in different grits, so if I do not want what the cubitron do, I can put on a different one. It's a bit of a hassle with the Delta sander to change them (unscrew and take off side cover and pulley cover), but it is OK, a couple-three minutes, easily done to get what you need.

All I know right now is that the belt did just what I wanted, and did not mess around doing it. Was really not that expensive, maybe 3 bucks each, might have been on a slight "sale". At Home Despot, the Diablo are 5 bucks for three but they are "assorted", meaning one coarse and the others finer, so you really end up paying more for whichever you wanted.

[chrsbrbnk]

The belt FPM on the delta sander is kinda slow A pulley change is worth it. I made a bunch of dies for 3m cubitron sanding discs they cut the sand paper up with the grit on!! eats tooling like nobody's business

[Bob Engelhardt]

You guys are reminding me of how much I need/want a belt grinder..... sigh....
...
On the "someday" list is a 2x48 machine that is a bit more vertically oriented so it'll fit onto the grinder shelf over my stock rack. Minimal back to front is the name of the game.

...It's a bit of a hassle with the Delta sander to change them (unscrew and take off side cover and pulley cover), but it is OK, a couple-three minutes, ...

2 x 42 made to sit on a shelf:


Belt change: my right hand squeezes the tensioning pulley arm & the left one slips the belt off & on. A few seconds.

[J Tiers]

If I just left off the side cover I could do that too, but the dust vacuum would not work then.

You do not have a table for yours? Most of the time I don't use the table, but I do sometimes, and I would miss it if I did not have it.

The belt FPM on the delta sander is kinda slow A pulley change is worth it. I made a bunch of dies for 3m cubitron sanding discs they cut the sand paper up with the grit on!! eats tooling like nobody's business

Faster would be fine, but I do not think there is room for much size increase of the drive pulley, and the motor is not that big. The net adjustment of tension may not permit a much larger pulley either. It would be a redesign, really, the thing is kinda made to be what it is.

That belt did pretty well at the speed it runs, I can't complain. We'll see if it dulls or has issues as time goes on. It did more, faster, and easier, than any other belt I have put on the machine.

The Diablo were much better than the run of the mill homeshop belts that HD sells, and this one worked at least 2 or 3 times as fast as those. And those would not be as good after doing what little this one was asked to do.

[darryl]

I love my drum sander, but belt changes are slow. It takes the 4 x 36 belts, which are common enough, and I like the zirconia- haven't tried cubitron. To fit the belt I have to wrap a string around the outside of the drum to compress the cushy layer, then slip the belt on and pull the string out. Perhaps it's getting near time to redesign the drum-

It's nice to have a belt spinning like this without it having to travel around drive and idler cylinders- plus there's some give and no slipping or wandering. Drawback is there's no flat working area- you're always bringing material up to a curved surface. Still, I like it. And I'd like to try a Cubitron belt.

[DennisCA]

A 2x72 is on the to do list. I have made a metric copy of Jeremy Schmidts belt grinder in CAD so I need to source the materials.

I have built my own 2x** sander (it can take a wide range of belts) from wood and it serves for now. One thing I want to add to the 2x72 is some kind of built in impeller for dust collection.

[J Tiers]

Well it's been a couple months, and the belt is still going strong, still hungry as ever.

just today, I had a pair of long-nosed pliers that I noticed had the tip broken off one jaw. So I decided to go to the belt grinder and reshape the tip.

That meant that first I had to grind off between 1/8 and 3/16" of metal off of both jaws to get past the broken surface. Then I had to grind down each jaw profile to give a profile tapering in a straight line down to a good small tip, grinding both jaws to be essentially symmetrical.

Quite a reasonable amount of metal removal. Ought to take a bit of time.

Heh.... not with the Cubitron belt. Even on my wimpy little Delta belt/disk grinder, the belt ate metal and I was literally done in maybe 3 to 5 minutes, and I really do not think it took any 5 minutes.

I was recommending the belts before, now I feel like I ought to demand you buy some.... They just plain work. It may have taken 20 seconds to grind the tips back past the break. Maybe that long. Maybe shorter.

At no time was I waiting for stuff to happen.

Here is the result, so you can see what was done. Remember, I had to grind back maybe 0.150 of tool steel to get past the break, then grind the tapered jaws to a new shorter taper. On a wussy little grinder. That belt purely ate metal, and I had to hold back to avoid going too far. I sure did not feel like it took too long, more like I was done before I realized I had started.