For why you no tell me sanding belt?

[Sparky_NY]

I have the delta 1x42 unit and tried ceramic belts fairly recently. I was pleased with how they worked.

Another GREAT find for the belt sander was those metal conditioning belts !! Sort of scotchbrite with a embedded grit in them. WOW, those are fantastic !! I use them all the time now, totally sold!! Used for deburring, polishing etc , constantly. Try them and I bet you will be sold on them too.

[BCRider]

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.

Bob, I do apologize for losing track of this thread. I just now saw your post and this great looking option of a grinder design. It hits all the right needs for my own application.

Where did you get the plans and wheels from? And does it have any facility for swapping the big contact wheel over to other smaller sizes for specific radii? And what motor is that which drives the upper wheel?

[BCRider]

Jerry, it sounds like you took most of the time being careful to ensure that the jaws simply didn't disappear ! ! !

I've done a repair like that to an old pair of needle nose as well. But on a grinder instead of a belt. Slow as blazes and had to frequently dip the work to avoid overheating and removing the temper.

Speaking of which how do you find the Cubitron belt is for putting heat into the work? Or does it seem to cut off the steel and pass all the heat to the swarf?

[J Tiers]

The work does not seem to get hot, so either the heat is not created, or it goes off in swarf.

The belt does not seem to rub at all, if it touches, it cuts. If it cuts, it does not rub and make heat. The work may get warm, but certainly not hot. I never thought about it, because it did not get the work more than just warm.

I suspect some materials might get hot, but so far I have not felt the need to cool off anything.

[BCRider]

Thanks. That's what I wanted to know.

I can see a place for belts like that for at least roughing out. Then maybe some zirconia finer ones for finishing?

Looking at the picture of the NN pliers the finish actually seems pretty good. Or did you use something finer to smooth the work after the rough shaping?

[Tundra Twin Track]

[QUOTE=J Tiers;n1853486]

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.

That was 60 grit Zarconia,I have Alumox on other Disc which won't happen again.I priced out the Cubitron for this application but it was very pricey,my dealer said they work fantastic but was not sure on the $ to lifespan ratio.

I hope to build a 6" Belt Grinder someday,have the Contact Wheel and couple New 5hp Flange Mount Baldors that was with a pallet of Motors I got at Auction.

[J Tiers]

.........

Looking at the picture of the NN pliers the finish actually seems pretty good. Or did you use something finer to smooth the work after the rough shaping?

Nope, that is right off the belt. It does have a pattern to it, it is by no means smooth, but it is not bad, and I do not think I'd bother with any finer belt on this particular little project. I could definitely see it on anything you really wanted smooth or shiny.

[Bob La Londe]

My son asked me yesterday if he could sharpen a pencil on the little belt grinder. I chucked the pencil up in one of the cordless drills and spun it up. I think we were both impressed with what a perfect point it created... even if the pencil was substantially shorter.

Gotta love the 1" belt grinder. I wish the 4" didn't stall out so easily. I did finally take it apart to snug up the drive belt and its better, but now I can stall the motor itself. Maybe its time to swap that stock motor for a 1HP farm duty motor.

[Paul Alciatore]

"Metal conditioning belts"? I have not heard of or seen them.

Where do you get them? Is that what you look/ask for? Names and/or brand names?

There's some real good information here. Thanks for sharing that. I have a HF 4X6 and it truly is a DIY kit that is sold in the assembled condition. I got it in the middle of a project that could not wait and it did get me through that. I am in the process of doing the needed changes and improvements. The two biggest things I found are the el-cheapo belt and the tension. A new, good quality belt helps a lot. And actually tensioning that belt properly is like night and day. When I get finished it will probably be a good sander.

After that, my biggest complaint with belt sanding is the adhesive that many manufacturers use to assemble the belts. I don't know how many belts I have had come apart in the first 30 seconds of use. I got to the point where I hated to have even one spare belt on the shelf. And who can take a belt back after six months or more? They will just laugh at you. Money down the drain.

I am going to try some of those Cubitron belts.

I have the delta 1x42 unit and tried ceramic belts fairly recently. I was pleased with how they worked.

Another GREAT find for the belt sander was those metal conditioning belts !! Sort of scotchbrite with a embedded grit in them. WOW, those are fantastic !! I use them all the time now, totally sold!! Used for deburring, polishing etc , constantly. Try them and I bet you will be sold on them too.

[Bob Engelhardt]

... I just now saw your post and this great looking option of a grinder design. It hits all the right needs for my own application.

Where did you get the plans and wheels from? And does it have any facility for swapping the big contact wheel over to other smaller sizes for specific radii? And what motor is that which drives the upper wheel?

Thanks. It's a "design" that I made 17 years ago and I have been very pleased with it. It was something that I "designed" using the time proven That Looks About Right approach. I.e., we don' need no steekin' plans. It does not have a swappable contact wheel. I cast all the wheels - great fun. The motor is from a treadmill.

I had written it up and posted the write up to the mwdropbox, but it's not there. A rougher version is here:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1w3W1-9bbfaf33vFXOCwuxOamCHKmHuKE

There's some notes at the bottom from posts on RCM when I presented it there.

Follow up: despite everybody being sure that the open frame of the treadmill motor would lead to its demise from grinding dust, it's going strong after 17 years. The contact wheel got its final tire when I sent it off to a place that re-tires conveyor belt wheels, IIRC.

[Ringo]

https://usaknifemaker.com/3m-cubitro...84f-2-x72.html

https://www.keystoneabrasives.com/ca...762831B035CC21

https://popsknife.supplies/products/...brite%E2%84%A2

[Sparky_NY]

"Metal conditioning belts"? I have not heard of or seen them.

Where do you get them? Is that what you look/ask for? Names and/or brand names?

There's some real good information here. Thanks for sharing that. I have a HF 4X6 and it truly is a DIY kit that is sold in the assembled condition. I got it in the middle of a project that could not wait and it did get me through that. I am in the process of doing the needed changes and improvements. The two biggest things I found are the el-cheapo belt and the tension. A new, good quality belt helps a lot. And actually tensioning that belt properly is like night and day. When I get finished it will probably be a good sander.

After that, my biggest complaint with belt sanding is the adhesive that many manufacturers use to assemble the belts. I don't know how many belts I have had come apart in the first 30 seconds of use. I got to the point where I hated to have even one spare belt on the shelf. And who can take a belt back after six months or more? They will just laugh at you. Money down the drain.

I am going to try some of those Cubitron belts.

Here is a link, I got mine from them but lots of places carry them, The coarse one is pretty aggressive, I recommend one of each except the super fine.
https://www.empireabrasives.com/1-x-...-sanding-belt/

Also, when belts come apart at the joint, it is quite possible to reglue them. Super glue works well. Some guys have used tyvek from a mailer envelope to make a new "patch" for the joint. I have done it and it works well. I clamped it overnight just to be sure.

I have not tried the Cubitron belts but have used ceramic belts from the link above and they perform very well. In generic terms, I read that ceramic belts hold up the best for metal cutting followed next by zirconia.

[cijuanni]

Where do you find these 3M Cubitron belts in 2"x48" without buying a box of 50?

[dian]

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.

do you know what kind of cubitron belt you got? (theres about 20 varieties.)

[BCRider]

…..Follow up: despite everybody being sure that the open frame of the treadmill motor would lead to its demise from grinding dust, it's going strong after 17 years. The contact wheel got its final tire when I sent it off to a place that re-tires conveyor belt wheels, IIRC.

Thanks Bob, I'm going to copy that page with pics to my drive. I likely won't follow it slavishly just for the simple reasons of adapting to suit material on hand. but it's got a lot of great ideas for doing things in a nice simple yet practical manner. Like the high mounted motor on the tilting overlapping sizes of tubing for tracking and keeping it away from the grit. That alone is a great idea and I'm sure a key reason why the open frame motor has lasted for so long. Makes so much sense vs the motor being low and more exposed.

I'm also seeing a lot of decently approachable prices for large contact wheels on Amazon. I'll likely go for a couple of the rubber coated serrated wheels. There's a 200mm (8") and 100mm (4") and from there I'll make my own all aluminium 1.5" and 1" "rollers" for doing tighter inside details on curves where needed.