Stationary belt/disc sander

[transatlantic]

I'm looking to buy a bench top belt/disc for all the odd jobs like trimming angles to fit, rounding corners etc etc

I'm wondering if I should go with a 12" disc sander alone, or a 8" disc/4" belt combo?

The 12" disc sander will give me a workable 5" I would guess, so I am leaning towards that, but am wondering what the advantages of the belt would be?

 

[Brandlin]

I always look at a disc sander and think - that should be really useful. but the truth for me is that the usable area on a disc is pretty small and i get far better use out of just a belt sander.

 

[Rorschach]

I have a 12" disc sander, I often wish it was much bigger. I don't think I could work with anything less than 12" and I only do smallish work.

 

[Sheptonphil]

I have a record bds250 6” belt/10” disc combo and use both the belt and disc a lot.

I wish now I had separates, with a 12” disc, 6” belt us fine. The 10” disc is ok, but I think I will make a larger one to mount on the lathe. As Rorschach said, very little usable area (top left quarter only).

Phil

 

[Rorschach]

If you have a 6" belt sander you essentially have the same working area as a 12" disc sander. With care though you can use a little more. I have the guard removed and often use up to about 8" of the disc.

 

[worn thumbs]

I currently have an 8 inch disc and its ok for the model making I use it for.I have used discs up to 36 inches and will always prefer them to any form of belt sander.The key advantage in my eyes is that the sanding action is universal across the working area and my limited experience of belts is that they tend to bite a bit more heavily on the leading edge of the cut.Mounted vertically,like a linisher,I would have more use for a belt.I can see a 12 inch disc sander in my future though.

 

[jnw010]

Do you have a lathe that you could fit a large sanding plate onto? Just a thought.

 

[whatknot]

I guess we are all different and have different needs for sanding

I have an Axminster belt & disc sander which rarely sees the light of day

I also have an ancient 10" disc sander which I bought for the princely sum of £9, I bought some self adhesive velcro and converted it to take velcro sanding discs, I use that every day

 

[MattRoberts]

Agree that any recommendation should depend on what you want to use it for.

I had a belt and disc combo, and rarely used the 6 inch disc because it was so small. I used the belt a lot, but was frustrated with not having a 90 degree surface to work from. I also really missed having some form of spindle sander for tight curves.

When it bit the dust, I got myself the triton belt & spindle sander combo, and find it way more useful.

 

[Sideways]

I bought and refurbished a used belt / disc sander. I didn't even bother refitting the 6" disc. Useless to me.
A spindle / bobbin sander is a useful tool though.
I agree that a belt sander is more useful if it adjusts between horizontal and vertical, and has a table arrangement so that you can guide the workpiece against the belt.
A big belt sander can eat wood at quite a rate. A small one is quite limited. All depends on what you need it to do

 

[Ttrees]

If I was without a sander now, and didn't own a lathe ...
That's what I would get instead, as you could easily make a plate for those self adhesive sandpaper discs
The fact is that unless you get a really heavy one, it more than likely will suffer the same issues with deflection,
which my 6" belt 9" disc Axi generic design one has.
Example...
If I had to quickly put a square 90' edge on a random, dirty piece of building site timber, on the fly on a site, say
a wall stud for instance...

I would have to keep flipping the timber, regardless if it were a perfectly squared, S4S piece of timber,
and then, using the belt drum, make the middle slightly concave to counter this.

It is inaccurate, a load of faff, and the discs wear out quickly, the table is small with a poxy aluminium fence,
although the problem lies with the disc deflecting.
Not to mention that the dust from it is serious, if you don't just intend for it to be a seldom used tool,
you would need to be pulling a whopping amount of airflow to be using one often....like 3HP induction motor cyclone.
If you plan to be using it much.

I would sooner a low angle plane of some description, and a custom shooting board.

If you plan on using it for timber and metal, without taking it apart
I hope you have a reciprocating saw handy #-o

I was very surprised to find out these things aren't really designed to be maintained
My flimsy drive belt is probably close to giving up also.

In my opinion these things are a fire hazard, it doesn't take hardly anything to catch on fire...
like grinding a bevel on a chisel is enough to light it up inside where you can't clean!!!

This smouldering can go undetected, but is very resistant to be put out at the same time...
you think you cleaned it out (with a stick poking it out), only to see the thing smouldering again later!
It is very persistent and the smell of plastic on top of it will choke you, while your trying to dismantle it (hammer)

That's my two cents on these generic design belt disc sanders...
Get a lathe instead


Tom

 

[Robbo3]

I agree that it depends on the use that you are going to put it to & the amount of room that you have.
My 25 year old Draper 6" disc / 4" belt sander lives under the workbench so only gets used if the job warrants it. I replaced the adjustable table with a fixed wooden one that has a mitre slot. With care the whole top of the disc can be used.
I also have a couple of 8" sanding discs for the lathe made with cheap face plates, velcro discs & used with a flat rest.

 

[transatlantic]

I do have a lathe, but it's in my shed, where as my "workshop" is in my garage, so would be a bit of pain to use.

To be honest, I kind of dismissed the Triton spindle/belt combo as I havn't really heard anything good about it. Very mixed reviews too. Heard lots of good stuff about the standalone spindle sander, but I don't think I'd use that much.

 

[custard]

If you'd have posted about shooting planes or shooting boards I bet there would have been dozens of replies. The truth is that in most professional furniture workshops the disc sander has replaced the shooting plane for the majority of end grain work. Personally I'd go for a 12" disc sander in order to take advantage of the larger working surface, make sure the table allows you to easily change the sanding disc though or they're just an exercise in frustration.

 

[MattRoberts]

I do have a lathe, but it's in my shed, where as my "workshop" is in my garage, so would be a bit of pain to use.

To be honest, I kind of dismissed the Triton spindle/belt combo as I havn't really heard anything good about it. Very mixed reviews too. Heard lots of good stuff about the standalone spindle sander, but I don't think I'd use that much.

Fair enough. The triton does have its limitations - it requires some fettling to get in shape, and if you want a perfect 90 degree table you probably need to lay some ply over the one it comes with, but after that it's a great versatile little machine with surprisingly good dust collection.

 

[Ttrees]

If you'd have posted about shooting planes or shooting boards I bet there would have been dozens of replies. The truth is that in most professional furniture workshops the disc sander has replaced the shooting plane for the majority of end grain work. Personally I'd go for a 12" disc sander in order to take advantage of the larger working surface, make sure the table allows you to easily change the sanding disc though or they're just an exercise in frustration.

There's a good few reasons why a lot more answers would come from a shooting board question...
mainly because its a better solution.
Your not comparing apples with apples though.
What kind of sander are you talking about Custard

Have you ever used a small disc sander like what I have?
I''l bet the last one you used was a good'un like a Wadkin or something.

No sanding timber if I can help it, in my shop.
I plan on living for another few years

Tom

 

[transatlantic]

Seems like a sander is a lot more versatile than a shooting board?

 

[Ttrees]

Yes but were in the woodworking section
I must admit though, I have used the sander for end grain recently since buying my lathe
Before that though not much at all though, probably can't remember last time I used it for wood.

As i said before it doesn't leave a square edge on the work, so in my book
unsuitable for fine work

I still think its a good tool none the less, but not for woodwork, no way!
Just remembered I used it since for a HDPE clamp pad
Very clean work!, probably cleaned the belt doing so too
Happy that you can work this stuff without making any dust

Tom

 

[custard]

Seems like a sander is a lot more versatile than a shooting board?

I wouldn't quite go that far. I still use a shooting board, but more for really small pieces that would be dangerous to process on a machine, or for shooting long grain rather than end grain (ie drawer bottoms that are a bit too thin to comfortably balance a hand plane on, or for saw cut veneers). Therefore personally I tend to prefer a longer shooting board that runs laterally along the bench, rather than a shorter one that runs north to south across your bench.

However, the fact is that the negative rake teeth on a CSMS deliver a polished end grain surface that, for practical purposes, is fully the equal of a shooting plane; or a disc sander gets the job done in seconds rather minutes and, if the disc sander is correctly set up, is superbly accurate for simple right angles right through to compound angles. Consequently, when you get down to the practical reality of real life workshop practise, many woodworkers today just don't actually use a traditional, cross bench shooting board all that much.

There was a post recently about scraping that touched on a similar area. Most of the classic woodworking books were written in a different era, maybe only twenty or so years ago, but before the advent of things like modern abrasive papers and affordable random orbital sanders. Consequently there's still a focus on tools and techniques, like scraping and shooting, that have been largely marginalised in current workshops. They haven't disappeared altogether, but instead of being front and centre to furniture making they're now peripheral, specialised techniques that are just much less important than they once were.

 

[transatlantic]

More versitile in that you can also do outside curves