Belt sander or disc sander - or both?

[Big Barn]

What kind of life are you guys getting out of your disks?

The thing that attracted me to belts initially was the cost of abrasives and their expectation of lifespan. In practice, I haven't been overly impressed with how long any of the belts have held up on the grinders I've used. One hard burr in the splice and you're out $8.

I've never had a belt spice problem with Norton or Klingspor.

I use Klingspor exclusively on my Dynabrade air file which can be REALLY hard on splices.





Terry

 

[Jim Timber]

We had a Bur King at the tech college that didn't keep belts on it. They ran true, they seemed like an ok package (not damaged or anything), but nobody liked using that thing because it'd spit belts at you with anything over slight pressure.

I built a crappy one many years ago and chose poorly on my bearings (needle instead of ball) and that didn't suffer the same fate but never worked well either. Someday I'll build another correctly.

 

[Sodo]

I have a cheap belt/disc combo, and find that I will want to use one or the other based on what I am doing at the moment. Sometimes one feels more right than the other.

Yeah when one grabs your part & flings it behind the workbench use the other.

 

[muddstopper]

Yeah when one grabs your part & flings it behind the workbench use the other.

Never been able to find the part after that happens so I dont know how well switch to a different machine might work.:stirthepot:

 

[Big Barn]

Never been able to find the part after that happens so I dont know how well switch to a different machine might work.:stirthepot:

In my opinion "lost" beats "embedded in body part" any day.

Terry

 

[muddstopper]

Had a piece of 2in pipe chucked in the lathe once that got flung across the room and bounced off the wall. I just barely had it chucked up and was fixing to adjust the steady rest. Thinking I had the lathe in 33rpms I turned the switch on only to discover it was 900rpms. Talk about ducking and dodgeing.

 

[flyerdan]

The 12" disc sander that HF has on sale frequently is a good metal shop tool. It has plenty of power, and the disc has enough surface that they last a long time, if you don't stay in one spot when deburring several parts.

 

[jim_wilson]

Jim, ideally you would have BOTH of the machines you posted pics of.

Combination machines (IMHO) should be called "compromise " machines.

Here's the Kalamazoo I have in my "same old grind" station:

View attachment 457031

It works fine, (has a vacuum system) but ideally I'd have the two machines (or similar) you posted.

Terry

I was just looking at some of the Kalamazoo products - they look like quality stuff - but expensive. For the price of one of the Kalamazoo setups I could probably get a decent 20" disc grinder and one of the 3x79 belt grinders.

 

[jim_wilson]

The 12" disc sander that HF has on sale frequently is a good metal shop tool. It has plenty of power, and the disc has enough surface that they last a long time, if you don't stay in one spot when deburring several parts.

That's actually a decent suggestion. Not because I think it would solve my long term problem - but because it would give me something to work with for now while I free up some cash to buy the bigger tool. I have a couple of projects coming up where the main thing I need to do is square up some cut tubes. The HF unit would be fine for that.

 

[TMGT]

I have the 12" hf disc, very happy with it, good power, quiet and true, only complaint is the table could be a bit better. I was planning on making a steel table for it but haven't done it yet, used it pretty hard for the last couple years and it's still going strong.