Sanding Belt Fixes

[cabinetman]

OK, here's the deal. You are on your last belt, and it breaks on the seam. You can't get another one instantly, but need to sand just for a short time to finish the last piece to get a finish on it before quitting for the day and being late for dinner.

What have you done to repair the belt, and how successful were you?

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[JimD]

I have never successfully repaired a sanding belt. I pick up the random orbit sander and finish. It isn't a perfect solution since the resulting wood may finish a bit different than it would with all belt sanding but that is what I have done.

Jim

[jdon]

Make a sanding block with the broken belt and scrap wood, and hand sand?

[cabinetman]

Make a sanding block with the broken belt and scrap wood, and hand sand?

Did you try to repair the belt?

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[mpc]

Besides belt sander belts... anybody have luck fixing the long sandpaper strips used in drum sanders? Jet's belts seem to bust about 6 inches from one end... making it about an inch too short to reach the drum clamps. Arg. This happens even with the "SandSmart" automatic speed control that's supposed to vary stock feed rate in case the sanding/cutting depth is set too deep.

mpc

[cwsmith]

I've never busted a sanding belt, but then I only have two tools which use them... an old (1974-vintage Craftsman hand-held) and the Ryobi bench-top belt/disc sander. With the latter, I use a rubber-like abrasive cleaner to keep it in good shape. For the Craftsman I only use it for the roughest of work, like cleaning old glue and other residue from stock I'm recycling. Those belts are fairly cheap, so I just replace them when worn out or gummed up, as the case usually is.

However, if desperate and faced with a broken belt I think I'd try duct tape on the back of the belt, probably for the full surface area for maximum adhession and so that there are no low spots on the belt. Not sure how this would work well, but that would be my attempt.


CWS

[jdon]

Did you try to repair the belt?

Sorry- I've never had a belt break. It just seems that something like duct tape wouldn't have the strength and adhesiveness to sustain the torque and bending that a sanding belt undergoes. Also, it sounded as though you were nearly finished with the sanding, ergo, resort to hand sanding.