Breaking Sanding belts

[LCHIEN]

Loring, have you tried repairing them with filament tape, probably stronger than duct tape?
Good luck,

Tim

The tape doesn't tear, the adhesive pulls off, first.

[big tim]

Loring, have you tried repairing them with filament tape, probably stronger than duct tape?
Good luck,

Tim

[LCHIEN]

that's the secondary plan...
cut some 2x4 blocks about 5" long and cut the belts to about 7" long and wrap around the 2x4 and staple to the ends to make some Quick and dirty sanding blocks. I should be able to make...30 or 40 of them

[lrr]

These belts are butted and taped, not overlapped and glued.

Sounds like it is time to make that hand sander tool that uses old sanding belts.

Seriously though, at work I've seen one in the shop, but not looked closely at it since our projects seldom involve sanding. I think it has a spring that tensions the belt around both rollers. Since a manual sanding pad would just hold a belt and not employ any belt rotation, you could do something like staple the ends together, or just make a clamping-style sander pad that takes the broken belts as-is.

[Bruce Cohen]

Loring,
The same thnk happened to me. I unearthed a box full of belts (Craftsman) I never knew I had. The belts must have been 10-15 years old. After the first 4 broke, I just tossed the entire box and got new ones (Norton). It just didn't pay to play around with the old ones, even if I may have found some that still held together.

Bruce

[rcplaneguy]

I tried gorilla glue on a 6x48" shopsmith belt. Glued, clamped, let set for 2 days. It left a raised bump that was annoying but it kept the belt in service for about 5 minutes before failure. Tried it again but it only lasted a minute. Gave up after that.

[Stytooner]

Not sure how well it works, but did find this link.

http://www.specialabrasives.com/ptx_pipe.htm

If they have it down under, then we should have it up over.

I also read that the seam tapes are vulcanized in place by manufactures meaning ultra high, short term, pinpoint heat to join the belts. I'm sure some sort of prep is also required.


PS, read the very last post in this thread.
http://www.britishblades.com/forums/...-Sanding-Belts

That is what I suspected as well. Special sauce.

[cwsmith]

I'll go with the thoughts on "old". Things just age to the point where they've lost their integrity, IMHO.

Fixing sounds like the way to go, as I too would view the many breakages as 'such a waste', expecially considering it was just the seam.

I have never used it, or owned it, but what about Gorilla TAPE? Is it too thick to use?

Also, is there any value in trying to contact the manufacturer of the belts. They may well have a suggestion.

Happy Thanksgiving,

CWS

[greenacres2]

Just did my morning spin on CL--this guy mentions the box of belts like a selling point. Any bets on how long the first one would last??

http://southbend.craigslist.org/tls/4217612979.html

earl

[greenacres2]

I got about 20 when I bought my old belt/disk sander--went through 3 or 4 not lasting more than a few seconds and ordered new. I kept them, great for making sanding blocks and non-slip jig surfaces. But--I've wondered about trying contact cement and/or Gorilla glue. Haven't gotten around to it, sounds like there may be hope. For sure I'm going to use up the ones I bought new first, no point in wasting them too!!

Definitely don't throw them out Loring, they are beefy for sanding blocks.

earl

[Stytooner]

I think the reason duct tape fails pretty quickly is due to heat. Just friction from the rollers and platen would likely be enough even without any sanding.

That Gorilla glue idea has merit too.
I haven't had any standard belts break on me. I use a lot of them and they rarely get more than a couple months old.

You would want something that is not heat sensitive when cured and that is pliable with some give while remaining adhered. Probably a secret sauce well known to manufacturers, but closely guarded and readily available at industrial suppliers.
Mcmaster Carr has a very large selection of industrial adhesives and epoxies, but you would need some really good stuff to glue your lower jaw back in place after seeing some of the prices for those.

I have recently tried some of the HF belts and I have to say I am really impressed with them.
Price is very low, but they work very well on stainless steel and oak.
Last quite a long time too.
As long or longer than some of the Norton's I usually buy. Someone must have tipped China off to the secret sauce.
I use mostly 6" x 48" and 1" x 30" and lots of them. Buying belts doesn't hurt nearly as bad as it used to and I find that since I am not quite as frugal with them, the jobs get completed faster, which in turn saves too.

[tohellwithuga]

A couple ideas from http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb...-belts-184777/:

I have finally had success with making belts and re-gluing old belts with Gorilla glue. I picked up a large quantity of 1x48 belts at a sale that were older and the joints were failing. My method is to take a single edge razor blade and remove all traces of old adhesive from the joint. I then align the belt ends using a piece of aluminum angle.
Then I wet the canvas backing slightly and apply a thin coat of Gorilla glue to the joint area and clamp them together using a small Teflon block on top of the seam and apply pressure with a c-clamp.
The glue expands into the wet joint.

After setting over night, I scrape the excess glue away that has expanded out of the joint and use the belt. I have not had one break as of yet or a least not until it is worn out!
I can make custom belts from shop rolls when I need a finer polishing belt. It works for me but your results may vary.

The perfect "tape" for gluing over the joint appears to be Tyvek. You know that cloth/paper type stuff that they make priority mail bags out of. I happen to have a roll of it left over from building the house, but the mailbag is the same stuff. Can't tear it, is highly flexible, and presents a cloth to cloth glue joint. No more plastic strapping tape and fighting the adhesive that has to be removed before gluing.

[rcplaneguy]

Yeah, some of 'em were 3" wide belts for a sears sander and some were large 6" wide belts for a Shopsmith sander. The glue fails with age, trying to keep the old ones going was too annoying after a while.

[LCHIEN]

I'm gonna say this:

One layer of duct 1-3/4"" tape holds for about 30-seconds. With the tape applied perpendicular to the joint and trimmed on the edges.

Same thing, but with two pieces of 5 inches of duct tape applied side-by-side and in-line with the belt on top of the first piece of duct tape holds at least well enough to sand for about 4-5 minutes.

So in an emergency repair, duct tape is a possibility. I left it tensioned so we'll see if its still holding in the morning.

And yes, the old tape peeled off the remaining side like, well, old dried up tape. Very easily. So it must be age and temperature cycles.

I got what I wanted to sand done w/o a trip to the store. Some new ones are on the way from Amazon via 2-day delivery, due Monday (tomorrow being thanksgiving).

[LCHIEN]

My dad stockpiled (new at the time) sanding belts in the 1990s. I inherited them and recently tried using. Every one failed almost instantly at the diagonal joint. I tried regluing a few but was unsuccessful. After breaking 20 of them I went to Lowes and bought a new one. The new one has worked perfectly for many uses. The lesson? Toss the old belts.

I think you're probably right but my sense of cheap tells me to try and fix them.