Est. 1998 — 27 years of woodworking knowledge
Belt sander belts
Dick H.
>I have a 17 year old Makita 3x24 belt sander that I rarely use and a supply of belts that are probably five or six years old. Yestreday I used the sander and several of the belts broke at the glue joint, all were installed with the direction arrows going in the proper direction. My question is do the belts have a shelf life or do I have a problem with the sander?
Re: Belt sander belts
jared
>hello: I had the same problems with some belts one time. they were probably three years old and everyone of them separated at the glue joint. I also have a supply of them now that are probably ten years old, 3M brand, I have not really had any use for that noisey thing for a long time and should probably just throw the belts away. I do have some 6x48 belts that have a little age on them but never had a problem with them, they are a different brand. I always release the tension on the belt when I am not using it, too. Jared
Re: Old Belt sander belts
Glenn Madsen near San Francisco
>You can probably answer that question for less than $10 at the local hardware store. I doubt that your old Makita is due for recycling, though. Should have been pretty well made.
Old sandpaper is questionable, in my shop, and running in at whatever around the rollers would push it a bit past where I regularly go.
Re: Belt sander belts
Larry Clinton At Frankfort (Central)., Indiana
>I'm sure there is no problem with the sander. I hit a sale one time at Sears and purchased several belts. Like you I didn't use them for a few years. Everyone split at the glue line within a few seconds of use. I cut them up for other uses.
Re: Belt sander belts
ben d.
>Nothing wrong with your sander. The belts are aged and the glue joint fails.
Scrape the old glue off and re-glue the belts back together. I have done that using gorilla glue. Just clean the joint wet apply glue use wax paper on both sides and line up the sides of the belt place a piece of wood on each side and clamp, let dry and good as new.
works for me.
Ben hit the nail on the head!
Robert Hutchins
>The glue bond fails, for sure. My Makita 3x21 predates yours by about 5 years and still works fine. When I bought it, I was very thrifty and bought boxes of belts in different grits thinking they would last me for awhile. Learned summat about glue. There are belts made today without the glue bond. Don't know how they do that, but I've not had one of them fail on me yet.