Belt Sander

Steve_Honeycutt

Chat Administartor
Steve
I have several older belts for my belt sander where the glue joint has failed. Anyone know what kind of glue I can use to repair these belts?
 

Michael Mathews

Michael
Corporate Member
FYI....I had several Klingspor belts that I had stocked up on that had failed. I spoke with Coleman about this and he told me the adhesive joint doesn't have a long shelf life. He said it's best to get what you're going to use and not buy a dozen to save and use over the next 5 or so years. He said the gule joints will probably fail as soon as you put them on and tension the belt. So, I've been following his advice and haven't had one fail since.
 

Steve_Honeycutt

Chat Administartor
Steve
FYI....I had several Klingspor belts that I had stocked up on that had failed. I spoke with Coleman about this and he told me the adhesive joint doesn't have a long shelf life. He said it's best to get what you're going to use and not buy a dozen to save and use over the next 5 or so years. He said the gule joints will probably fail as soon as you put them on and tension the belt. So, I've been following his advice and haven't had one fail since.

Good advice. I bought the sander used and these belts came with it. I hate to trash these belts, if they can be repaired and used.
 

creasman

Jim
Staff member
Corporate Member
Problem with re-glueing belts is that you have to get the joint just right. Any deviation and the belt won't track straight. You also have to use an adhesive that can withstand the heat that gets generated. In the end it really isn't worth the effort. I tear old belts in strips and use them for sanding on the lathe. You can also glue the strips of sandpaper to scraps of wood to make sanding blocks and toss them when it's worn out.
 

walnutjerry

Jerry
Senior User
FYI....I had several Klingspor belts that I had stocked up on that had failed. I spoke with Coleman about this and he told me the adhesive joint doesn't have a long shelf life. He said it's best to get what you're going to use and not buy a dozen to save and use over the next 5 or so years. He said the gule joints will probably fail as soon as you put them on and tension the belt. So, I've been following his advice and haven't had one fail since.
true words spoken.................been there done that
 

Bill Clemmons

Bill
Corporate Member
I hate to trash these belts, if they can be repaired and used.

As others have pointed out, it really isn't practical to re-glue the belts. But that doesn't mean they can't be re-purposed. Use spray adhesive to attach the separated belt to a flat surface and use for sharpening, depending on the grit. Or cut into small rectangles and attach to a scrap piece of wood to use as a sanding block.
 

bob vaughan

Bob Vaughan
Senior User
There are old sanding belts and then there are really OLD sanding belts. Pretty much anything that has that bumpybelt tape joint is short term. I've been having the same problem with some belts I've had for three or four years that have the tape joint. As an experiment, I reduced the spring pressure on the idler and got a significant improvement in belt joint life. The durability taped joint went from seconds to minutes if you count that as an improvement.

This discussion has been see on other forums as well. One poster said that his sister worked at a factory that made belts. She said that the adhesive was very special and couldn't be purchased on the open market plus there was no real substitute.

A ground skive joint is best but those belts are hard to find. Mostly that joint is seen these days in industrial abrasives that aren't advertsed to the cheapskate home workshop crowd. The skive joint used to be all there was but that was back 30 years ago.

Sun Abrasives (AKA Sun Gold) came to the US in the early 1980s. They were competitively priced and did as good of a job as the USA-made stuff that cost twice as much. They also used a skive joint because the bumpybelt tape joint was unheard of back then. A friend became a distributor of the Sun belts so I got a case or two to help him out. I had tried a couple of samples and was impressed. I still have 30 of the belts that are nearly 40 years old and they last today as well as they did back then. Those belts I would classify as 'really OLD'.

Point being, when looking at new old stock belt sanding belts, look for the skive joint. Those belts have a higher likelihood of being satisfactory.

Previous storage conditions can have a big impact on durability. Boxes of belts stored for years in a lawn mower shed may look good but likely the joint has deteriorated from moisture.
 

Oka

Casey
Corporate Member
Take the belts and use them in a block as a block sander, just cut apiece of wood the has radii on all corners that will fit the belt snugly and you can use them that way.
 

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