Do you like a graphite sander platen ?

[NightOwl]

Hey everybody, I put a graphite platen on my belt sander last week to help with the heat and I like it. But talking with some metal workers today they pretty much all talk trash about a graphite platen saying they dont like them and they are a waste of money. Now I dont ever remember hearing about a woodworker not liking a graphite platen but I have never asked either....so..... do you guys like a graphite platen on your belt sander ?

 

[scsmith42]

Britt, personally I prefer the graphite platen.

 

[NightOwl]

Thanks Scott. A couple weeks ago I saw a picture where a guy made a knife blade from an old Panhead primary chain and I am hooked. I have spent many hours since studying the process and one day hope to give it a shot. The guys at the knife forum today was trashing graphite and that surprised me and I was curious about other woodworkers thoughts.

Any other opinions for or against graphite??

 

[junquecol]

For metal work, the graphite platen may not furnish the support needed to prevent rounding of the edge. I do have one on my stationary 4 X 36 belt sander and like it very much. Don't have them on my 3 X 21 portables though.

 

[BWSmith]

Without sounding too ambiguous........they're gonna depend alot on how the end user is,well....using them.

We've taken temp guns and shot temps when grinding certain steels on belt grinders.This heat build-up may not be the same when "grinding" wood,but it IS present.You can play with grit size and feed pressure,and possibly the MOST important is high exhaust rates on sander DC.These are things that are a touch different grinding metal and grinding wood.Alot of metal guys go with simpler water traps instead of vacumn DC's.They also tend to favor only a cpl grit sizes.Not that theres anything wrong with that,haha.WW's are a little farther out on the grit chart(leaning twds finer) and have to deal with a much higher airbourne effect.

I'd say in WWing,if you're getting heat after exploring above,and its showing up on the work or belt/platen(especially in the 120-180 range) then graphite will make a noticable effect.BW


*As a note,we build traditional archery bows(laminated,longbows-recurves),as such we do heavy grinding on some rather "tough" woods.And can't say enough about DC right at the point of contact........as one way of controlling heat buildup.