Belt sanders are tool that will perform heavy work in the field of woodworking. Belt sanders can strip the paint off of an old deck in a few minutes; they can flatten a tabletop that has been glue together; and they can create a smooth finish on a cherry cabinet. However, when people go to purchase a belt sander, there are many different options available.
Some belt sander may look like a tank, others may look like a handheld vacuum, and the third type of belt sander may sit upon a workbench like a small conveyor belt. Understanding the different types of belt sanders will save you money, save you time, and save you from frustration. The differences between the belt sanders are based off the way in which the tool is built, how the tool move the abrasive material, and the type of work that was designed into the belt sander.
Once you understand the characteristics of each type of belt sander, you will no longer be confused about which type to purchase for your workshop. The list that follows will detail the different varieties of belt sanders, from the first type of belt sander that most workshop owners will purchase to the more specialized types of belt sanders that they will purchase later on. Each type of belt sander has certain strengths that make it irreplaceable for a few specific tasks, but there are also some quirks to each type that you will have to respect to achieve the best possible results.
There are four primary types of belt sanders that are available from manufacturers today, each with its own set of characteristics and uses.
Common Types of Belt Sanders for Woodworking
1. Portable Belt Sander
The first type of belt sander that many people will purchase is the portable belt sander. Portable belt sanders are small in size but contain enough power to allow individuals to use one hand to pick up the tool and use it on a door, a floorboard, or the side of a dresser.
The tool features a belt of sandpaper that is typically three inches wide and twenty-one inches long. The sandpaper belt rotates around two rollers. The motor for the portable belt sander is positioned directly above the sandpaper belt.
Additionally, the weight of the motor allow the tool to have heft so that it can dig into the wood without requiring an individual to exert much of their strength. Portable belt sanders are best used to remove material at a fast rate from the workpiece that is being sanded. For instance, portable belt sanders can remove old finish from the object that is being sanded.
In addition, portable belt sanders can flatten high spots on a tabletop that has been glue together. Furthermore, they can smooth down rough lumber in a few minutes. One of the benefits of using a portable belt sander is that an individual can control the angle at which the tool is applied to the workpiece, as well as the amount of pressure that the operator’s hands apply.
However, the portable belt sander requires the operator’s attention to the workpiece. If the operator places the tool in one spot for too long, the belt will begin to remove more material than should be removed. To avoid this, the operator should use the tool in a steady pace so as to ensure that no spot is sanded excessive.
Additionally, the passes that are made with the portable belt sander should overlap by half the width of the belt, and the tool should always be sanded in the direction of the wood grain. With experience using a portable belt sander, woodworkers of furniture find it to be the fastest tool to prepare rough wood into a workable shape. The next type of belt sander that is manufactured is the random-orbit belt sander, also known as a combination sander.
2. Combination Sander
As the name suggests, a combination sander includes a belt of sandpaper on one side of the tool, as well as a disc on the other side of the same sander. The belt runs vertically on the tool so that the edges of the workpiece can be sanded, as well as the disc that helps sand end grain on the workpiece. Due to both the belt and the disc sharing the same motor, the combination sander is compact in size but performs well in a variety of tasks.
The combination sander is especially helpful in that an individual can sand the curved edges of a piece of wood by hand using the belt sander, then flip the workpiece to sand the end grain with the disc sander. This saves the individual from having to clamp the workpiece to a workbench. Additionally, the disc portion of the combination sander may include a tilting work surface that allows the wood to be sanded for miters and chamfers.
However, the limitation of the combination sander is that the belt is only four or six inches wide. Thus, it is not ideal for sanding large workpieces. Yet, for furniture makers who primarily work on smaller pieces of wood, the combination sander is the most used sanding tool in their workshop.
3. Stationary Belt Sander
The third primary type of belt sander is the stationary belt sander. Stationary sanders are simply belt sanders that are locked to a stand or bench, and they come with a much larger area of the sandpaper belt. Stationary belt sanders can feature a belt that is six inches in width and forty-eight inches in length.
The belt may be horizontal or vertical depending upon the tilt of the sanding table. Because of the large area of the belt, stationary belt sanders are used to sand large workpieces so that individual woodworkers do not have to move the sander. Additionally, instead of the wood pieces being pushed into the stationary belt sander, the belt sander does not have to be moved from one spot on the workpiece to the next.
Belt sanders that are stationary are useful in the production shop. If you set your fence to ninety degrees, all of your workpieces will have identical edges as they come off the belt. If you add a graphite platen behind the belt, you will get completely flat surfaces that require little or no hand sanding.
The downside of these tools is that they are big, heavy, and loud. You cant just pick one up and take it outside to sand a picnic table. However, for a serious woodturner and a small shop dedicated to producing similar products, this tool will become a daily workhorse that saves the woodturner time and collects the sanding dust.
4. Detail or Finger Sander
At the opposite extreme of size are the detail sanders or the finger sanders. These small tools use narrow belts that can be as narrow as one quarter of an inch and use a thin metal arm rather than the wide rollers that other sanders use. These tools can reach into the tightest spots in the workpiece.
Furthermore, most of these tools are pneumatic to allow the woodturner to use them while continuously having access to air. Because they are pneumatic, they will stay cool during long periods of use. These tools are used to sand areas that would be difficult to access with other sanding tools.
Furthermore, the belts can easily be replaced so that you can go from sanding to a coarse grit to a fine grit without having to stop the workpiece. However, because of the narrow belts, these tools take longer to sand a workpiece. Therefore, they are used for finishing work rather than removing large amounts of wood. If you purchase one of these tools, you will find yourself using it more than you think you would.
5. Oscillating Belt Sander
Oscillating belt sanders are another type of tool that can significantly aid woodturners and woodworkers in sanding their completed workpieces. These tools have a platen that rocks up and down while the belt sanding tool spins.
This rocking motion of the platen prevents any visible scratches made on the workpiece and reduces the heat created by sanding the workpiece. This can be an advantage when sanding delicate workpieces like veneers. Furthermore, some of these tools come in benchtop versions that have both an oscillating platen and a disc sander.
The rocking platen also helps with sanding end grain. When sanding end grain, a standard sanding belt can create heat that may burn the workpiece. However, because of the moving platen of an oscillating belt sander, hot spots are avoided on the workpiece.
Furthermore, because woodturners often sand the bases and rims of bowls with these tools, there are no swirl marks left on the workpiece. Any work involving many figured or curved woods will find that the cost of these tools is worth the investment as the tool will significantly save the woodturner time using fine sanding grits. Finally, there are the wide belt sanders.
6. Wide Belt Sander
These tools are used in production shops for sanding large volumes of workpieces. Workpieces are fed through rollers under a drum that holds a belt that is sixty inches wide or wider. The woodturner can set the thickness of the workpiece and then fed into the sander.
The result will be a flat workpiece to within a few thousandths of an inch in thickness. Cabinet makers use these tools to thickness panels of wood after they are glue up to ensure that all their doors and drawer fronts are of similar thickness. The cut that a wide belt sander makes is mechanical rather than reliant on the tiredness or fatigue of the woodturner’s hand.
Furthermore, the machine will also help to suck up the dust that is created by sanding. Although the purchase of these tools will require an investment in both money and floor space in the workshop, any woodturner that produces multiple identical products will find that this tool will significantly impact the viability of that woodturner as a business. Once you purchase a wide belt sander and run your first piece of wood through it to a perfectly flat thickness, you will never go back to any other type of sanding method.
Your choice of sanders will depend on the scale of your work and the size of your workshop. A weekend woodturner that works on family furnishings may only require one solid belt sander and one detail sanding tool. However, a full time woodturner will eventually own at least three of the types of sanders discussed in this article.
It is likely that a full time woodturner will wonder how they lived without at least one stationary belt sander. However, the best starting point is to consider the types of jobs that you currently do and purchase the tool that will best solve those specific jobs. Your collection of tools should grow according to your expanding skills and ambitions.
Furthermore, each type of belt sander has a specific job that it performs better than any other tool. Finally, when you purchase the right type of sander for your workshop, sanding will stop being a chore and will become the satisfying final touch in the manufacturing of your best woodturning projects.
