Can large sanding belts be fixed?

[Nathan Ginder]

Hello, everyone - just found this forum, first post - maybe someone here can help me? Thanks!

I have a lot of brand new large sanding belts for my 15" wide belt sander, and 6" edge sander which have been sitting in my shop for years. They appear to be taped together at the seam with a reinforced type of clear tape. This tape has dried out and the belts are coming apart at the seam. Has anyone repaired/ re-taped sanding belt with success? I hate to throw away 100's of dollars in belts

Thanks

[Charles Lent]

The tape/glue goes bad over time. I no longer stock very many extras because of this. I buy them as I need them with maybe only 1 spare of each grit.
I've tried to repair older belt seams that have come apart, but never succeeded in getting more than a few minutes to an hour more use before they came apart again. So my best suggestion is not to keep very many. Just buy what you need as you need them.

Charley

[Joe Kieve]

Nathan...Welcome to the Creek.

I had the same problem with some 3 X 24 belts. Years ago I bought about 100 belts from a hardware store that was closing. Figured they'd last me a lifetime. Wrong! After a couple of years, they all started coming apart at the seam. I never have found anything to repair them successfully.

There are several threads on this forum that discuss this. In the white search box, at the top of this page, type in "sanding belt repair".

If you ever are successful at repairing your belts, please keep us informed.

[larry senen]

someone made 'em someone can fix 'em. i'd try fibre glass tape and some flexible adhesives under a clamp. i'm sure epoxy would hold , not sure it would flex around the rollers.

[Bruce Wrenn]

Klingspor rep gave a talk to local WW group several years back. He said that they keep Kelvar tape in freezer to slow down degradation. It has a useful life of about 1 year. Belts of old were lap glued with yellow glue. Somewhere on internet most likely is a video showing how this is done

[jim mills]

Go to OWWM.org and search "splicing sander belts". There is a great tutorial on the topic.

[Sam Puhalovich]

There was a 'thread' on this: Jan 23, 2013 ... started by Charlie Ross .... Fixing Sanding belts?
One of the 'solutions' by Mel Fulks was: Www.specialabrasives.com/ptx-pipe.html. The product is poly-adhesive Tape 50m roll 49000.
There are (were) others. I've been curious about this, especially since I popped a 1/2 dozen 50 grit belts.
I'll 'plod' through the web site and report-back what I find.

[Carroll Courtney]

What about that Gorilla tape,if it is thin enough.Seen it on a TV commericial

[Robby Tacheny]

I found the manual referenced at www.woodworkinghistory.com. Direct link to the PDF below. I hope this is alright. It appears to be an out of print edition from 1939.

Getting the most out of your abrasive tools - Page 8 - http://www.woodworkinghistory.com/sam_brown_getting%20_the_most_out_of_your_abrasive _tools_1939_indexed.pdf




From Sam Brown - Getting the Most Out of Your Abrasive Tools13th ed 1939

Sanding Belts.—Sanding belts can be purchased readymade for most belt sanders. The worker can also make his own belts by splicing the sandpaper to form a belt of the proper length. Several varieties of belt splices are in common use. The interlocking splice, Fig. 4, is made with an inexpensive cutter. A cloth patch is necessary to retain the two ends in position

This splice is very strong and easy to make, but has the disadvantage of a bump at the joining point caused by the patch. The plain butt splice, Fig. 5, is made without special cutting equipment, the cut ends of the belt being simply patched together at either 45 or 90-degrees. The skived joint. Fig. 6, is the one most commonly used. If one end only of the belt is skived, the joint is a single skive; if both ends are skived the joint is a double skive. Any suitable angle can be used in making the joint. The grain can be skived from the belt ends by using an abrasive stick about three sizes coarser than the belt. Where a suitable abrasive brick is not available, the skive can be made by dipping the belt end into hot water, as shown in Fig. 7, after which the abrasive and glue can be readily removed from the cloth backing. The joint is put up with a light coat of medium thick hot glue and is held in a suitable press until dry. as in Fig. 9.