Belt sander problem

[willie sobat]

I have a PC 352vs that I have owned for several years. I haven't used it in about 3 months. I pulled it out today to flush-up some face frames. Almost immediately I broke the belt. In quick succession I broke 2 more. Each time it took only about a minute before the belt broke. I made sure the belt was tracking properly each time before I started. I will admit that the belts are about 5 years old. Is there something beside the age of the belts I should be concerned with? Has anyone else had this problem?

[Bob Genovesi]

Willie,

I've had the same problem with new belts.

If you're sure there's nothing that's tearing the belts, and you should see signs of this as soon as you depress the button, then the belts are defective.

What manufacturer of belts? I've been using Norton belts for years without incident.

Bob

[Bill Huber]

This is really funny, I had the same problem about 2 weeks about. I would put on a belt and it would brake, put on another one and the same thing. I just don't use the sander very much at all.

I ran up the HD and got some new belts and that fixed the problem. My belts were a few years old and the glue on the had gone bad.

[Steve Clardy]

I don't use a belt sander much, so my current stash of belts have some age on them. 6-7 years old.
I'll break every other one seems like, at the glue joint.

Don't stock up on belts unless you use one often.

[willie sobat]

Thanks for the input. I'll try new belts and hope that solves the problem.

[glenn bradley]

Thanks for the input. I'll try new belts and hope that solves the problem.

If they are older belts, check to see if they are directional; there will be arrows on the inside surface of the belt indicating direction of travel.