Hand-held corded belt sander recommendations?

[Tom M King]

I haven't even looked at the others, but my old Bosch is very low profile and easy to handle. I also have a little one handed Porter-Cable one that I use for trimming horse hooves.

[Frank Pratt]

I've had a Makita 3" or 4" x 24" sander for close to 40 years. It's taken everything me and my 'enthusiastic' neighbor have thrown at it and still works like new. All I've had to do to it is replace the cork pad.

[Warren Lake]

sounds like most of them work well. Ive had mine so hot a number of times I cooked hot dogs on it. I got a deal on a ton of them left over from saw stop demonstrations.

[Cameron Wood]

I have several Porter Cable 3x21 ones- they're OK, & keep showing up for cheap or free,

so not worth upgrading to Makita, which I favor.

Set up with 40, 80, & 100 grit belts, & long cords which stay plugged in so always ready to pick up and use.

[chuck van dyck]

Not a belt sander but I really like my 6” bosch with dual mode. In beast aka turbo mode it melts wood.

[Dave Zellers]

have you entered any belt sander races?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0V7z8kH2wDE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pr_G7dN0w_M

Well that was disappointing. My first boss when I started learning carpentry over 50 years ago, told stories of belt sander races where they would sit on them and pull the switch. I was expecting to see that.

The 70's were different.

[Warren Lake]

Dave were you working with Lilliputians?

The belt sander was my stroke sander till I built one. Then bought a real one, later replaced that with a better one.

Cant always take the work to the sander so always need to have the belt for the stuff it excels at. They can do good work. You can sand your rails on a door then turn and sand the styles and then that cleans up well with a random. If you are accurate with the belt sander it leaves clean results with very little cross grain to almost non.

[Mike Wilkins]

Festool has a belt sander available, but for the Euro market. Somebody contact Festool USA and see if it can be offered stateside.

[Cameron Wood]

I remember ride-on belt sander races in the '70s.

There was also a local motorized bar stool race.

[Christopher Charles]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=F9hCPe...JlbHQgc2FuZGVy

[Rich Engelhardt]

Back in the 80, the rep from Makita that came to Builder's Square, used to sit on a belt sander and zoom across the store. It was pretty cool. That sucker would really move!


I picked up a Black and Decker 3X21 "Dragster" to sand down a deck because the low profile snout could get under the lower part of the railing. I ended up using/abusing that thing a lot longer than it should have lived. It's still going strong. I didn't expect that.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

The Black and Decker 88 was the 2nd power tool I bought myself. That was 1983. It was a workhorse and where I learned the turn it upside down trick. I had to have a repair shop find a switch for it. When the part came in it was in a Ryobi bag which I had never heard of. I told the tool shop guy he had made a mistake. I was wrong. I cut the front of the 88 off so I could carve with the front roller. I snagged the cord with my feet and pulled it off of the bench so many times that it eventually became a blob of epoxy, same as the red plastic Milwaukee. Both ended life working fine mechanically but unable to survive being drug off of the bench by tripping on the cord. My 1st power tool purchase in 1981, A Skilsaw. It is still in use almost every day.

Screen Shot 2023-05-18 at 6.51.41 AM.png B&D 88 Screen Shot 2023-05-18 at 7.18.14 AM.jpg Ryobi 7075 Screen Shot 2023-05-18 at 7.52.39 AM.png 4 x 24 Milwaukee

[Ole Anderson]

I have a PC 3x21 and love it. Had a PC 4x24, it was too heavy and frankly was outperformed by its little brother. Both used in production work finishing spinning 6' long aluminum 1.5" and 2" diameter tubing.

[Tom M King]

Not a belt sander but I really like my 6” bosch with dual mode. In beast aka turbo mode it melts wood.

One of those ended my belt sander use. I call it Beast Mode too.

[Jim Becker]

I have a Bosch 3x21. I've not used it for many years, but I keep it because it works and there might be "that situation" where it's the right tool for the job.