I am looking for wide belt sander advice

[Brian Cosgrove]

Hi. I am in the market for a wide belt sander. I am a serious hobbiest and will be the only one using it, likely a few hours a week maximum. Based on my anticipated need, I have decided that I want a 36 or 37 inch single head unit. In an attempt to keep the footprint as small as possible, I have come to the conclusion that a used SCMI sandya uno or sandya 1k might be best for me. I looked at Timesavers, but they all seem to be significantly larger for the same width sanding capacity. Is there anyone who has an opinion, one way or the other on either of these machines, or which one might be better for me? I am assuming that the Sandya 1k, being the newer model, might have more electronics that can break, etc, but I am not sure....just my thought. I guess I am looking for input as I am new to wide belts and want to have something I am happy with.

Thanks for the help,

Brian Cosgrove

[Mike Heidrick]

A Timesaver speedsaver is smaller than the full on Timesaver. It is import and would be perfect for a hobbyiest/prosumer/small shop owner. Can be purchased in 7.5 and 10hp single phase as well. They have a VFD built in which is how it is single phase. Should be able to purchase new for less than 10K.

[Brian Cosgrove]

Mike, Thanks for the reply. I did consider the Speedsander and like it a lot, however, I did notice the maximum sanding thickness is 4" vs. 6 1/4" for the mentioned SCMI machines. I think I would rarely/ever need the extra thickness but don't want to be limited if needed.

[Loren Woirhaye]

Wide belts can get pretty beat up in pro shops. Replacement conveyer belts are expensive. They do sell them off wide belts insanely cheap on ebay sometimes though.

Having cleaned and got a somewhat neglected 13" JET wide belt going, I'm glad I started with such a modest machine as it is very, very heavy for its size and as a bare-bones model with no electronics, working on it and figuring it out was not a dead end for me. The engineering in them is pretty cool.

There isn't as much to maintain on them as on edgebanders, but they suffer similar abuse in high-volume shops. I'd try to look at a few and talk with the sellers. Probably they're either upgrading or shutting the business down.

[eugene thomas]

I changed conversation on a halsty. Was job but in end got wide belt for 3 k plus 550 for belt.

[Brian Cosgrove]

Another brand that comes to mind if Safety Speed Cut, which are priced reasonably. Anybody have experience with these?

[Rick Lizek]

Any reason you aren't looking at stroke sanders. More versatile than a widebelt. What are your sanding needs. Describe them. I have 40 years of sanding machine expertise in custom shops factories and metal shops and know quite a lot about sanders.

[J.R. Rutter]

Another brand that comes to mind if Safety Speed Cut, which are priced reasonably. Anybody have experience with these?

They bought Halsty. Pretty basic machine that uses common North American parts.

[Brian Cosgrove]

Rick, my main sanding is end grain butcher block of various sizes, from cutting boards to island tops. Maple, cherry, walnut.

Brian

[David Kumm]

It's probably more important to find condition than brand in the single head 37" machines. You likely want a combo head with either a steel or a hard rubber drum in good shape. Conveyor also should be good with minimal cracking and some depth still left in the waffles. Electric tracking vs pneumatic and a motor size you can handle. I'd want 20 hp on a 37" but you need the amps to handle it and a 5 hp dust collector. SCMI and EMC are the remaining Euro players- along with Houfek. A good Asian machine should be considered too. The older sanders are heavy and the electrics take up a much larger space but are cheaper to fix. SCMI is compact, harder to work on but parts are available. I've had repair guys tell me the old Ramco were pretty good machines. Avoid a platen only head and probably a drum only machine if you will do general sanding. None of the machines will do veneer or sand finishes. Dave

[Guy Belleman]

You mention wanting a 36 or 37 inch wide belt sander. Most "serious hobbiest"s seem to consider the drum sander or stroke sander before a wide belt sander, both of which are a lot cheaper and have a smaller footprint. The Grizzly stroke sander is 700 pounds and 1/8 the cost of a the 37" wide sander, which is also 1800 pounds. The Grizzly 37" drum sander is about a third of the price of the wide belt sander, but comparable in weight at 1400 pounds. A good size dust collection system would a must.

[Brian Cosgrove]

I will admit that I know nothing about stroke sanders and do not want to buy a drum sander just so I can upgrade next year. I did that with my slider and jointer/planer by buying cheap before upgrading to my current Felder machines. I have a 5hp Oneida dust collector and plenty of power.

Brian

[nicholas mitchell]

Before you do anything, read these articles. Lots of excellent info

http://surfprepsanding.com/2014/03/3...ng-make-sense/

http://surfprepsanding.com/2013/12/0...rit-sequences/

http://surfprepsanding.com/2014/02/2...elt-sanding-2/

[Jim Andrew]

Only experience I have is with a 37" speedsander, and my little open end Grizzly, GO9983. The speedsander and Grizzly both use air with their oscillations, the Griz will sand a thick piece of wood, and the open end allows you to sand a wide panel with a relatively small machine. Can't imagine how you would be able to handle a 6" thick countertop of any size, when I built my bench top it was only 3 1/2" thick and I glued it up in halves, and about broke my back handling the halves separately. I ran each through the planer to even them up. It is white oak, and heavy. The old speedsander is probably 15 years old now, and still runs fine. They had some trouble with it, think a bad bearing about 10 years ago, I asked how it was doing and they told me they have had no trouble since that one time. It is in a pro shop. Not that it runs constantly, but they put their face frames through it, and any wood countertops they build.

[Loren Woirhaye]

Stroke sanders are neat. They don't oblige you to sand to a specific thickness. It's kind of like hand planing in that you decide where the belt goes. The burnishing issue that can come up with sanders that calibrate thickness (drum, wide belt) are avoided more easily with a stroke sander. Wide belts can be great time saving machines of course if one is using the machine wisely.