Thanks for the Breaking sanding belt idea

[Lee Schierer]

I did a search and couldn't find the post where someone mentioned that they had cured their belt sander from breaking old belts by reducing the spring pressure on the front roller. I am currently working on a set of furniture and bookshelves for our family room/office and had some belts on hand that were at least 2 years old. The first one broke in a matter of seconds. Then I recalled reading the tip about reducing the spring pressure. I looked at my sander and saw that it would be possible to place a shim between the spring release and the body of the sander. I added a 1/16" thick wood shim with some double sided tape on one side to may sander. You can see the shim in the photo
IMG_0430.jpg
The result was that I have yet to break the second belt from the same two year+ batch of belts, despite using the sander for nearly 20 minutes so far.

My sincerest thanks to whoever posted the idea to reduce the spring pressure with a shim.

[lowell holmes]

Lee,

Keep fresh belts on hand and quit using old belts.

Just kidding.

Every time I see your signature, it brings my naval service to mind. I was in the Naval Reserve and served during the Berlin crisis.
Our reserve ship, a DE with a reserve four striper Captain was deployed to Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. We had Destroyer Escort manned
with WWII veterans. We were heading to Guantanamo Bay when a plane flew at the ship at 1700 hours right out of the sun. We were
steaming with WWII veteran gun crews in the tubs. We had the noses of rounds in the breaches of the 3" guns when the Captain ordered
them to belay. They shot down four air sleeves on our ORI. The fire control men and gunners mates had seen Korean War action as well as WWII.

The Captain either knew they were coming or recognized the planes as being friendly ordered them to stand down.

[Carl Kona]

Lee,

Thanks for the tip! I just used some new belts that were 5-10 years old and I went through two pretty fast. I guess they don't make 'em like they used to. I don't use a belt sander that often but growing up we had belts for years that we would use at will without issue. I will try this the next time I use a new "old" belt.

Thanks again.

Carl

[Yonak Hawkins]

Lee, it tends to reduce tracking control a little bit but I find it a workable solution for salvaging those old belts.

[Lee Schierer]

Maybe I was lucky but I didn't have any tracking issues. It might depend on how much you reduce the tension. My sander still has plenty of grip on the belt.