Grizzly chewing up belts!

[Jack Wood]

I recently acquired a Grizzly 12"disc/6"belt sander and it came with a few new belts. I decided to change out the old belt and it seemed straight forward, remove old belt install new belt, center it and start sanding, but no such luck. The new belt disentegrated within seconds of my putting a piece of wood to it! Not a fun thing I can tell ya, another good reason to ALWAYS WEAR EYE PROTECTION! So I figured it was a bad belt and loaded up a second one, wham! same thing!!!! Put the old belt back on and it worked like a charm And yes they were the same size belts and yes I put them on with the arrows pointing in the direction that it turns. So where have I gone wrong? These were Craftsman belts and even though not used, had been stored for quite a few years. I was thinking of putting on a new disc and now I'm wondering if there's more to it than peeling of the old and gluing on the new, don't wont another eye opener at those RPMS! THANKS!

[Shaun Wilson]

Hi Jack,

Many sanding belts have a cloth backing that can rot or deteriorate over time, depending on how they are stored. Just how many is "quite a few years"? I'm guessing this is the problem - especially since the old belt works fine. Try a truly new belt. If it still has problems then something definately needs to be adjusted. If it runs fine then problem solved.

Good luck,
Shaun

[Allen Bookout]

Hi Jack,

Many sanding belts have a cloth backing that can rot or deteriorate over time, depending on how they are stored. Just how many is "quite a few years"? I'm guessing this is the problem - especially since the old belt works fine. Try a truly new belt. If it still has problems then something definately needs to be adjusted. If it runs fine then problem solved.

Good luck,
Shaun

I agree. I have had the same problem with belts that have been put back for a while. Allen

[Chris Rosenberger]

I just had the same thing happen yesterday with 1 x 42 belts. They come apart almost as soon as the sander is turned on.

[Jack Wood]

well I would guess the belts are at least 15 yrs old. So the answer might be dryrot?

[Allen Bookout]

Hey Jack,

If those belts are really 15 years old do not destroy any more of them. You might get an antique price for them. Or if you are going to try to use them wait until I have time to place some bets.

Sure hope that you have a sense of humor!

Allen

[Jack Wood]

You just never know! If a potato chip that looks like Lincoln can fetch $25,000.00 an old rotten belt might just bust it wide open! The sander was free and hardly used so the price of a few new belts will be worth it, I'm just glad it's not a problem with the sander itself.

[Doug Shepard]

I had the same problem last summer on my Delta Sanding Center. My dad scored a whole stack of 6x48 belts for me at a garage sale. I think the whole batch cost me $20 for about 25-30 belts, but they're less than factory fresh. Part of my problem didn't turn out to be the belts though. I ended up finding a very faint wear mark on the sander where the belt edge was apparently getting rubbed. That and the age of the belts ended up in some broken ones. Even though it seemed to be tracking OK I pulled off the tracking mechanism and cleaned it real good then lightly filed the CI in the suspicious area. So far I haven't had any more belt breaking problems (knock on wood).