Make that 1" x30 bench belt sander work for you

Rob Keeble

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Location
GTA Ontario Canada
Some years back I picked up a 1"x 30" belt/disk combo bench sander from our local hw store for $30 bucks or less on a clearance. It was never my intention to use it for woodworking but to turn it into a sharpening station.

I have been using it for this purpose however to date it has only been with sanding type belts.

Well one of the things I came across recently was adding a leather belt to the sander and using it for honing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugEe9qZDW_E


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

With the current free shipping at Lee Valley I added this made in the USA leather belt to my recent order which arrived yesterday. Cant wait to try this out and do a proper conversion of this sander into a good part of my sharpening station. In the link I posted you will also find the variety of sanding belts LV has for these units.

For you lucky guys in the USA you can pick up a 1"x 30" bench belt sander at several places pretty cheap I know one of the places mentioned by many knife makers on the web is HF another is Grizzly which is around $20 more for the same thing. Both also have this unit which is like mine with the small disc on but that adds significantly to the price $89 at Grizz. I realise now just what I deal I got on mine.
My plan is to put a small buffing wheel on the side where the disc is as I view the original disc as a waste of time unless you doing model making. :D

Belts are also available from Amazon but I prefer to support my local REAL tool store especially with free shipping.:D

If you decide to get a belt make sure to order some honing compound too if you don't have any.
 
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