Sanding Belts

[GeorgeM]

Hi All

What is the highest grit you use on wood? When sharpening? When flattening the back of a chisel or hand plane blade? Any one ever try to flatten a sharpening stone with a 600 grit belt?

GeorgeM

[GeorgeM]

Hi All

What is the highest grit you use on wood? When sharpening? When flattening the back of a chisel or hand plane blade? Any one ever try to flatten a sharpening stone with a 600 grit belt?

GeorgeM

Hi All

Have I offended all of you? Is this a forbidden topic? Is this supposed to be so intuitive that a response is not considered worthy of giving?

If I'm in the wrong, let me know. If not I would appreciate some responses before I go out to buy new belts.

Thanks to all and I hope this post is not considered by any of you to be offensive. I'm just looking for responses to what I thought were fair questions.

Submitted very gingerly,
GeorgeM

GeorgeM

[algale]

Ah yes, Mom always said there were three things not to talk about in polite company: politics, religion and belt grit.

Are we talking about the belt sander or the strip sander here?

The Shopsmith belts for the belt sander "only" go up to 120 grit. Whether that's good enough/high enough depends on the project (is this a jig for the shop or a piece of fine furniture?) and the intended finish (paint versus french polish). For many fine finishes, you need to sand up to 220 before applying the finish and even higher between coats. I guess you can buy 3rd party belts for the belt sander that go up that high but I wouldn't use a belt sander for that kind of work anyway. I'd either hand sand or use a random orbit hand sander to get more control than I can achieve with the belt sander.

The Shopsmith belts for the strip sander, on the other hand, go up to 600 grit if we are talking about the chisel sharpening belt package. Some of us have purchased 3rd-party leather belts and polishing compounds to really polish/hone our chisels to a mirror finish. My b-i-l was in town recently and we were working on a project and he was so impressed with the sharpness of my chisels that he said he was bringing his chisels back with him on his next visit so we can sharpen them on the Shopsmith strip sander.

I have no experience flattening sharpening stones with either the belt sander or strip sander. I think it would be difficult on the strip sander.


Al

[dusty]

I do not believe you have offended anyone. I did not respond because I don't know what the answers to your questions are. I could tell you what I use but that does not mean that it is right.

I have the same problems. My solution has been to buy at least one of each. That way you have what you need no matter what the job might be. After awhile, you'll find a couple of belts that you need two or three and some that remain brand new after years of waiting to be used.

[garys]

60 to 120 for me, but only because that is what I have on hand. There are times I'd like to have a 36 or coarser for shaping, but I never pursued getting one until I use up my current supply.

[ddub]

I think that Dusty hit it on the head. Most probably are not using their belt sander for your applications so we cannot give you a good answer.

Most don't use them for my applications either. LOL So I have had to experiment. Hence I have up to 320 grit and considering getting some finer grits yet. BUT, I can't see me needing anything finer than about 500 grit and that might be pushing it. But until we try, we don't know!

I am mildly surprised that Shopsmith doesn't offer finer grits than what they do, but my guess is that woodworkers (such as GaryS) don't buy them, so there isn't a large demand for them to their market.

[Bruce]

I don't use sandpaper to flatten the back of a chisel. I use a stone. When I use sandpaper to sharpen a chisel, I adhere the paper to a piece of plate glass with spray adhesive. I use wet/dry sandpaper. You can get some really fine grit paper in sheets to use that way.

[charlese]

Hi All

What is the highest grit you use on wood? When sharpening? When flattening the back of a chisel or hand plane blade? Any one ever try to flatten a sharpening stone with a 600 grit belt?

GeorgeM

Sometimes is takes a few days to get a response to a question. Especially multiple questions.

1) Highest grit used on wood? 120 or 150. 220 is used on polyurethane finish.

2)When Sharpening? 600 grit on the strip sander for bench and lathe chisels. Stone is used for plane blades.

3) Never used sand paper on a stone only a diamond bar

[GeorgeM]

Ah yes, Mom always said there were three things not to talk about in polite company: politics, religion and belt grit.

Are we talking about the belt sander or the strip sander here?

The Shopsmith belts for the belt sander "only" go up to 120 grit. Whether that's good enough/high enough depends on the project (is this a jig for the shop or a piece of fine furniture?) and the intended finish (paint versus french polish). For many fine finishes, you need to sand up to 220 before applying the finish and even higher between coats. I guess you can buy 3rd party belts for the belt sander that go up that high but I wouldn't use a belt sander for that kind of work anyway. I'd either hand sand or use a random orbit hand sander to get more control than I can achieve with the belt sander.

The Shopsmith belts for the strip sander, on the other hand, go up to 600 grit if we are talking about the chisel sharpening belt package. Some of us have purchased 3rd-party leather belts and polishing compounds to really polish/hone our chisels to a mirror finish. My b-i-l was in town recently and we were working on a project and he was so impressed with the sharpness of my chisels that he said he was bringing his chisels back with him on his next visit so we can sharpen them on the Shopsmith strip sander.

I have no experience flattening sharpening stones with either the belt sander or strip sander. I think it would be difficult on the strip sander.


Al

Mea Culpa, I was writing about the 6"x48" belt sander -- had forgotten that my post could have been confused with the strip sander.

Thanks for the response
GeorgeM

[GeorgeM]

Thanks to all who responded. I appreciate the responses.

GeorgeM