Changing belt on old Stanley belt sander

[Andytheandroid]

Hi everybody. I'm new here, but not a woodworking noob.

I've just bought an older Stanley belt 4x24" sander, model F466 on this http://www.titaniumstudios.com/tooljunkie/paper/MC1966-Various.pdf, (page 5) and on the sander itself, it's got 90496 printed on it - so I'm not exactly sure what model it is, anyway when I get it home I have no idea how to change the belts on this.
I've only ever had the crap sanders they sell in shops now with the easy belt change on them.
If someone who knows how to do this, could you please tell me, and if you've got the manual that would be very handy too.

Thanks alot.
- Andrew

[orraloon]

Welcome to the site Andrew,
Sorry I cant be much help with the problem as I have never seen a stanley power tool. I had a look at the picture and cant see the lever like the modern sanders have for belt changing. It must however have some method of slacking off the front roller and a tracking adjustment.Perhaps in behind that plate with the direction arrows on it.
Regards
John

[Andytheandroid]

Hi John

Thanks for replying. I also posted in another forum, one that's based in the US, where all the Stanley tools are (were) made.
Yeah, without a lever it's a bit of a mystery at first, but someone replied, and it's just a simple matter of pushing the front roller in, with a lot of force I might add. Much more force then I would have used had I not known that that is what you do. I don't want to break the thing by pushing too hard on it if it's not meant to be done that way. Anyway, with enough force the front roller will push in and latch. Then just pulling the front roller down away from the sander, it'll pop back into place. Not overly easy to figure out without any manual, but there ya go. There is a normal tracking knob on the side of it, that's always nice to have.
This sander is so much better than the new ones. So smooth and quiet, if ever you can get yourself one from England that runs on 240V for Aussie, you gotta get it.

Thanks for your help.
- Andrew

[gerhard]

Hi Andrew,

pushing the front roller in was a method used on more 60's belt sander models. A Skil, a Metabo and a Mafell model had it has well. The belt tension spring is indeed quite strong, much force was needed on all the models with such a system. A bit of lubrication will help it slide much more smoothly, the fat may have dried up through the years and dust may have clogged around the moving parts. The side plate with the screws will give you acess to the system, but you may also have to remove the entire mechnanism to get at it. Having done that myself with such a system two years ago, the spring jumped at my throat upon release and it took me several hours before i could get the thing together again in the right way. In the factory they must have had a sort of compression system to keep the assembly together with a pre-loaded spring, to shove the entire contraption inside the machine in one go and only then let it loose.

The 1966 Stanley brochure you leaded us to, is absolutely marvellous, by the way! I immediately saw where Makita got some of its models from (like the 1/2"drill and the jig saw). I knew Stanley made some beautiful stuff (of had it made for them), but i didn't know they had quite such a range. Thanks very much for sharing it!

Greetings from Holland!

gerhard

[Andytheandroid]

Hi Gerhard

Wow, thanks for that info about the sanders. It's such a commonplace thing nowadays having that lever, I wonder why they had originally thought that such a system was the way to go. It makes sense to pull a lever.
I took that plate off the other day to see what was underneath, and sure enough, just like you described, the spring is a very tough one. To my surprise, there was very little dried up and caked on sawdust. It was very clean for a tool that old. I may put some grease on it just as it is and see if it becomes a little easier to push in.

Looking at that Stanley '66 brochure, there are no cordless drills!!! hahaha. Man, all those hand drills takes me back to when I was a kid and my parents would only buy hand tools like that, even though cordless were around.

I believe Stanley made their own tools because in 1982 Bosch bought out Stanley Powertools in America so Bosch would have their "own" factory to make their own tools for the North American market. If Stanley got their tools made for them, then Bosch would have bought merely an office building and not a factory.

You're welcome for sharing a trip down memory lane.

Long live QUALITY tools!!!!

- Andrew