Thread: Wasp sander fine belts

Hi Tiger,
Maybe you could buy some Cloth Backed Sandpaper, & have a go at making them.
Have made Belts yrs. ago. Cut to length, Grind 5mm. of Sandpaper off, then over lap, Glue with some Loctite 401, & you have to be quick, & use a Plastic Shopping Bag as you need a bit of pressure & the PSB will not stick to the Belt, there you have them.

Thanks Issatree, I was thinking the same thing ie about making my own belts. I've got some coarser ones still but I need some of the finer belts to finish/polish off the blades. Didn't think about the loctite and was going to use epoxy but loctite much quicker so will give that a go.

Leather belts - I think you are definitely in the DIY situation there.

As for the 'fine' belts, depends on what you call 'fine'. IIRC the Wasp was designed to use 'standard' 24"/61cm sanding belts, so first point of call would be a industrial supplier like 'Sydney Tools' to see what grits they have. After that you could try 'The Sandpaper Man' who has belts made up, or one of the other sanding belt makers (they are out there) but they will be expensive.

If that does not float your boat, Lee Valley have belts up to 220 grit in the sanding section, 3 and 4 inch wide, but they have even finer belts that they sell for blade sharpening - but only in 1" width.

I suspect that a search of EBay will bring up some more results.

Had some cloth backed rolls of sandpaper that I experimented with. I cut the sandpaper, used butt joints, lapped by about 1/2 inch and used thick superglue to bind them. They have not come apart yet but bear in mind the drill press is running at low speed, that is a big advantage of the WASP sander in that you can control the speed, a real advantage when doing knives etc so that you don't draw the temper and destroy the steel. Am going to try paper based sandpaper of high grits and see whether that stays together as I've only got cloth backed up to 600 grit.