Thread: Belt sander conundrum

Good Morning Ken

My Makita belt sander (cannot remember the model no.) died a couple of years ago after about 25 years of abuse and intermittent hard use. I regarded it as a heavy tool for quick rough removal of material, certainly not a precision instrument, and I would never have dreamed of attempting precision tasks such as you mention. Additionally, I absolutely hated the noise it made, less so the vibration.

Not having used the current Makita's I cannot comment directly. Have they tamed the beast?

Also think about why your employer pays the cost of the Festool. He would have thought hard about productivity, health risks (much less dust), operator safety, service, parts availability, likely downtime and longevity. If you intend to use the belt sander a lot, then its cost per year over its useful life may actually be lower than apparently cheaper brands!

Incidentally, I found a Festool BS75 for sale in the UK for £361 (about Aus$572) so a price in Aus of $650 is not really exorbitant for that model.
Festool Belt Sanders

Remember, quality is what you have when you have forgotten the price.

Cheers

Graeme

Hi Graeme

I appreciate your response and your time. You make some very valid points. Sometimes it's hard to see past next week and in doing so we can make some choices that we perhaps otherwise wouldn't have made given another crack at it.

With regards to the Makita's I haven't used them for ~3 years. I remember the 9924 was a great tool but I didn't like the extended platen that allowed for 100mm belts if you were using a 75mm belt. It was single speed too. The big brother (9403?) was fantastic at removing stock but obviously very heavy and due to that, and me not being Arnie, cumbersome for edge work (if it dropped some weight I'd get this tool). Neither had excessive vibration, in fact they were both very smooth. Noise seemed about average for the monster tasks they're asked to perform.

Regardless of the positives of the Makita's I went and ordered a BS 75 E. With 1010W and variable electronics (helpful in the linisher role) and just the familiarity of it was enough to stop questioning the price. I know exactly what I'm getting and no re-adjusting to a new tool is a bonus.

I'm looking forward to using it tomorrow


Cheers

Ken.

As you have done, being familiar with a tool, and knowing all its pros and cons can be a good reason to also buy it.
If you can try a tool before buying it, as you have done it is a bonus.
You might be able to claim the purchase of the tool on your tax return if it is used in earning an income.

I've had three 3" belt sanders over the years.

My first was a B&D Professional 1010w made in either Switzerland or Germany (I can't remember which). It was, from memory, an excellent tool, albeit compromised by having an unusual belt length: some 520mm, from memory.

This sander suffered an early demise by having my jumper sleeve catch in the belt, which was chewed up & spat out, cracking the main alloy casing on the way. Fortunately, while scared witless, I escaped relatively uninjured. Exercise care when using the sander on its back. I was cleaning the belt at the time with a doubled over length of pvc water pipe: much cheaper and just as effective as so-called "belt cleaners".

Its replacement was a 600w 75 by 533mm Swiss-made Bosch. While not as powerful as the former, it has done sterling service, being used & abused for the last 30 years. This has included being used as a floor sander, linishing machine, shaper etc. etc. It's still going! They're still being made, with a bit more power and with variable speed control but otherwise unchanged! My only repairs, aside from brushes and a drive belt or two, has been to replace the roller tracking screw, which had become a bit compressed after the strain of controlling tens of thousands of kilometers of belt travel, and millions of revolutions of the front roller.

About fifteen years ago I purchased a Metabo sander, made by Holz Her and an exact clone of the current Festool with the only difference being that it has a superior, removable two-position front handle. While certainly more powerful, I really can't say that it's noticeably superior to my old Bosch. I've never really seen the need for variable belt speed. As far as power is concerned, just like the Bosch you can lean on it with ridiculous weight when rough sanding a floor with 24grit until the belt slips. There's never any suggestion of stalling the motor, just a noticeable slowing and corresponding loading up of armature current!

So would I personally recommend a Festool/Metabo/Holz-Her clone? No, not really. Certainly not for the price! If I needed another sander, especially for my type of uses, which appear to be much heavier duty than yours, then I'd rather a Makita also. My preferred model, however, would be the 100mm by 610mm, 1200w 9403. This has been personally recommended to me by both trade users, and my local repairman as the best value for money and most reliable heavy duty sander on the market. I note that Toolstop's price is about $340 plus freight, making it an amazing bargain, too!

Have used a 3" Makita sander for must be 30 years of occasional use now.

Just a change of graphite pad and new bearings needed in that time.

Model is still made.

Yes it's noisy and not a precision instrument but the value is hard to beat.

Have used a 3" Makita sander for must be 35 years of occasional use now.

Just a change of graphite pad and new bearings needed in that time.

The model is still made AFAIK.

Yes it's noisy and not a precision instrument but the value is hard to beat.

Hi Spacejazz,

I used to have a 100 mm Makita belt sander about 30 years ago and it was a noisy dusty heavy handed monster that really removed the stock quick smart and not necessarily where the operator wanted it removed.

I used to employ it plus a No. 7 Stanley for flattening panels in Black wood principally. After a couple of years of that I got smart and realised that the way to flatten the panels was to glue them up flat in the first instance. That means the dressed boards are absolutely flat, totally without wind, and the edges dead straight and planed perfectly at right angles to the faces. When you get the stock like this the panels can be pulled together dead flat using only one hand on the sash cramp screws.If you need more force than that then go back to the planer or the No.7 and try again.

I used to register the boards relative to each other with plywood splines inserted in continuous slots ( apart from 25 mm on the ends) cut with a slotting cutter on a router. As time and funds permitted I progressed to a zig zag cutter in the spindle moulder but I never thought much of the appearance on the ends where the joint shows. Then I tried biscuits and found that technology both quick and disappointing for the usual reasons. Then about 3 years ago I struck gold.I bought a Festool Domino. Now that's the machine you need to join edges spot on. If you are fastidious with firstly preparing the stock and then the cutting of the tenon slots with the Domino it's perfectly possible to commence sanding the resultant panels with 150 grit in a half sheet sander or with the gentlest action of an ROS.

Its very very satisfying to pull up a critical panel like a table top where everything goes just that well and the job's nearly done for you right out of the cramps. That's just light years ahead of bashing the job into shape with a blunt instrument like a belt sander.

Give my way a go and you will never need a BS


Cheers Old Pete

I've had similar results to the Domino with a DeWalt biscuit joiner. As long as the blade is the right thickness for the biscuits to fit snugly, it will line up as well as a Domino for a quarter of the price.

Originally Posted by elanjacobs

I've had similar results to the Domino with a DeWalt biscuit joiner. As long as the blade is the right thickness for the biscuits to fit snugly, it will line up as well as a Domino for a quarter of the price.

I have used biscuit joiners for over 20 years (owned a Dewalt for 8 years) and never once achieved the perfect mated top of a table like old Pete mentioned a Domino can do. Like Pete, I join, scrape the glue/join and have a light touch with a 120 then straight to the 150 and beyond. Then factor in the other dozen tasks a Domino can do that a biscuit jointer cant. Best power tool ever

For the things the biscuits can't do I just use dowels, but to each their own

Hi Elanjacobs,

Hope I didn't infer that IMO the Festool Domino is a great tool for lots of other joins apart from panel joining. I've been down that path when I first got mine and I wasn't best impressed to put it simply. I use it exclusively now for edge jointing and for cutting slots in table aprons to accept the traditional timber hold down buttons.

Like everything its horses for courses. I use dowels, sometimes I use biscuits and I cut hundreds and hundreds of mortice and tenons although admittedly I have the gear to do that latter task and I wouldnt do a lot of it if I didn't.

Cheers Old Pete

Originally Posted by old pete

Hi Elanjacobs,

Hope I didn't infer that IMO the Festool Domino is a great tool for lots of other joins apart from panel joining. I've been down that path when I first got mine and I wasn't best impressed to put it simply.

What kind of stuff Pete?

...deleted.