Open end belt sanders

[Steviegwood]

Hi Everyone, I have a question about open end belt sanders. I have been looking at the one that sears offers mainly because I could get it serviced localy if needed. Grizzly has several also. I am looking at the 18"- 36" size and was wondering if anyone has had any experience with this style of sander. Good or bad. Thanks, Steve

[MikeDingas]

I can't comment on open end type. I have a 18" belt sander and find most hardware stores don't seem to carry that size belt. You can of course order that size from catalogs. 21" seems what is mostly carried locally. If I ever have to replace my sander, I'll check for local availability of belts first.

[Steviegwood]

Mike, that is info to my benefit. I will have to make sure that the belts are readily available. Although I could possibly get them through work. Sears only offer the sander online and do not carry it in store. I wonder if being open ended how true they run. It would be nice to be able to look one over. It is an extra couple of hundred dollars for delivery of something that size. Steve

[MikeDingas]

Man do I feel like an diot! Should have found out what an open end sander is before I posted. Googled it and found several. I, sheepishly, was refering to small belt sanders, not those monsters! My comment may have little merit. Sorry...

[workin for wood]

I'm using a grizzly 6X48 open end belt sander. I bought it cheap at a garage sale, so it was used when I bought it and I've been using it steady for about 4 years. I grind all my intarsias on it. It has nice power and it tracks perfect with an easy to release belt system. The dust collection on the back is pathetic, it's a 6 inch wide belt with a 1 1/2 dust port, lol. I don't know where they make them, but I know they are cheap to buy and shipping is cheap from grizzly. I personally don't find grizzly to be good quality, but haven't experienced any problems with this machine as I beat on it daily. And that is a standard size belt you can buy anywhere's at an average price of $7.50 each.

OH, and it comes with a 12" disc, but the disc keeps falling off no matter how hard I tighten the allen screw. Must come loose by vibration, and I'm sure I could fix it with some locktight, but instead I tossed to disc in the trash. I don't need a disc, because I have plenty. Seems like every tool has a disc sander with it, so I still have lots of discs in the shop to choose from.

[Steviegwood]

Open end Drum sander

Hi Everyone, let me rename this to an open end drum sander and attach a photo. This is the brute that I am refering to. Thanks, Steve

[Grizz]

Hi Everyone, let me rename this to an open end drum sander and attach a photo. This is the brute that I am refering to. Thanks, Steve

I don't have a clue...but have been interested in one. How much is the one from SEARS?

[Steviegwood]

Hi Grizz, this one is 799.00 plus freight. It would run around 1000.00 to get it delivered to my home. Steve

[SharonW0111]

Darn boyfriend you aim to do a powerful lot of dust making with that don't you..- I have the small version- like what my sears sells that has a open end at the top and a disk on the side- with a little guard on top-- be carefull I take off fingerprints and all the meat real easy with mine. I took the guard off mine when I got it -- but I put it back on and found out it wasn't smart to take it off in the first place. My biggest problem is I tend to get the knuckle of my little arthritic pinkie finger on the disk.- ouch..They are great for a ton of things --but sweety just BE CAREFULL-
Love ya.

[Steviegwood]

Using Caution

Darn boyfriend you aim to do a powerful lot of dust making with that don't you..- I have the small version- like what my sears sells that has a open end at the top and a disk on the side- with a little guard on top-- be carefull I take off fingerprints and all the meat real easy with mine. I took the guard off mine when I got it -- but I put it back on and found out it wasn't smart to take it off in the first place. My biggest problem is I tend to get the knuckle of my little arthritic pinkie finger on the disk.- ouch..They are great for a ton of things --but sweety just BE CAREFULL-
Love ya.

Hi Darlin, I have a few projects in mind that will require something of ths size. And what the heck after all of the holiday meals are over the wife can just run me through it and trim me up a bit. You know that I do make a little sawdust. Thanks for the concern, Steve

[Hobbyhorse]

Drum sander

Steve,
I have one of those drum sanders and I would not like to be without it.
Mine is a Taiwanese clone of something but it works well. The abrasive paper
comes in a 3" wide strip which you wind around the drum and is purpose made for that particular sander. The "belts" are relatively expensive in New Zealand and instead I use a 70mm wide paper backed belt which I buy in 50metre rolls and was intended for painters use, and wrap that around the drum. Unfortunately, because of the difference in width of the paper fom the original size the drum clamps will not work correctly and I get over this by using a wrap of masking tape at the end. In this way I can get a change of belt for NZ$3 instead of NZ$18 the agent would like to charge me!!

Rhys H

[workin for wood]

Ah, that sander is a completely different story. I didnt know that sears had one of those and dont know what size your thinking about buying. I have seen the grizzly one and know some people that had them. It is a terrible buy, the grizzly is way underpowered for its size, and I mean seriously underpowered.
I have one of these drum sanders on my future dream list too.
A good friend of mine has a performax 36" wide one that is awesome, but way out of my budget range. Powermatic makes a nice 24" one that is somewhat reasonable in price. recently I noticed a new company, Steel City has one that is only $1800 for a 26", and it has over twice the power of the grizzly. Performax and delta both have some smaller ones available in open ended models, and the claim is that you can sand twice as wide, but I hear along the grapefine that you dont get even sanding when doing this, and that you also get deflection off the sander because it is not solid on both ends.

[Steviegwood]

Hi Jeff, you brought up a point that concerned me about this type of sander also. I am wondering just by looking at the design if when sanding it wouldn't tend to sand alittle more off on the inside. As the open end looks as if it may seperate as apiece of wood is fed through. Although I would think you could compensate for that if it occured by rotating you wood and making several light passes. This particular model is an online only from Sears and costs $799.00 plus truck freight. Delta has almost the same thing at about the same price. I was leaning toward the Sears model simply for warranty service if needed would more accessable to my location. I thank you all for your imput. I will compare the differant models for power and overall performance before buying. Compare Sears, Delta, Grizzly models. Steve