using a belt sander to plane

2021/05/21

You will find that you are grinding more in one area than another. You must log in or register to reply here.

Apply the wood conditioner. Each machine delivers a smoother surface, but the means they use are completely different. I know some folks do it successfully, but I'm sure not one of them. We will remove imperfections in grinding when we get to the honing stage.

What do you believe would better to do this, a hand planer or a belt sander.

Lower Cost of Ownership: Planers require blade sharpening and the occasional blade replacement, but unlike wide belt sanders, you dont have to worry about purchasing accessories like sanding belts. This is also related to the two above differences, with the main point being here that tabletop planers have depth guides that you can set to very specific levels so that the machine cuts away a very specific amount of wood. Ive tried course sandpaper on glass, a course silicon carbide stone, and a hand crank grinder. Removing a lot of metal at this stage will significantly slow down the next stage. This afternoon I will be planing a Douglas Fir beam at the J. Gibson McIlvain lumber yard that is too big for any of our moulders and planers in the millworks. orbital reliable maintenance safe easy drywall larger sander plane This belt is outfitted with sandpaper designed to remove small amounts of wood, even out surfaces, remove paint and varnish, smooth surfaces out, and more. Andis, the joke is that Shannon is the Director of Marketing. In other words, you just have to hold the wood steady, and the planer does the rest of the work. ___________________________________________________. Either will get the job done. As such, you should wipe the old wood surface with a mixture of 1 cup bleach, 1 cup trisodium phosphate (TSP) and 2 gallons water. This amounts to an overall lower cost of ownership. Keep your thumbs near the edge that is getting ground. i have done it before and a router sled is the best way if you dont have access to a wide belt sander in some cabinet shop nearby. 2020 Interior - Premium Decoration magazine. This will highlight any sanding miscues or other surface blemishes. Two of the most common woodworking tools or machines that you may need include the belt sander and the planer. Although both are key tools in a woodworkers repertoire, theyre meant for different applications. But more importantly, sanding cuts through stain and patina (the color changes in wood caused by light and oxidation), and it does so unevenly. It may not display this or other websites correctly. Contrary to popular belief, the best tool to plane the door is a belt sander. Take your time. Because of the non-standard dimensions, we had to bandsaw it to size. The coarse texture of the belt removes wood quickly and youll usually end up with an even finish. At Fintech Industrial Abrasives, we sell wide sanding belts in a variety of different sizes, grits, and grain types. The cast iron will serve as a heat sink and quickly absorb the heat from the blade. Instead, use a bristle attachment on a vacuum to safely capture it once and for all. The handheld orbital sander is a pretty powerful tool that many find too aggressive. Other features and options include: Spiral head that removes a single sliver of wood at a time. When working on a blade thats new to me, I usually grind all the way to the edge. To guide the blade, Brent Beach taught me to squeeze the blade against the table using my thumb on top and my fingers below. You are using an out of date browser. Straight and Uniform Cut: Planers make it a lot easier to create straight and uniform cuts. The jointer is working out well except that this board is ridiculously out-of-flat, which I should have anticipated better. Focus on the areas where more metal needs to be removed to get the edge reasonably straight and square. I have successfully overanalyzed this problem and solved it by not bringing one tool but 3. The drum sander you described will remove about 0.005 to 0.007 (five to seven thousandths of an inch) per pass. I would recommend visiting Youtube and searching for the Router Planer sled mentioned. When paired with a coarser-grit sandpaper, the machine supports a relatively high rate of wood removal, making it an ideal option for refinishing pieces with older or improperly-applied varnish. Keep grinding until you get to the edge, but frequently check your progress. This stage will go very quickly, so dont get carried away.

Do keep in mind that planers are generally used for long and flat boards. Planers make it a lot easier to create straight and uniform cuts. If youre working on a project that requires you to remove wood or caked-on varnish from a surface, you may be wondering whether you should use a wide belt sander or a planer. The sparks are bits of metal that can get in your eye and can start a fire. Test both sides because very often the sides of the blade are not parallel. For instance, you may have to adjust your sanding head differential or experiment with different grit sequences to achieve the best results. Created by Digital Invest. We offer a wide range of services for that fresh look, or just maintenance or updates to keep your home functioning and safe. Sanding across the grain leaves scratches which become obvious if you choose to apply a coat of paint, stain or varnish afterwards. All that said, you can certainly master either of them over time. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding. How do I convert my electric geyser to solar geyser. Given the two choices I would tackle the project starting with a scrub plane progressing to a #4 finish plane, if the slabs are really wonky I might use a #7 to flatten just depends. Sand it right up to the line that you marked earlier, taking care not to sand into it. We can also custom manufacture a wide belt if you dont see what you need in our online shop. Also, keep your grinder away from saw dust, or you are likely to start a fire. Here you can see a very nice finished surface where the plane is catching but lots of skip lines where the knots interfere. The shiny section at the edge was honed perfectly flat. On the other hand, if you want to strip away coatings, or make a surface smoother, a wide belt sander will be the better investment. Stripping a finish is faster than sanding to remove it.

They come in a variety of sizes, but the belts are much wider than your standard tabletop belt sanders (as the name implies). Youve got large tabletop belt sanders as well as smaller handheld belt sanders. One of the primary similarities that these two tools share is that they can both be either handheld or stationary.

80) and gently sand all areas of the piece to remove rough edges, working in the direction of the wood grain. He is also the head glue pot keeper at The Hand Tool School where teaches thousands of woodworkers on 6 continents (still trying to find somebody in Antarctica) how to cast off the power tool oppressors and build "the hard way".By day Shannon is the Director of Marketing for J. Gibson McIlvain, a lumber company founded in 1798 that supplies high quality hardwoods from all over the world to everyone from Calvin Klein, the New York Yankees, and the US Government. Which of the two you used is a very easy choice, because if you need to even out a long board that is warped or just is not straight and flat, then it is a planer that you need to use. The line is wavy because my grinding was imperfect. This is really not something that you can do with a belt sander as you really have to keep measuring the piece of wood as you go and keep using your common sense to judge how much material has been removed. Belt sanders on the other hand, while also designed for material removal, are best used for smoothing out surfaces, for evening out new additions (such as if you replaced a couple of floorboards), to create curves and shapes on nearly finished wood products, to smooth out rough edges, to remove imperfections from wood surfaces, and to remove things like paint, stain, and lacquer from wooden surfaces. They also come in cabinet and tabletop models large enough to work on wider workpieces. Planers feature drums or small barrels that are outfitted with blades or knives that spin at very high speeds. Blowing sanding dust off your wood project with an air compressor or brushing it onto your floor can still result in it ending up in your wet stain or finish. I have a power hand planer, and in my experience, it'll absolutely wreck a table top. One of the big advantages of a narrow (1") belt sander is that you can easily focus on areas that need more grinding. We offer a wide range of services for that fresh look, or just maintenance or updates to keep your home functioning and safe. My question should have asked what would be better a Power Hand Planer or a Belt Sander.

Additionally, the sooner you remove this dust, the less chance it has of spreading throughout the house. Although they arent inexpensive, I do consider them to be a worthwhile investment. The mineral spirits will clean any grime or grease off of your surface making it ready for painting or staining. There is no reason to keep grinding. Mineral spirits can also be used for cleaning wood projects, before applying any finish. Make the most of your home now more than ever! It will slowly go away over time. In fact, it may be the biggest hinderance to sharpening. Especially if I had to square the blade above, I want to make sure you get an edge with no flat left. The first thought around the lumberyard was to hit it with a belt sander. My experience with trying to flatten things with a belt sander did not generally go well. If the blade is not square or has significant nicks, then use a fine point permanent marker and the try square to draw a line on the back of the the blade, defining the line you want to grind to. Wide belt sanders and wood planers are both highly effective woodworking tools, but they have differences that make each one more suitable for one application than another. While I would love to use my handplanes more often it just isn't feasible. Drum machines take longer with abrasive sheets being wrapped around one single drum (photo above) and clamped into place by way of its own locking mechanism. If the slabs are warped and need considerable wood removed to be flat, then a router planer sled would be my choice, since I already have one. This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. We can also, a wide belt if you dont see what you need in our online shop. Set the table of the sander perpendicular to the belt and grind the edge square. Modern planers can also still be handheld, although they do now use motors instead of manual power, and the larger tabletop models can be very accurate due to an included planing platform that allows for fast and accurate thickness adjustments. With planers, the purpose is to create a uniform surface by flattening and evening out wooden boards. Before we get to specifics, lets talk about the general technique. Unlike belt sanders, whose cutting ability can depend on how you hold the tool, planers dont need perfectly uniform passes to create an even surface. Even Roy Underhill wears safety glasses when grinding, so you should, too. Theres still wood shavings to clean up, but theyre generally less messy to use. It can take anywhere from two to 30 passes to remove the same amount of material with a wide belt sander that a planer can remove in one pass. Call us today at (402) 867-6990 or fill out our form to learn more about our repair services. On the other hand, when it comes to belt sanders, whether small manual ones or larger tabletop belt sanders, they do not have rollers that pull the wood through the machine. I look for the flat by reflecting light on the edge. In this blog, the abrasive technicians at Fintech Industrial Abrasives will go over the features of each machine and specify when you should choose one over the other. The thing is, I really don't want to change the shape of this beam any more than I have to.

. Rogers is founder of The Hand Tool School, which provides members with an online apprenticeship that teaches them how to use hand tools and to build furniture with traditional methods. Simply put, belt sanders create a much bigger mess than planers do. They are commonly used to shape or make adjustments to shelves, cupboards, and doors. A drum sander cuts through the wood, obliterating multiple layers of wood as well as any varnish, giving you a new surface to refinish. This offers better control and allows you to feel when the metal is getting hot. I'll report back on how my plane choice worked out after I have completed the jobif I still have strength in my arms to type.

It also promotes the absorption of stain into the wood, giving you a richer finish. What Chris said. Make sure to keep the sander moving to avoid grinding a hole in one spot. Then stupid hand tool freak Director of Marketing had to open his big mouth and suggest that "handplaning it would probably be faster and more precise." If you need to even out a long wooden board, a planer will get the job done fast. You always have to move the sander over the wood. Its also a good idea to check the edge with a square every once in a while. For now however, I'm a hopeless mess. Tackle most base cabinet face frames (as most are 31-32). To sand wood pallets, use sandpaper sheets or rolls in a medium grit (e.g. Or, remove the dust with a damp cloth. After all, both machines are effective a removing surface wood. Other benefits include: Fast Performance: Belt sanders are designed to tackle large woodworking projects quickly. To get a completely clean surface you will need to employ every trick in the book. A drum sander is a completely different tool in that a loop of sandpaper continually moves around the drum, ripping down the wood as far as you want to go. If you have a piece of wood thats warped or has knots sticking out, you can use your planer to cut any variations or imperfections away. I have a 3X24 belt sander, and it's the least used tool in my shop for a reason. This tutorial explains how to grind a plane blade using a Viel Tools S5 Belt Grinder. So I'm grabbing my jointer plane, and I'll bring along a block plane and a card scraper in case I need to do any spot work clean up. Whether you have home improvement projects or general home maintenance needs, you can count on us to deliver quality workmanship and superior customer service. Dont worry about it. In other words, this belt moves in one continuous motion, with the belt moving in a circle at very high speeds, up to 3,000 surface feet per minute. OK I'm new here, this is something I've dealt with many times. Be aware that the last 10% of the grinding seems to take 90% of the time. In this blog, the abrasive technicians at. First off, we have the belt sander, which can come in the form of a small handheld belt sander or a larger tabletop belt sander.

Differences Between Belt Sanders and Planers.

On old blades, sometimes the corner is broken off. Answer from Lee Grindinger: A planer will remove stock much, much more quickly than a drum sander. How do you prep wood for stain after sanding? There are then also small wheels or rollers that pull the wood over the platform and through the blades (the blades are on top, not the bottom). Set the table of the belt sander to 25. 2019 FINTECH ABRASIVES (FINISHING TECHNOLOGIES INC.), Open Coat Aluminum Oxide (Wood) Sanding Belts, Closed Coat Aluminum Oxide (Metal) Sanding Belts, Flexible Closed Coat Aluminum Oxide (Metal) Sanding Belts, Flexible Open Coat Aluminum Oxide (Wood) Sanding Belts, Hook and Loop Wet Dry Sharpening Film Discs, Hook and Loop Auto Paint and Finish Discs, Open Coat Aluminum Oxide (Wood) Sanding Discs, Closed Coat Aluminum Oxide (Metal) Sanding Discs, Surface Conditioning (non-woven) Sanding Discs, Open Coat Aluminum Oxide (Wood) Sanding Rolls, Sanding Sheets For Plastics and Composites, If youre working on a project that requires you to remove wood or caked-on varnish from a surface, you may be wondering whether you should use a wide belt sander or a planer. If you want to remove a lot of material from your workpiece, you can usually do so much faster with a planer. What is interesting to note is that planers can come in all sorts of sizes including full cabinet size planers and smaller benchtop planers, all the way down to smaller handheld planers. Yes, a shorter plane could do this, but a heavier cut will be harder to maintain in a lighter plane. If nothing else, it leaves noticeable tracks that can be hard to eliminate. Your bevel does not have to look good, it just needs to be functional. With your 50-grit sanding belt, all you need to do is remove the excess wood with it. Is it any wonder I spend my days analyzing market data and website user behavior? When you work on wood projects that call for a wide belt sander, using a premium quality abrasive can make all the difference in the finished result.

Both belt sanders and planers are essential woodworking tools, yet two very different ones. Most stains should be sealed to prevent bleeding.

So here I stand in my shop trying to figure out what my weapons of choice will be for this job. It pains me to say it, but due to time constraints on this piece we will probably switch to a belt sander for the two edges. Basically at every knot the bandsaw blade deflected slightly, causing the whole timber to have a very undulating profile.