Belt sander

[seeker589]

Does anyone have one of these?

$74.99 - Harbor Freight

How do you use it? Do you use it often? How does it save you time in your builds? Does it increase your creative ability?

Should I buy one?

Edited June 26, 2011 by seeker589

[Jon Cole]

Only if you want to see your parts go from 'something' to 'nothing' in in about 4 seconds! Those belt sanders are for woodwork; I have a hand held Makita belt sander. They are fast & powerful.

[Kit Basher]

Jon is exactly right. I use mine for wood and steel. It cuts steel pretty fast. Imagine what it would do to plastic!

[my80malibu]

I have one and I use it for models Once in a while, but usually for other projects. I would'nt buy one of those just for Modeling use. There are smaller and better alternatives like a small palm type sander that could work just as well. I have even converted a battery powered toothbrush over to a sander before and it works excellent.

[MikeMc]

I have a jewelers version of that..1" belt. It works well at its own jobs, brass rod and tube, some aluminum, but not plastic . I used mine for slot car frames and R/C things that were made from metals....as mentioned that is a woodworkers lightweight type and overkill for plastic as it will remove fast!!!

[Scale-Master]

I have one, but I use it far less than I expected I would.

[Aaronw]

I've got a small combination disk / belt sander like that but like the others I use it mostly with wood. There are some uses with plastic but they are few and far between. I've got a cheap little no name mouse sander (about 2" shaped like a flat iron) that is pretty handy for major sanding jobs on models. It still requires care not to remove too much, but is much less aggressive than a belt or disk sander.

It is similar to this one

http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_00902183000P?mv=rr

Edited June 26, 2011 by Aaronw