BELT SANDER BAN - Why? Where? ...and what to use instead.

It never occurred to me you could use a belt sander for shaping wood. I thought it was for making wood smooth.

So you complain about a tool primarily designed for surfacing wooden walls, ceilings, & used extensively on boat hauls & decks... saying the hand plane is better for cabinetry & flattening tables.

The enemy of my enemy is my friend, love my belt sander saves me a ton of time, you just got to get a feel for it. If your worried about digging in just get a sanding frame for it like the Europeans do, Makita, Dewalt, Bosch, Festool all make them, I think you can buy the Festool belt sander as a kit complete with sanding frame in this country, it is pricy though.

A slight variation: Once I saw an old painting of workers finishing a wood strip floor using scrapers, (pre-electric tools). I tried it with an old paint scraper; making it sharp and giving it a camber like you did. Now I use it all the time when I need to even up stiles and rails on cabinet doors. Much easier than fussing with a plane and less destructive than a belt sander.

I have 4 belt sanders, used a variable speed Makita and one large fixed speed Makita sander to refinish my floors. Best thing (slow going though) next to a commercial walk behind unit. I know an old timer use belt sanders to re-finish veneer furniture ( very high level skill).

How does it plane through knots? I use my belt sander a lot, can connect to my dust extractor, no problem....

Ha, as a metal worker we use much higher speed belt sanders with more aggressive belts for grinding steel, but steel =/= wood. The nice ones are pretty quiet and less noisy than an angle grinder, about on par with a bench grinder.

As with any tool, correct use of a belt sander will supply quality work. If you decide it will supply a fine finish without followup tools then you should leave it alone

Nope! I'll keep my well used belt sander. Kind of ridiculous for most of us to turn a decent jack or even a little block plane into a single use tool at their cost. Maybe if you have a junker ... but what's a junker if it's complete and only needs a cleanup and 'tune'

Are these cambered irons available for purchase anywhere? I don't have a grinder. Thx

I’ll stick with my battery powered belt sander. Works like a charm.

Never will get rid of a belt sander. Many uses for one that a hand plane will no accomplish.

The best woodworker I've ever met uses them, but he does stuff with them that I wouldn't have thought possible.

Excellent! Know I know how to sharpen a blade! Thanks

I love my belt sanders. I have more than one. But I do not use them in any way that you are talking about. I use my belt sanders for quick rough sanding of small projects like coffee coasters or business card holders. Standing belt sanders or hand held turned upside down. I even have one that I got from a cabinet makers shop that has a table built for it for precise sanding.

Well my deck needs sanding....

Good point to consider, with the strong exception of places with odd grain orientations. Around nuts, at ends of boards, on edges with weird angles, a hand plane is much more likely to dig in and break out a big chunk of wood and scrap your part. Love using a belt sander there. Oh, and tweaking edges of plywood and particle boards, planes suck for that.

I use mine almost exclusively for rounding off corners.

You'll have to pry my 40 grit belt sanders from my cold dead hands...

Did that camber look like it was too much? Was that for illustration purposes?

soapbox opinionated bully.... really throw somone outta your shop.. worked for god plex people like you

My hand planes get very little use because electric handheld planers, jointers, and bench planers seem to do a much better job. When I need to use a hand plane in a tight spot, I just whip out a Stanley Surform. Then I smooth the wood with either a Badger sander (uses sandpaper rolls) or a rotary sander (sticky back sandpaper).

Ah they're good for rough work like redoing a small wooden porch or picnic table that's aged and been painted.

I'll keep mine. I have used the curved plane blade for 30 years. I use both it and the belt sander when needed...

Don't make me watch half the video before you get to the point and then say I don't allow you to say your piece

I have both. Old handplane that I turned into a scrub, and a 4X24 Makita belt sander.
Use them both........Nothing like a belt sander with 24 ceramic grit to rip up old wood covered in tar and paint...and turn into a board ready to be milled.
Does make a mess though....agree there.

On your CBN wheels, what are your preferred grits? Notably, for who wants to get started with 2 wheels. Thanks!

Yea but when I Was a kid, it was a great cart to sit on and go scooting real fast along the raw floor. You can't do that on a oscillating sander.

in a perfect world you can hand plane all day long, but sometimes you just want to level the sucker.

Years ago as a wood patternmaker I did that to one of my spokeshaves and one of my block planes. Works great!

There is room for such a plane in my shop, but also for a belt sander.

Serious question, I am about to sand a 11x39 deck and I feel like the orbital sander is going to take forever.

Would a hand plane like this still be better than a belt sander here?

I know little about woodworking, and dont want to buy a belt sander if not needed.

I love my 4" Makita belt sander. It's amazing and the vast majority of dust is captured in its little bag. I use it outside to sand decks. It's the fastest way to flatten that many deck boards. Right tool for the job.

I have wanted to get rid of my belt sander for soo long and now I can. Thank you for sharing.

why not just use an electric planer?

WHAT! No more BELT SANDER Races?
Yeah, belt sander races are a thing, at least here on the Texas gulf coast.

what nonsense. i scrub plane doesn't do the same as a belt sander.

I have a Porter Cable 4'' X 24'' belt sander. I think I might have bought one of the last ones in existance. It is not manufactured any more and I contacted tool stores all over North America five years ago before finding one close to where we live. Best belt sander ever.
Solid wood cabinetry and stairs is my speciality. Twenty four inch wide panels are dampened to raise the grain after the planer then gone over with 150 grit on that beautiful belt sander. Used it every day for the last three weeks.

I haven't used a portable belt sander since woodshop class in 1973 and I've never missed not having one.

So you can use a belt sander on **wood**? I mean cement, steel, even plastics, but wood? Hmmm. Learn something new every day. ;)

I can’t be the only one here who see’s what you actually did here— convert a smoothing plane into a scrub plane. I’m just curious why you didn’t mention “scrub plane” at all in this video, as you’ve made similar videos in the past.

I use a wooden scrub plane with that odd horn handle, and cutting on the pull makes it even easier.

Oh so they aren’t banned because Harley-Davidson kept losing to them?

Don’t agree at I have shaped rolled used for everything

Love your web site. Could not find answer. Do you use an over the blade dust collection shroud? I need this as by the time I set up table saw safety devices like side and top of fence hold down, side support , my dewalt job site caw dust shroud gets in the way so mush I can’t saw.

All right let me set you straight. I'm a highly experienced woodworker, been doing it for at least 12 minutes. LOL Even though I like the idea of having a tool like that to help me remove wood with little muss. I would probably mess up the tool itself. Time is also why I grab power tools: No time to make these great secondary tools that do a better job.
Love watching your vids.

Sounds like you need to learn how to use a beltsander . Every tool has its use.

The belt sander ain't meant for leveling surfaces 😄 just for smoothing along the grain