Power file belt sander advice ?

[vw1]

Hi looking for help on buying a 240v power file belt sander. Had a look on eebay but not really sure on brand etc. It will be used on my car body welding so help on brand and advice would be great.

Regards

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

I have the black & decker one.
Good, but avoid cheep belts.
Don't be worried about using it on the nose, or on the top edge. It can handle it.

The plug is a down side, fitted with a finger pull device what can cause issues when in a double socket.

Well it did for 5 mins.

A good handy tool.

 

[Ashley Burton]

I have a silverline one & it has a sticky motor + noisy bearing. It's cheap & it still works I suppose!

 

[mpats]

I have the black & decker one.
Good, but avoid cheep belts.

A good handy tool.

That's good advice. I've got an Aldi special one which has been fine but the belts that came with it were absolute rubbish.

 

[Ruffian]

I git the sealey one cheap, it''s OK but a bit narrow to hold comfortably,

 

[armalites]

I use an air one but echo the cheap belt thing. I bought some batches of cheap ones and you soon get fed up of changing them. If you buy 3M or SIA even when they look knackered they still cut

 

[julianf]

I have the b&d one - it's a great tool.

I only use the blue belts (i buy them from eBay)

 

[Parm]

I’ve got a B&D also

Great bit of kit

 

[optima21]

I used to have black and decker ones, but they needed replacing every couple of years. these days I use the aldi ones, and so far it hasn't let me down. I bought 2 at the time and one hasnt even been taken out of the packaging, and they're both out of warranty now.

I do find that the aldi arms are better as they have a spring steel plate under the arm rather than the rubber ones of the B&D ones, and the rubber rollers on the B&D ones wear round unlike the metal ones on the aldi arms

 

[slim_boy_fat]

Mine is the Evo one - great tool. I bought mine from Amazon, other retailers are available....

https://www.toolstop.co.uk/index.ph...MIhK_ykdWT2gIVUBDTCh3eegibEAkYAiABEgJDKfD_BwE

 

[Cobbler]

I've got an Aldi one, can't fault it. As mpats says the supplied belts are rubbish, they might be ok on wood, but not tried.

 

[Gareth0123]

I been using the Aldi 400wat Powerfiles which I use commercially, they last me beyond the three year standard supplied warranty and I have killed a couple of them; basically worn the motors out....... but I am using them on a daily basis and I get through 200ish belts a year.

The belts are 457 X 13 and I now purchase P36 (red) ceramic belts 100 at a time from Abrasives for metal

Up until 3 years ago I was purchasing (blue) P36 Zirconia belts from Abtec abrasives, but they switched supplier, the price went up, the quality went down and belts were just loosing all the abrasive grit before even touching the steel....... I wasn't even getting a 1 minute lifespan from the belts. This of course ended up in argument between abtec and me, they refused to replace or refund so I took all my abrasive purchases elsewhere.

 

[Mart63]

I have a Silverline one for getting into tight spots, and an Evolution one for when I need more grunt. Both have been really good.

 

[vw1]

So a few brands i can choose form B&D , evo , silverline , aldi. Think i like the look of the evo but also like the feel B&d as went into B&Q.

Just had a look at replacement belts for the evolution model and cant fine evolution belts but for B&D do lots of own brand. ?

Want order evolution power file and own brand belts at the same time.

 

[armalites]

With these kind of sander/grinders the belt runs in quite a tight arc and as already said you can belts where they seem to bin the abrasive before you actually do anything.

I buy mine in bulk but I keep most of them in the house in a plastic tub with a desiccant bag in there. I've had belts and discs for that matter that worked fine when I got them and then a year later after sitting in the workshop they don't seem to be as good.

As @Gareth0123 said Abrasives for Metal are very good but my last batch came from bndabrasives.co.uk, they use SIA and 3M tape and can make belts to any size.

 

[Wallace]

I have a Silverline for tight spots as the body is a small dia and an old B&D, both have variable speed. The Silverline has a much slower surface speed than the B&D so don't expect rapid metal removal if you go for one. The Silverline belts surprised me as they lasted really well!

 

[armalites]

@vw1 I know you've said you want 240v but personally I think these are one of those tools where an air powered one is much better and they cost pennies and are much smaller.

I fully understand all the arguments with compressor overheads,noise,power etc but there is no way I'd swap an air powered belt sander for an electric one.

 

[vw1]

@vw1 I know you've said you want 240v but personally I think these are one of those tools where an air powered one is much better and they cost pennies and are much smaller.

I fully understand all the arguments with compressor overheads,noise,power etc but there is no way I'd swap an air powered belt sander for an electric one.

Only problem i have is i low cfm compressor but thanks.

 

[vw1]

I have a Silverline for tight spots as the body is a small dia and an old B&D, both have variable speed. The Silverline has a much slower surface speed than the B&D so don't expect rapid metal removal if you go for one. The Silverline belts surprised me as they lasted really well!

I may go for silverline only because it has a smaller body as i do have a lot of small area as its for my vw beetle resto. The variable speed is great and was unaware the it had this , so at the moment i am thinking silverline but by Monday this may change..

 

[smashweld]

I dunno if it’s the quality or size of the belts....maybe both but I have a 10x330 belt size air version that just eats belts if they even look at metal. have ordered some SIA mentioned above to see if there's a difference