Belt sander recommendations please

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Chris_Pallet

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I'm after a a belt sander for a dining table top I've glued up.
But I won't be using it again for while so just asking if anyone has experience with the screwfix mac alister or worth upgrading to a bosch?
Any help appreciated
 
I'm after a a belt sander for a dining table top I've glued up.
But I won't be using it again for while so just asking if anyone has experience with the screwfix mac alister or worth upgrading to a bosch?
Any help appreciated
Where abouts in essex are you?
 
I have one, it's fine. Spins paper, doesn't overheat, belt stays straight. It's not something I use often, so seemed the right price.

You only get one belt in the box, I think it was 120.
 
Before that I had a Jellas belt sander thing that was similar money from amazon that stopped working after 2 hours. I'm sure it doesn't happen to every one, but it's a tool I wouldn't recommend.
 
I have (used to have) a Black and Decker £40 ish belt sander, but the bearings failed the other day. I have used it to sand a lot of concrete planters, so I don't think it fair to blame Black and Decker. It is my intention to open it up and have a look, but i don't have much hope. You say you won't use it again, but I bet you do - brilliant bit of kit. Clamp it to the bench or in a vice and you have a whole new world of opportunity.

Unless you already own a linisher, in which case, you won't ever use it again, until you have to sand that 4 metre board...
 
Makita 9404.
A proper solid tool. I have had a 110v one for 20 years and it still works fine (bit noisy now) . I just bought a 240v one so I can ditch the transformer the design is unchanged, if it aint broke don`t fix it. They are unkillable, I was waiting for the 110v one to die but it wouldn`t, so maybe a second hand one.

Ollie
 
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I'm after a a belt sander for a dining table top I've glued up.
But I won't be using it again for while so just asking if anyone has experience with the screwfix mac alister or worth upgrading to a bosch?
Any help appreciated
maybe step up slightly to the erbauer one for an extra £20, talking to a chippy recently who says he rates erbaur highly, takes all the punishment he dishes out (we were talking about a random orbit as it goes) and any issues and screwfix will always swap things out without complaint.

That said, I personally own no erbaur tools, so it is all hearsay, but I'd go for that over the macallister
 
If you think you are unlikely to use it for a while, would you not be better to save your money and sand it down by hand? As long as you use a sanding block I would have thought you'd get good results with relatively little effort, I suppose that does depend on how fine a finish you are looking for / how many grits you want to go through.
 
I sanded a 25 sq metre new oak parquet floor using a cheap Clarkes belt sander . Worked perfectly, only problem was kept having to stop to empty the tiny dust collector bag.
 
Didn't you always?
Lol, not always I used be tight and buy cheap thinking I was getting a deal but they never last.
My Last year purchase of a screwfix planer thicknesser was the final straw, it lasted a couple months before I took it back for full refund..
So recently with good advice on here I bought bessy clamps and they worked perfectly.
Buy cheap buy twice....
 
Lol, not always I used be tight and buy cheap thinking I was getting a deal but they never last.
My Last year purchase of a screwfix planer thicknesser was the final straw, it lasted a couple months before I took it back for full refund..
So recently with good advice on here I bought bessy clamps and they worked perfectly.
Buy cheap buy twice....
I think you misunderstood me, I wasn't asking whether you'd always spent good money on tools, but whether the saying "you get what you pay for" hasn't always been true. there is always the tricky question of do you spend a lot of money on a tool you might not use often, the flipside being that if you buy a cheap item it will probably be rubbish, frustrating to use, and you are even less likely to use it again. but if you haven't got it you can't spend it, and the circle goes on
 
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