Thread: Linisher Belts

I am building a couple of linishers and I am wondering what grit belts are supplied when a linisher is bought from a shop. Can someone have a look at a machine and tell me what it comes with or give me some guide to grits for general use. Thanks

No matter what you supply, it will be 'the wrong one' for the end user. whack a middle of the road 80 grit on it and they can work the rest out themselves.
I've got a bench grinder multi-tool attachment, I switch between a 40 grit and 80 grit depending on what I'm doing.
If you have the option for belts, consider the 3M Cubitron II abrasives, and accept no substitutes. It's incredible how quickly it moves material, and how little heat is introduced into the workpiece.

Hi Chris,

Its different grits for different folks.

Tell us what you want your linisher to do -the work you will do on it with the material you will be linishing.

For example, to rip metal off fast for snagging casting and dressing sharp corners you might choose 80 grit. At the opposite end of the scale you might wish to polish and smooth metal without scratches a 120 might do.

Grit sizes for me range between 60 and 120 max but that is just light fabrication.Others will have varying requirements.

Of more importance is the brand and quality and recent manufacture date of the belt.

I found out the hard way that new /old stock suffered from the joints letting go and had a couple of high speed slaps to the chops.
A stinging slap in the gob is a good way to reinforce the notion not to cheap out on linisher belts.

Better quality and fresh belts are way to go.

I shall leave it to someone else to suggest what brands you might choose and where to buy them.

Grahame

If the 3M Cubitron belts are too spendy for you, the Norton Blaze are good.

https://www.thesandpaperman.com.au/5...ding-belt.html

Originally Posted by Chris Parks

I am building a couple of linishers and I am wondering what grit belts are supplied when a linisher is bought from a shop. Can someone have a look at a machine and tell me what it comes with or give me some guide to grits for general use. Thanks

The linishers we bought for the mens shed didn't come with any belts.

General use for me would be 40 to 100 grit but I also have nearly as many sharpening/polishing belts up to about 600 grit.

What size are the belts?

All the linishers I have seen for sale came with belts and I presumed all would have a middle of the road belt fitted. The belt is 50 x 1830mm and The Sand Paper Man has some Klingspor belts at reasonable prices but Cubitron appear to not be made in that size or at least I can't find them which might be more to the point.

The blue zirconia Deerfos belts from Abrasiflex are pretty good too.

Originally Posted by Grahame Collins

Hi Chris,

I found out the hard way that new /old stock suffered from the joints letting go and had a couple of high speed slaps to the chops.
A stinging slap in the gob is a good way to reinforce the notion not to cheap out on linisher belts.

Better quality and fresh belts are way to go.

Grahame

Its not always old or cheap that let go.
I had a brand new (name brand) out of the box 60 grit 100mm belt let go the first time I used it. Skin off the cheek and hair missing from the beard. The sales rep was down the next day, replaced the box and said it was not the first to go in the last week.
Too this day I stand off to the side the first time I use a new belt.

Tony

Originally Posted by Chris Parks

All the linishers I have seen for sale came with belts and I presumed all would have a middle of the road belt fitted. The belt is 50 x 1830mm and The Sand Paper Man has some Klingspor belts at reasonable prices but Cubitron appear to not be made in that size or at least I can't find them which might be more to the point.

50 x 1830 is also 2" x 72", so that might help your search a bit.

Gameco have a good selection of belts of all different types at what I feel is reasonable prices. I need to grab some Norton Blaze in various grits off them at some point, I ran a 100G one as a trial a while back, and it was awesome for what I do with my grinder and lasted a ridiculous amount of time.

But what belt works depends on your use. The brown aluminium oxides are probably great for woodwork and are generally the cheapest by a fair bit, but I find them beyond useless for steel as they just don't last. The cheap option for steel would be the blue (normally) zirconia belts, they last pretty well and cut decently. Then you get into ceramics like the Norton Blaze etc, which IMO are worth their price tag.

Grits are a bit of a funny thing too - 40-60 grit in zirconia move metal pretty quick, but leave pretty deep scratches, a fresh 120G leaves a much smoother finish which is generally fine for what I do. But as they wear, they cut less and leave a finer finish, so a flogged out 80g leaves a finish like a fresher 120G, but generates a bit more heat. I tend to keep flogged out 120G belts around in case I want a bit shinier finish, as I haven't bothered to get any finer grit belts.

The ceramics play differently though - when I got that 100G Norton I stuck the end of a piece of 30mm round bar on it and leaned on it with most of my weight - the bar got RAPIDLY shorter, but still quite a fine finish.... And the ceramics thrive on heavy handed grinding, as it breaks the dull abrasive open and freshens them up, where zirconia belts tend to get killed by that sort of thing. I think the potential removal rate of a 40G Blaze belt might be absolutely terrifying...

Originally Posted by elanjacobs

The blue zirconia Deerfos belts from Abrasiflex are pretty good too.

Thanks for the tip Elan but they don't supply any 1830mm belts at all according to their cattle dog.

Originally Posted by Jekyll and Hyde

50 x 1830 is also 2" x 72", so that might help your search a bit.

Gameco have a good selection of belts of all different types at what I feel is reasonable prices. I need to grab some Norton Blaze in various grits off them at some point, I ran a 100G one as a trial a while back, and it was awesome for what I do with my grinder and lasted a ridiculous amount of time.

I went back and had another look at what Gameco have and I obviously had missed some of what they had when sorted by brand. Thanks for the nudge in the right direction.

I've bought 50 x 915 and 1220 mm belts a few times from Smith and Arrow and they have been very good.
I see they also have 2 x 72"
https://www.smithandarrow.com.au/pro...nishing-belts/
One thing I don't like is the minimum order for anything is 2 belts (not uncommon in the belt selling game) although they will supply a set of mixed grits which is usually what I get.

My (freebie) large linisher was an odd length (1625mm?) so I converted it into a 2000 mm but that's also problematic size
Artisan, and Smith and Arrow don't have anything in that size.
Abrasiflex only sell 36 - 80 grits for this size
Hare and Forbes do sell a 100grit but in a 3 pack
Pilatus have all grits up to 120 but they only sell in 4 pacKs! No 1830mm s though.

G'day Chris,
Webber Abrasives (Home) in Welland SA stock 3M Cubitron and an array of other types including Scotchbrite in 2x72.
Their website is not great but give them a call 08 8346 9571, they ship Australia wide.
The bloke I spoke with (Rob I think) was very helpful, just tell him what you plan to use the grinder for and he'll advise on the best belts.
No association, just a happy customer.
Cheers,
Greg.

Thanks to everyone for the great advice, it will be some time before completion and I will put up some photos when they are done. This is the unit we are building





All taken from here https://www.youtube.com/c/JersWoodsh...=dd&shelf_id=0