hi I'm Shannon from Houston Prima's calm
and in this video I want to show you how
to use the belt sander belt Sanders
really haven't changed for a long time
there's really not much to change
they're pretty simple tool really so I'm
just going to show you the couple few
adjustments there is on them and how to
change the sanding belt and even we'll
talk maybe a little bit about the grits
of the sanding belts so portable belt
sander pretty basic unit you're going to
have a dust bag pretty much always that
clips on and off of the sander itself
I've never seen a cordless model I've
only ever seen corded models so I don't
think that's anything to be aware of as
I turn it around here you can see that
the belt sander there's just it's so
simple there's just a trigger on it
there's a bit of a usually going to be a
second button you have to push before
you pull the trigger just kind of it
like a trigger lock sort of thing belt
Sanders are really good in trying to
smooth out larger surfaces or flatten
out surfaces this type of sander you
aren't going to go and sand your
hardwood floors down in the front room
or anything like that it's it's much too
small for that you might be able to use
it against the walls in a few spots and
that sort of thing but it's not really
made for that big of an application
there's special Sanders for that so this
is going to be you know on smaller
project or something you just got a
rough surface that you want to sand down
and you can always like any sand or
start with a coarser grit which in a
belt sander you know be 50 or 60 grits
and work your way down to about 220 or
whatever smoothness you want to get your
project to the really only main thing
you need to know with the belt sander
before you get started with it is
choosing your right grit of sandpaper
which we just talked about so that
depends a little bit on your project to
change the belt sander most of them are
all the same I mean to change the
sanding belt most of them are all the
same you're going to have a tensioner
that releases the tension right there
so that the belt will slide off and then
you're going to put on the appropriate
sanding paper that you wanted to use now
as you look inside the belt here there's
a bit of information that's that's
written on the belt right here is your
grit so that's there's going to be a
number there like to 2050 in this case
that gives you a grit this I think is
just their part number and then most are
going to have a Direction related arrow
some the arrow will point either way
which means the belt can turn either way
so you don't have to really worry about
it in this case this belt must rotate us
one certain direction so that means in
my case I need to turn it around right
because when the belt is in there it is
turning this direction it's if you put
the sander down running it would want to
take off forward okay so get your belt
orientated the right direction for the
direction and Sanders turning which
they'll all be the same simply just work
it around the two wheels there push it
on basically all the way and then push
closed your tensioner now that isn't the
end of it a lot of times it will be but
there's going to be times when you first
turn the sander on you need to look how
the belt is tracking to make sure it's
not tracking way over tight here where
it can get snagged and ripped or way off
this side where it's not really on the
on the roll on the drum rollers there so
I've got to plug the sander in to check
that so just make sure it's up off the
surface you just about all of them have
a piece on the back here that basically
collects the dust and helps direct it
into the bag but it also gives you a
surface if you can set the sander down
on without the belt touching the table
so I plugged it in I want to check the
tracking so I'm just going to squeeze
the trigger
keep them keeping both hands on the
sander and keeping my you know my body
kind of back from this
and I'm not sure if you could pick up on
it but the belt actually tracked in a
little bit to this way so by adjusting
this knob there'll be a knob on your
somewhere it tilts this one drum and
it'll track the paper in or out until
you get it to the position that you want
it in
so gently moved a little bit let me just
do that again
so generally speaking you just want it
to track so that it's it's running
nicely on the two wheels front and back
and it's not crowding over to this edge
like I spoke or coming way off to the
side here okay so once you have your
paper all on there and track properly
and you're ready to start your project
if you're doing a fair bit of sanding
you're going to want just a just a basic
dust mask like this just for some lung
protection more than anything depending
on your sander you might want some ear
protection I don't know in my opinion
you really don't need eye protection but
I guess with the amount of dust floating
around that wouldn't hurt either so I'm
just going to throw my eye protection on
and I'm just going to kind of show you a
little bit here on how to use the sander
on a piece of wood like this I've just
got a chunk of do you buy four so you
want to basically start with your sander
sitting on the the wood that you're
doing squeeze the trigger and once you
squeeze the trigger you don't want to
just stop in one spot and let the sander
sit because it's depending on how coarse
your sandpaper is it's going to quickly
wear groove or spot there so as soon as
the sander starts you want to start
moving the sander and and you want to
try to work the sander the same
direction as the grain as you're of your
wood so with that this wood the green
the long stretches of the grain are
going this way so I really don't want to
sand across this way if I can help it
because it's just going to leave a bunch
of scratches and marks across the grain
especially if this is something you're
going to try to sand up stain or finish
nicely after that so the key is just
keep the sander moving
the other key is keeping the sander as
flat as possible on the work surface so
you're not tipping it one way or the
other because it's just going to you
know cut a groove in there or sand it
unevenly so if you kind of look at this
piece of wood as I started to sand
because we've got this is a four inch
I don't know four by twenty four I think
they call it a sander so it's got a four
inch wide belt or well actually it isn't
a four inch it's a three inch wide belt
sorry it's a three by twenty-four you
want to keep it flat on the surface and
you can kind of see because this wood
was kind of aged we can easily see that
it was sanding more along the two sides
because it started to change the color
there there's a little bit of a bump
here couple scratches you can kind of
tell where it sanded more than then in
these other areas that are still a
little bit darker so when you're sanding
your project usually those are good
indications as well of how well of a job
you're doing whether it's flat or not
and you can also this isn't very cupped
but you can also use straight edges and
those sorts of things to just see how
you're doing as far as flattening all
the surface you're working on a lot of
times you're just trying to get
something work down to a point where
it's not super rough and you can switch
to a finer purpose and sander after that
so I think that's about all I can tell
you I guess like always have it
unplugged when you're changing your
paper and that sort of thing don't set
it down on a surface when it's running
you know if it's a surface chart trying
to sand because it'll leave a mark for
sure those sorts of things you know this
this is going to hurt if it rubs on your
leg or something so just be careful when
using it so it doesn't harm yourself or
harm somebody holds so I think that's
all I can really say if you liked our
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thanks a lot