Fast Tracks

I recently bought a Delta benchtop mini disk/belt sander from Micromart (item number 82218). The belt is not perfectly straight so I am unable to get a straight notch in the stock rails. Can someone please tell me where I can find a better grade belt sander. Thanks. Bill H.

I use a 1" Belsaw sander I bought 15 years ago for woodworking. It works about as good as any out there that are meant to be used free-hand. I just get it close then use a jewelers file to finish the square end with. Takes a less than minute and fits good. Since I use the small file to de-burr the sanded area anyway it is not much extra to do. I don't believe there would be a free-hand belt sander available that would allow you to get perfectly square corners on that small of an object repeatedly.

I HEAR YOU, but apparently thats whats available. I usually just take off the foot of the rail, and dress it under magnification with a file.

rob

Hi guys,

I use the same Delta belt/disk sander. It's not great by any stretch, but with practice I've been able to grind all my turnout parts pretty successfully.

I have homemade milled aluminum fixtures for points and frog rails, which are used to grind these parts using the disk part of the sander. I freehand cutting the notches in the stock rails using the belt. Other than squaring up the ends of the rails, that's all I use the belt part of the sander for.

In short, it is all technique... It isn't a very well made sander so you need to try different things and practice to make it work for you.

JeffB

I use a Harbor Freight 2485-0VGA ($29 on sale) belt-only sander. It uses the same belts as the Delta 31-050 and is roughly the same quality. I only remove the foot of the rail with it and use a file to square up the corner. All other stock removal is done with the jig and a file. Yeah, it's cheap, but it works fine. It gives me more cash for important stuff, like more jigs.

Jim