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Bench-Mounted Belt Sander

Why I Even Have a Belt Sander in the First Place

Actually, I can't remember. My best guess is that when my wife and I moved into our present house, about 30 years ago, I was gathering the equipment that I felt I would need to improve and maintain it and a belt sander seemed like a good idea. I can remember, however, the project which would have meant buying a belt sander if I didn't already have one. We had the hardwood floors throughout the house sanded, stained and finished by a professional. As we did this at a badly-chosen time-of-year (November) we did not extend the project by having all the wood floors done. A couple of rooms had floors that were obviously a cheaper wood than the oak in the main rooms. I sanded and finished these myself with the belt sander. Beyond this, I can't recall assigning this power tool much importance.

Bring the Workpiece to the Sander

A problem that I found with a hand-held belt sander is that you can't see what is going on. The tool completely obscures your view of the work. Specifically, if I had something that wasn't flat and I tried to make it flat with the belt sander, it would end up less flat than before I started. I didn't agonize over this; I just didn't use the tool very much. This changed when I took up the challenge of my first woodworking project, opus one. I had to figure out how to take a piece of wood that was essentially an octagonal prism and make it into a cylinder. I did not have a lathe (even now that I do have a home-made lathe?, I'm not sure I'm good enough with it to do the job this way). So, my plan was to jam the workpiece onto a long 3/8" drill bit (that I have for running new electrical wiring), spin it with my cordless drill and hold it up against the belt sander. If this sounds like a bad idea, let me defend myself by stating that it worked extremely well. However, I clearly needed to hold the sander steady while I approached it with the spinning workpiece. I was accustomed to fixing the belt sander to the bench with a clamp, but I felt that I needed something more reliable and secure. Hence, the bench mount shown in the photograph above.

Links Related to Belt Sanders

Here's a link to a Family Handyman article entitled Everything To Know About Belt Sanders. I did not find this until months after making my bench mount, but the last paragraph begins with "A handy accessory if you do much woodworking is a stand that holds your sander on its side, upside down or vertical, allowing you to bring the work to the tool instead of vice versa". Validation!

Some people scorn belt sanders because they remove material rapidly and can be hard to control. I know a serious woodworker who reports greeting anyone holding a belt sander with the question "What are you going to ruin with that, then?" However, here is a YouTube video by King's Fine Woodworking showing a belt sander with a 36 grit belt being used to flatten the dovetail ends and outer edge of the top of a padauk and tiger maple keepsake box.