Belt Sander

The basis for the following article was written by Tyler Lane for his website, and is used by permission.

I have a Delta (surprise, surprise!) 1" x 32" belt sander, that has a 5" disc sander on the side. Like so many of my other tools, I bought this one used. This tool is a common one is the shops of hobbyists because of its low price and prevailance in home improvement stores. Many use this as their main shaping tool for the stummel, but as you will read elsewhere I prefer a sanding disc in my lathe. While this tool does have a sanding disc, it is not easily accessed for stummel shaping. Because of its proximity to the bench the tool is sitting upon, one is very limited one the range of motion of the stummel when shaping on the disc. It also has a pretective sheild that interferes with using the disc for shaping. This shield can be removed though. What I do use the disc for is squaring the briar blocks before drilling them. One of the keys to successfully having the draught hole hit dead center in the bottom of the tobacco chamber is to have the side of the blocks square with one another. The allows the self-centering chucks to have the block perfectly centered regardless of which side of the block is chucked. With a square, I have set the table by the sanding disc exactly 90° to the face of the sanding disc, and I have adjusted the guide to also be exactly at the 0 point. With the tool so set, I can square the blocks with little trouble. It is not the perfect tool for such a procedure, but it works. I use 40 grit discs.

Most people use the belt when they use this tool for shaping shaping. I haven't tried this more than a time or two for a stummel, and was not as comfortable with it as I am the disc in the lathe. What I do use the belt for is shaping stems. Since I handcut my stems, I use this to to remove most of the excess vulcanite, and also to roughly cut in the button. For the shaping of stems, I find this tool invaluable.