BHSB (Big Honkin' Sandin' Block)

One day I put a brand new belt on my trusty 3x24 belt sander and got to work fairing some things out. Then I hit a snag, literally. I missed a screw that was still poking sharp point out and it cut my new belt into two small belts which then proceeded to slap me silly. After I got done throwing things and swearing, I put another new belt on and finished sanding. Later in the day I was cleaning up a bit and started to throw the ruined belt in the garbage and I decided I ought to find a way to use what remained. The BHSB is what I came up with, theyve worked out so well that I make them with new unused belts now.

Step 1 Prepping the belt

Youll want to cut the belt in half, and then cut out the taped joint. Believe me when I say this taped joint is NOT strong enough to survive what we are going to do to it later.

Comments

[spinach_dip]

Cool, that looks easy to make. Now tell me what it's good for. Why would I pick this tool over my random orbital sander?

[SmileyStarfish]

I'm using them to get surfaces flat over large areas, and careful shaping. The random orbital and belt sanders have their places but gentle shaping and taking out the highs and lows aren't them, they tend to ride in and out of the lows whereas a stiff sanding board stays on top and makes depressions easy to spot and thus fill.

[jah_temp01]

That's actually a pretty cool idea. I made a buther block cutting board for a girlfriend a couple years ago without the benefit of a jointer or a planer. To form the butcher block required sanding the top and bottom perfectly flat so I could cut, rotate,and glue them up again. What I had anticipated being a three or four hour project turned into a seemingly endless nightmare of sanding, cursing, sanding, cursing, etc. The belt sander just sank right into the lows rather than resting only on the high spots. This would have been awesome for that.