I haven't used the 2x72 in over 15 years. Cleaned it up and snapped the old belt.

Are Norton still the way to go?

I got the 6x48 (belt drive) and the base cabinet for free 25 years ago.



bought is from Bader in 1989-ish

Ebay has 268 places to buy 2x72 inch belts. I can tell you didn't try overly hard on this one....

So, Norton or not Norton?

Google knows everything. Norton still sells belts. Made in china. Like everyone else's.

I bought my 2x72 belts from Benchmark Abrasives. Price were good, and they're probably all coming out of the same factory.

The fun thing is all the new style belts you can get, including their 'conditioning' belts. A few different types, including one that is like Scotcbrite. They work surprisingly well.

I've had good luck with this company from your state.
https://www.empireabrasives.co...-inch-sanding-belts/

thanks. They came up on a google, didn't know them..

quote:

Originally posted by gunmaker:
I've had good luck with this company from your state.
https://www.empireabrasives.co...-inch-sanding-belts/

The glue used to join the belt halves goes bad after enough years.

Had a batch of belts for my 4 x 54 sander that was about 10 years old, they would come apart only after a few minutes of use
So I try to buy only enough belts for a year at a time

J Wisner

Combat Abrasives come very very highly recommended by knife makers (the primary users of 2x72 grinders). Personally I find the 3M Cubitron 976 to be the best belt out there. Depends what you want out of the belt - ceramics remove the most amount of steel at higher speeds and loads. Trizact give the best finish on steel, aluminium oxide is the most traditional for higher grits and multi materials and zirconia is very good for softer (wood, leather, brass etc.)

quote:

The glue used to join the belt halves goes bad after enough years.

Had a batch of belts for my 4 x 54 sander that was about 10 years old, they would come apart only after a few minutes of use
So I try to buy only enough belts for a year at a time

Same thing happened to me. You can reglue them. There are some how to videos on YouTube.