Linisher Advice Please

I am doing an increasing amount of work on a 5" gauge steam loco where a linisher would be very handy. I have neither the space or budget for a big machine and wondered if anybody had used something like THIS cheap and cheerful Clarke woodworking machine for metal work.

Any advice welcome. Thank you.

Nick, I would suggest the model with the wider belt will be better, the belt should last longer, and it will take up no more room.

Chris Gunn

I have the 4" belted one and it does the job for me, seldom use the disc but teh belt gets used a lot. Buy some better belts like Zirconium as they last longer.

Yes to that one for small items also the 4 in one for larger parts I have both , but I suggest you check Miller tools in Wales as they are pounds cheaper

I have one of those. Although the belt is just 1" wide it will happily bring the end of a 1" square steel bar to a ground appearance (obviously not as accurate) so it's brilliant for cosmetically cleaning up sawn faces etc., but I use it for all sorts of stuff now, round ends of bars, getting rid of burrs, even touching up HSS tooling!

The (replacement not supplied) Clarke belts have a step that wears through rapidly, but I bought truckloads of belts with taped joins from MSC when they were on offer.

So, although sold for woodwork it's easily capable of hobby-level metalwork. Just about all the ME suppliers sell this machine and there's often someone with it on offer.

Neil

Whatever type you get make decent arrangements to collect the dust. Doesn't take long to create an incredible mess of fine dust. Not quite as bad as cast iron but up in the same league.

I have an older version of this :- https://www.lawson-his.co.uk/draper-50021-bds368-350-w-230-v-belt-and-disc-sander?gclid=CK7v3aGgrNICFQxmGwodg70Dng . Its killed one motor so far and current one is playing silly with the shop RCD so probably not long for this world. I suspect the enclosed design leads to dust getting where it shouldn't. No great worry as I have a industrial rated 3 phase one with built in dust cabinet to go in as soon as I arrange wiring.

Stockpiling belts hasn't worked for me. After about 3 or 4 years in store the stickum on the joint seems to loose flexibility and the belts tend to tear up in strips away from the join if when working on narrower parts. I found belt life and metal shifting ability to be rather better than expected. Hence the 200% over-stock. Got me a serious price break tho'.

Clive

I have a ryobi branded one which is basically the same and although they are not the most powerful thing they are nice and light .

If like me you detest grinding dust in the workshop it is just a matter of setting it up on a small fold up table outside , i usually use the disc for cleaning and squaring up wooden bases for my small engines .

Ian.

In NZ there is a linisher/belt sander, with a sanding disc as well that fits on the right hand side of a 6"/8" bench grinder, these units are (? were) made in NZ. The belt is 75 mm wide, and it sticks out about 200 mm, the disc is 150 mm(I think). There probably is something similar in UK.

Ian S C

I have an older version of this :- https://www.lawson-his.co.uk/draper-50021-bds368-350-w-230-v-belt-and-disc-sander?gclid=CK7v3aGgrNICFQxmGwodg70Dng . Its killed one motor so far

Killed two of that style at my last employment using them on metal - they appear to have been designed to be used on wood only, but the instructions didn't explicitly say so. The dust gets into the windings & wears through the insulation, eventually leading to a terminal "bang". I have the carcasses under a bench at home, having had the idea of replacing the built-in motor with a pulley & "under driving" them from a remote mounted motor. Another project that will probably never come to fruition !

Nigel B

I use a cheapo belt sander in a workmate, it doubles for woodwork too

I also have the Clarke 4" model, has does me just fine on ally, brass, steel, cast iron. In fact have just de-flashed the base of the S50 mill engine that I'm starting, along with the valve chest cover, flywheel, plus wood bases so a good all rounder.

http://www.machinemart.co.uk/p/clarke-cs4-6d-belt-and-disc-sander/

George.

I have one with a four inch wide belt as well and very handy it is. The disk gets most use when touching up the HSS bit for my tangential lathe tool.

Just a word of caution. A year ago or so I used the linisher to polish up some steel bits. Only minutes later I went back into the grinding/dirty shed where it lives and found it full of smoke. The reason? The previous job some days before had been to square of the ends of some bits of timber. The sparks from the steel polishing had set the wood dust aglow.

It goes without saying that since then if I sand anything combustible I clean the thing out immediately after.

That was a bit to close for comfort in a wooden shed.

Rik

I use the Warco BDS460 version of the 4" belt sander. I did a review on my website which goes into some of the pros and cons. One thing I have noticed is that some belts have a very noticeable join which is uncomfortable to use.

John

Nigel B

Looks like they are official motor killers then. I'm sure I asked when I got mine and was told that it was suitable for both wood and metal. Mr Drapers belts said fine for both on the pack.

Open frame motor so it is vulnerable to dust getting in. Would have thought that wood dust wasn't a lot better tho'. Not abrasive like metal but good insulator so winding temperatures might go up dangerously.

Clive.

Thank you all for your helpful comments and advice. I went for the 100 mm wide version and managed to pick up a Kobe version HERE for £75.00 less another 15% discount that has since disappeared off the site, making a final price of £63.00 including free delivery. Can't be bad! Now off to look for some high tech belts as recommended by Jason.

Once again thank you all. Nick

Edited By Nick T on 26/02/2017 13:21:46

We bought the Clarke combined 2" sanding belt and 6" grinder for a small job at work, just reducing some ally strip by a mm or so, on the sander. It is under-powered and the belt has such a big bump where it's joined it deflects the workpiece and the person's hand holding it (in pliers)!

Is there such a thing as a seemless sanding belt?

Ed.

Yes, google butt-jointed sanding belt

MSC sell them.

Neil

Nick T

Nice score on that Kobe. Excellent value for money.

However it looks very similar to the Draper model that Nick B and myself have found to be vulnerable to motor problems due to dust ingress. Suggest that you run with some sort of dust collector on the nozzle at the back if you possibly can. My, probably dying, second motor has lasted about 7 years so far, maybe something in excess of 1,000 hours actual use time so its hardly an immediate problem but would be sensible to take precautions if you can. The actual incidence of this sort of issue being notoriously variable.

Whatever the motor life issues mine has been a very effective tool. If you decide not to run a dust collection system do rig up effective screens to limit where the dust goes. Having a partitioned off section of my workshop for dirty jobs, grinding, blasting et al I haven't bothered but even by the standards of an assigned dirty corner its more than a little over-messy. The slide up deflection & catcher fence at the back is barely a pious hope without a suction collector.

Ians suggestion of arranging to use it outside is excellent advice.

clive.

Thank you Neil.

Ed.

NIck and others

A word of warning. I have a 1" belt sander that I use a lot. But from painful experience if you use it on aluminum ensure that ALL metal dust is cleaned out before using it on steel. Unbeknownst to me, my son had used it on aluminum. The next time I used it on steel after a minute or so my hands chest and face were enveloped in a brilliant white fireball, severely burning my hands, setting the front of my shirt smoldering and burning off most of my mustache and eyebrows. ( My eyes were OK thanks to glasses) . See my letter in ME 09 Mar 2001.

I now leave the side cover off and clean out any residue after each use.

John Purdy