welcome back to Steve Robb reviews today we're going to a review on a new belt sander I bought
a couple of vids back there I did a teardown on my old belt sander guys I had to have that for
so many years and it was quite tough trying to find another belt sander so of course I put in
the comments would yous guys think I should get for a belt sander and I shopped around all over
I went to all the big box stores took a look at the mall and everything and my criteria was
it had to suit my purpose and my purpose in a belt sander might not be the same as yours I'm
gonna show you how I use a belt sander and this is part of the criteria so the one I picked is
this one right here and I just thought I'd sure you can take a look there at the number and it
comes in two versions it comes in a variable speed and the one that I got just one speed
that's it just on and off the last one I had was a model from Sears and it had the variable speed
on it and to tell you the truth I only use it at the one speed the highest speed all the time so I
thought why should I spend an extra fifty bucks on a variable speed that I'm never going to use
anyways another thing I did was I went I still have lots of these belts left but I'll use these
these are the three by 21 and I went to a three by 24 so I got the makita belts with it and the
box is pretty much the same as the belts inside and you can see there's really not that much of
a difference maybe an inch and a half longer but what I'd like to do is it's just mention
that I really don't think I need a variable speed and a lot of them have variable speeds
another thing that I did not like about most of the newer belt Sanders was their design and for
me I just couldn't incorporate it into what I do so what I like about this design the first
place well first of all it's a Makita and you can see I've got my my router is a Makita and usually
what do you do when you have good success with a power tool you stick with the same brand and
same as this one and guys this is really heavy and I like it for that and it's ergonomically you know
like it fits that's the best thing I could do say as it fits another thing is the dust bag on the
side that was ideal for me and it had to be able to sit level like that and there's a reason why
I'm going to show you now they're all the same all they really have is just the tensioner here and it
just makes the belt track you know in the center and and that's pretty well it and then they have
the quick change you know to take your belt off and on and guys that's not hard to do it's just
a flick of a lever and that's it I mean the dull sense me showing you how to do that kind of stuff
but I'm gonna show you the reason why I like this compared to a lot of people go out and they buy
one that's more of a bench mount so it sits here and it's also got like a round disc on the side I
looked at them I just couldn't buy them because sometimes I have to take this with me and you
actually have to do something you know by taking down some wood in a particular spot and I could
never use a surface mount type of belt sander so I went with this and there's something else I want
to show you when I did the review on this one here at the end of the cord what was there one of these
doohickeys these guys remember that for them to follow in the channel so at the end of this vid
I'm going to take this apart because there are so many people guessing what this thing is on the end
of the cord and another thing I have never owned a power tool in my life except this one here guys 16
foot cord and it's not like a cheap plastic cord this is a decent cord 16 feet long have you guys
ever bought a power tool that had a 16 foot cord on it well this the first one for me we take you
over to my table saw and I'm gonna show you a little bit of a demonstration of how I use this
most of the time and then we're gonna take this sucker off right here so let's get to it right now
okay so I'm just going to show you this this is an ordinary scrap piece of wood here and this is
a piece of pine guys I like working with a lot of pine and a lot of times when you have a piece of
wood and you just want to smooth it over well this is what I do and this is the reason why I bought
this type of model is because it has a flat top you take a look at all the other different belt
Sanders out there and you're going to see that they have a handle on the top or they got some
kind of an obstruction that will not allow you to do this and that's exactly that I want to do with
this belt sander and my old craftsman was exactly the same it had the flat top so I can turn it
upside down and use it in a durable purpose mode so I'll just show you for instance how I do it
now that was only just one quick pass but I'll tell you what that's just like night
and day compared to using an oscillating sander and that kind of stuff I also use
this on steel you yeah yeah I don't think you're supposed to do this but sometimes
if I'm working with some say aluminum or softer steel or even just a mild steel and
I want to put like a nice round shape on it where my other metalworking tools are
a little too aggressive and I want to polish it up really nice well this is what I go to
but most of the time yeah I'm using it for wood and this is the reason why so
take a look if you're interested and take a look at different belt Sanders if you do woodworking
and try to get one that mounts like this that you can turn upside down and use like a bench top
model and saves you for buying two tools is right so let's take a look at the end of this power cord
because there's a little thing on the end there I showed you and so many people were interested last
time what's in that thing and there was people are saying that their Ferro rod type of gizmo to
straighten out electrical imbalances and all this kind of stuff and I posted it on Instagram what
it was let's take a look and I'm gonna tear this thing apart I put some gloves on first because
it's hard to get apart and let's tear this thing apart and I'm gonna show you what's inside that
thing okay this is it here and I just want to show you on the outs I don't know if it's gonna come
in but you could probably see them that lettering there and if I show it there properly there it is
right there and I'll tell you it was hard getting into this thing last time you know taking it apart
guys I really wouldn't want this thing on my oh my saw it would drive me right squirrely and oh my
saw on my belt sander and I got to tear this apart and I'm gonna show you what's in there guys you
don't need this thing on there it's no fair or odd thing or I don't know what they call it but all
this is in here this half just a pump the plastic and this one here is one of these pellets I guess
it's like some kind of a pellet thing that when you go through the cash they have to scan it so
they know you didn't steal the product I guess but that's about it and yeah I can't imagine having
that thing on my power cord this is a 16 foot cord and you know how much that would snag on stuff
and everything and you know you don't need that thing at the end as far as I'm concerned you guys
see what it is I mean as far as I'm concerned that looks like one of them ID tags there for
anti-theft it doesn't look like anything that's going to be you know balancing out electrical
circuits or some kind of gizmo at the end so thanks for joining me here today guys this belt
sign is gonna come in handy I'll be used at the future and you'll see me using it I like Makita
tools so far they stand up terrific and I'll keep on buying them and like I say flip it upside down
it's a dual purpose tool thanks for joining me here today if you haven't seen this channel
before well you're welcome to subscribe come back again guys let's have some more fun Cheers