Best Belt Sanders in the UK

As Makita is a well-known power tools and petrol-powered tools vendor it is no surprise the sander by this company is included in the review. The 9404 belt sander model is equipped with a powerful 1010W motor, which maintains the feed rate of the sand belt at an impressive 440 metres per minute. Of course, the belt speed is user-adjustable, so you can choose from 5 speed positions depending on the material you work with. You can use a 100 mm-wide sanding belt of 610 mm length for sanding your workpieces with this Makita belt sander. And the manufacturer decided to include one of these belts in the supply package. In general, such parameters allow using the 9402 hand-held belt sander not only by amateurs but also by professionals. However, handling the sander does not require any specific skills as almost anyone can replace the belt with operating only one lever, all you need to keep attention to is the belt feed direction. Another convenience feature is the adjustment of the belt position relative to one of the sander ends using the dedicated knob, which helps achieve high quality of angle sanding. This portable belt sander has a casing made of structurally strong plastics and furnished with two handles to ensure a tighter and more convenient grip. Among the convenience features offered by modern belt sanders is the system of dust and chips collection using a dedicated bag. This belt sander is among these modern models the only difference being you can attach not only the bundled dust bag but also a vacuum cleaner to the sander to increase its performance. At the end of the review part dedicated to the Makita 9404 belt sander, we would like to highlight the simplicity of sander maintenance owing to the ease of brushes and belt replacement and an easy access to these parts.

This belt sander is definitely one of the top performers in its class not least due to its powerful electric motor and wide sanding belt. These features secure the sander leading position in sanding and finishing big workpieces.

The Bosch is another company, which products are frequently seen in power tool reviews and which 130 years of experience contributes greatly to the high quality of its products. We've picked the PBS 75 A model. This belt sander incorporates a 710 W-electric motor, which is capable of maintaining the feed rate of 350 metres per minute for the belt. Though the device offers no adjustment of belt speed you can manually control the sanding intensity by moving this belt sander faster or slower along a workpiece. However, there is another application scenario for this sander. This scenario implies using a separate bench, on which you can install the sander and thus process small parts or even sharpen knives. As safety measures are welcome, especially when working with power tools, we fancied an automatic safety device that ensures the right position of the belt. The device performs it by making the rollers feed the belt forward with a slight shift to the side opposite of the one from which the belt was slipped on. In addition, you can shift the belt central axis to either side by turning the adjustment screw with a screwdriver. To maintain reliable protection of your eyes and respiratory tracts the Bosch manufacturer opted for a special dust container with a filter instead of a conventional bag. This design allows gathering all the dust and removed material in the container the cleaning of which requires mere purging of the filter with air and brushing the inner part of the container.

To sum it up, for all the customers wishing to use this belt sander not only in a handheld mode but as a stationary sander as well this model is the optimum. Thus this dual-purpose design enables you to finish not only bulky workpieces, but also small elements and parts made of wood, plastic, and metal, which any homemaker will find useful.

As the practice shows in many cases belt sanders are not bulky and heavy power tools, which can be verified by using the next model in our review. The Powerfile belt sander by the Black and Decker manufacturer differs from the vast majority of such devices in design and appearance, which makes it look more like an electrically driven knife. The reason for the manufacturer designing the product in such a way is that the belt sander is intended for performing small and precise operations. With this small belt sander you can, among other things, sand surfaces in narrow workpiece apertures and gaps, finish various patterns and figures in wooden or metallic structures and elements – generally speaking, you can sand all the places inaccessible for a standard belt sander. The electric heart that beats inside this tool is very powerful for such a baby and can run the belt at tremendous 1600 metres per minute. The device is convenient for its adjustable belt speed, which can be manually set to 900 metres per minute for plastic sanding or removing an old paint layer while finishing wooden parts and structures can be done at the maximum belt speed. With that, you can adjust the position of the belt itself by rotating a special knob. The manual belt positioning allows for more precise angular finishing. The Powerfile by the Black and Decker collects all the dust and material left from stock removal into a special container equipped with a filter, which only requires emptying and brushing to use it again. The supply package of Powerfile belt sander contains the filter and three sanding belts, which makes the sander ready for work out-of-the-box.

We think it’s safe to recommend this sander to all craftsmen and workers who do woodworking, metal working or plastic processing on a regular basis. Try the Black and Decker Powerlife for yourself and you will see why it is so good for workpiece finishing, gaps and bezels smoothing and finishing other hard-to-reach places.

The next belt sander model by the Evolution vendor continues the trend of compact belt sanders. This compact power tool uses a 280W electric motor capable of rolling the belt at 380 metres per minute. This belt speed is enough to remove protruding material and smooth surface imperfections on soft materials, such as wood and plastic. Not only this portable belt sander is made compact, it is also lightweight with a 1.4 kg weight to enable a comfortable single-handed operation of the sander. However, the compactness and small weight do not prevent the device to offer as many features as its bigger peers. For example, the Evolution belt sander has an attachable dust bag to keep the air and environment around you free of dust. The designers have not forgotten about the belt position adjustment using a special control to make sanding near workpiece edges possible. For the bearings and other moving critical components of this power tool model, the vendor also ensured dust protection, which will contribute greatly to the prolongation of the product operating life. This compact handheld belt sander comes with three belts with a different abrasive grit for sanding various materials and a branded dust bag.

Speaking of the application of this sander model, we suggest using it for not very labour-intensive works on wood, plastic or other soft materials subject to processing with an abrasive material. Therefore, the sander can become a splendid assistant for amateur carpenters or people who like to implement DIY (do it yourself) designs.

The high-quality product by the American Black and Decker company that we included in our review is the KA86. This belt sander model has a powerful electric motor that can maintain the 206 meters per minute belt speed. This fixed maximum speed is convenient for preventing spoiling workpieces made of specific materials, which can be the case when using more high-speed belt sanders with no belt speed adjustment. The belt itself measures 75 x 457 mm, which will suffice for finishing rather wide areas. Just like the vast majority of modern belt sanders, this one is furnished with a dust collection system, which contrary to analogous systems with a plastic container uses a zippered tight tissue bag for collecting dust. After you finished your work with the belt sander, in most cases you just need to shake out the bag, though time after time it may require washing. With its detailed approach to the design, Black and Decker team have equipped the tool with two convenient handles the furthermost of which ensures a firm grip and reliable manual operation of the sander. Another useful feature the detailed design brings is locking of the start button in a pushed position with a smaller push-button that gives you more freedom in performing time-consuming sanding operations. At the end of our review of this belt sander, we would point out the automatic belt tracking system that keeps the belt in place even at high feed rates.

All in all, this rigid belt sander is a marvellous choice for those wanting to have a powerful yet reliable and safe belt sander with a moderate belt speed to finish soft materials safely.