Sanding Belts for Metals
We supply a wide range of sanding belts for metals. The Cibo Ceramic belts are particularly suited to aggressive sanding & grinding.
- Our FX87 ceramic sanding belts are available from 36 grit up to 120 grit. They are ideal for high aggression grinding of steels, stainless steels and even aluminium.
- FF87 is our more flexible ceramic abrasive sanding belt. We particularly recommend the FF87 belts for finer sanding with powerfile machines and also with tube polishers.
Our two most popular zirconium oxide (zirconia) sanding belts would be HZ72 and TZ59 materials. both are available from 24 grit up to 120 grit.
- HZ72 sanding belts are made with a tough and waterproof polyester backing which makes it particular suited to less flexible applications such as grinding belts and linisher sanding belts.
- TZ59 sanding belt material has an X-weight cotton backing. We recommend TZ59 for sanding sleeves and for powerfile belts where you particularly want a zirconia grit.
Aluminium oxide sanding belts are now used much less commonly for metal sanding. The ceramics and zirconia grits normally give significantly improved belt life. Where aluminium oxide sanding belts are required we have a range of different materials we recommend
- HA66 is a polyester backed aluminium oxide sanding belt. Available from 80 grit to 500 grit HA66 is a good choice for finer grit sanding of aluminium and for wet grinding and sanding.
- TX52 is an x-weight cotton backed aluminium oxide sanding belt material. it is available from 16 grit to 220 grit. We often supply TX52 wide sanding belts for graining aluminium where there is a risk of paper belts breaking.
- TJ7 and JF4top or 2 of our more technical and flexible aluminium oxide sanding belt materials. They are both available from 60 to 400 grit. JF4top is an excellent material for fine grit sanding of aluminium tubes.
- KK712 and KK718 are both aluminium oxide, compact grain sanding belt materials. Their long belt life means they are particularly well suited to use on larger sanding belts such as for the Garboli orbital tube sander machines.
Sanding Belts for Woods
The most popular sanding belts for wood are made from our KP949 materials and are often supplied for both long pad sander sanding belt machines and for wide belt sander applications.
If you are looking for cloth sanding belts for wood then we would normally recommend the aluminium oxide abrasive cloth materials such as our TX52 which is the most popular cloth sanding belt for wide belt sanders.
How To Choose the Best Abrasive Belt
Ceramic Abrasives – The toughest and most durable abrasive grit. Use it on hard metals and in high pressure grinding applications such as belt grinding of steels on both backstand grinders and powerfile belts
Zirconia Abrasives – Tougher than aluminium oxide grit zirconia has, for a long time, been the most common product used for metal grinding but the new Cibo Ceramics are becoming the first choice option
Aluminium Oxide Abrasives – The most common abrasive grit. Excellent for metal finishing applications and the best and first choice for wood sanding.
Silicon Cabide Abrasives – A much sharper and more friable abrasive. Silicon carbide grit cuts like a knife and is therefore excellent for use on lacquers and resin coatings where you need to cut back the surface.
We have a more detailed blog which explains the differences between the various abrasive grits. You can read this blog here
What Grit Size Is Best?
The million dollar question…
If you ultimately require a bright polished finish then at step 1 use the finest grit size capable of effectively removing the initial metal stock, this will save you time during the final polishing process.
If you are grinding only and finish doesn’t matter then go for the most aggressive and most powerful belt to improve lifetime and the speed of cut. e.g.
- Notching steel tube in preparation for mig welding: P36 grit HZ72 zirconia or preferably our FX87 P36 grit ceramic belts
- Notching thin walled stainless steel tube in preparation for tig welding: P60 FX87 ceramic belts
What difference does abrasive belt flexibility make?
For backstand grinder belts (2000 x 75, 2000 x 100 etc) the grinding pressure will be higher so a good strong, preferably polyester backed cloth is ideal. For more detail sanding where you are working on the slack of the belt (such as is sometimes the case with a vertical linisher – belt sizes 1525 x 25, 1065 x 25) or powerfile belts then flexibility can be more important.
For a longer read we have prepared a blog article which gives some more detail on flexibility and coated abrasives.