Belts for Hand Held Machines

Although we still stock some zirconia (blue) belts, AFS now mainly reccomend the Cibo Ceramic belts for high aggression stock removal using a powerfile belt.  With the longer belt life and finer finish, ceramic belts are the obvious choice.

The new Cibo Ceramic belts are ideal for initial and intermediate graining on stainless steel sheets and box sections.

Use the FX87 P40 or 60 grit for aggressive stock removal, and the P80 / 120 grit sleeves for pre-finishing and creating the grain finish.  A final burr free, satin finish can then be acheived with either a Tex wheel or an SCM belt.

If you need a very consistent finish, then you may wish to consider using the trizact 337DC belts.  The A300 is excellent for blending a 240 grit finish.  The A65 trizact belt is very similar to a finer 320 grit finsh.

Most small machines have a tolerance anywhere between +/- 5mm, and +/-10mm on some of the wider belt machines.  Cibo manufacture the belts to a tolerance of +/-1mm in length. which means that even if we do not have the exact belt length you need, you will often find a belt of similar length which will fit equally well. Below are a couple of common belt size examples:

Black & Decker DIY powerfile specifies a length of 451mm.We regularly supply belts 457mm for this machine.

Fein produce a 2-wheel tube polisher which is specified variously at 610 x 40mm, 618 x 40 and 620 x 40mm.  Not surprisingly, our standard belt is 610 x 40mm and fits the machine every time.