Had a fire in my belt sander today.

Shootymacshootface

I make little metal out of big metal.
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I have a Harbor Freight belt sander and you probably guessed it, I switch between wood and metal without giving it much thought. I was dressing up a part from an old Pacific reloading press from the 20's or 30's that was very sparky for some reason, and smoke started pouring out of the idler pulley area. I thought that I smoked the bearing or bushing or whatever they put in those things. I stopped it felt the wheel and it was not hot, then I realized that it smelt like wood. I grabbed my blow gun and blew lots of air in there from several angles. When I got it right a bunch of embers came out and continued to smolder elsewhere. Just something to be aware of.
 
I had a different experience with my old Skil belt sander, a wire from the switch to the motor got pinched and fried the switch; no parts available --
It still runs, but I can't turn it off.
 
Nothing like adding air to a fire and then blowing it to parts unknown. :D Glad it all worked out.
I've actually had a lot of success putting a fire out with a blowgun. The best one was a snowmobile that was engulfed in flames in my driveway. It's just like blowing out a candle.
I had a different experience with my old Skil belt sander, a wire from the switch to the motor got pinched and fried the switch; no parts available --
It still runs, but I can't turn it off.
My guess is that installed a wall switch for it?
 
I do a lot of grind-to-fit recoil pads for rifles and shotguns... mostly Kick-Eez pads. The urethane dust off the pads packs into all of the gaps in and around the belt sander. I did the same thing... was hand grinding a radius on a piece of steel and managed to set the urethane dust on fire.

I quickly unplugged it and carried it outside... I didn't want to burn my house down. I used an air gun to blow the smoldering dust out of it also.

My basement smelled like burning rubber for a couple of days.

After that, I started cleaning the dust out of it after every pad that I grind.

-Bear
 
Glad you caught it. May have been bad if you got called away for 15-20 minutes for a phone call.
Cheers
Martin
 
Yes, it seems that it would be better to use the blowgun before the fire.
True, prudent, and evident of due diligence, indeed.
But not nearly as effective at delivering the lesson not soon forgotten, and the story told for years:eek 2::big grin:

Set a couple things on fire myself, and the stories are STILL being drug up by my "friends":drink:
 
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