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I have been using a 24" flat lap grinder for the last 8 years or so. I would like to add a wet belt sander to our studio. I do not want to make a mistake by getting one that is too small and of course do not want to get one that we will quickly out grow. Been looking at Covington. The work we would be doing is probably not going to be larger then 21". 1/2" thick. Any recommendations are appreciated!

older Somaca 132" x 4" OR 106"x 4" if you can find one. C.R. Lawrence makes a good one as well.they bought out Somaca a couple of years ago. The 0ne I had was made in the 40's and it is still going strong.

You will outgrow (if you haven't already) any of the Covington models. Get a floor model, either Somaca or CRL or Bee from Canada. All fairly similar, all about double the price of the top of the line Covington, and all will last the rest of your life.

I have a very old CRL (though not as old as Tom's), so if you can find a used model in decent shape it can still serve you well.

I have had my upright Bee sander for 10 years. I think the pulley may need re crowning to aid tracking. How hard is this to do? What other maintenance should I do when it is down? I agree with all the comments- you definitely will use your big sander, don't even worry. It will be an indispensable tool. The Covington is not even comparable. You want to position the sander near a hose source, a bucket underneath will catch the water. There is sludge from the drain and water spray. Tom, why do you like the older sanders? Are new ones not so good? I was wondering.

You could cheat on the crowning of the top pulley by using a strip of masking tape in the centre. You may also find that the tensioning spring for the top pulley has rusted out and that the crowning isn't the issue. Sometime way in the past I posted about maintenance on a belt sander. Search the archives. If you didn't do the suggestions, now you'll wish you had.
Warning! don't just buy the crowned top pulley, get a new bearing and the spring at the same time. Not all that expensive. Anther warning you can get 'standard' bearings to fit the BEE but the ones that are used in the BEE are specially made for it of harder longer lasting metal. Might as well order directly and cut out the middle men suppliers.

Of course if you'd followed my archived suggestions you might not have been needing to do anything repair wise now and the job would be easier.

Alas, I remember your advise. Some heeded, others left aside. How do I recall the post?

that is a good question to ask Brad as I can't find it. I wonder if it was in the lost archives? However since you joined in 2004 I think the posts should be there but it is tricky to dig them out even with advanced search.

most of the older sanders were heavier in construction than any newer ones and in my mind had better bearings. They were built during the time of real battleships and hence these were of the same construction. $ spent on equipment in those days was not as crucial as it seems to be today. People wanted the best they could get and expected it to last a lifetime which much of it has.

While looking for information to see if I could replace the back plate on the Covington with a rubber drum roller such as the floor model sanders have , I came across this video which shows how to adjust the Covington so that it will take regular, slightly longer, belts available from lapidary suppliers rather than being limited to those supplied by Covington. No extra parts are needed and the necessary bolt hole is already there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rp1bc0vfIk8

Before moving back to Oz I had a floor model WBS which was just too bulky to bring so I purchased a Covington here as I couldn't justify the expense of a new floor model here, as I had to replace much of my 110v equipment with 240v machines. I don't use it and continue to look for a used floor model. I don't like the rigid back plate on the Covington.

Has anyone made a modification to one? Would a rubber strip over the metal back plate improve it? That would probably mean using the longer belts but without making the adjustment, the longer belt may accommodate the extra thickness made by the addition of rubber to the back plate? Has anyone fiddled around with trying to modify the back plate?

Look forward to any input. Jen

Still wondering if anyone has modified a Covington WBS with a rubber pad or to take a roller rather than the rigid back plate. Would appreciate any input. Thanks, Jen