Choose the Right Wood for Belt Sanders

Video Transcript

"Hi, this is Jon, In this video clip, I'll be showing you the proper materials to sand with a belt sander. Some of the proper materials include an oak board or a chuck of pine. Now, these are actual wood. They're not veneers. They're not partical board. They're actual solid chunks of wood. These materials are okay to sand on as long as they don't have any nails in it or anything like that. Some of the materials that are not okay to sand on are veneers, and I'll show you why in just a second, treated lumber has chemicals in it that could get into the air and you could breathe them and they could be bad for you, in addition, if you have any type of painted wood that could potentially have lead paint on them. You don't want to sand on those. This is a piece of red oak veneer. Veneer is just a little, tiny, thin piece of wood on top of plywood. What I'm going to do is sand the top of it with a belt sander and show you how aggressive a belt sander can be and why you don't want to sand on a veneer. As you can see, with just a little bit of sanding, I have sanded right through my veneer and shown that ugly plywood underneath. Again, it is not usually recommended to sand on a veneer with a belt sander because it is so aggressive."