Unboxing 4x36" Belt & Disc sander + modifying for Knife Making (Allwin/Porter Cable)

I have previously made a knife and ground the bevels by hand using a file jig which took far too long! So I decided to buy a 4x36" sander, I have seen a few people use these for knife making and I figure that it'll be useful for woodwork as well. I did look at 2x72" grinders but making one didn't appeal to me currently and buying one didn't appeal to my budget.
This is the 4x36" Belt and Disc sander from Allwin, but it appears to be almost identical to the Porter Cable. I bought this as it has a bit more power than some of the other cheaper sanders.
I do need to make a pretty simple modification to the belt grinder; to make it suitable for grinding knife bevels I need to add a platen which is the same width as the belt so I can get in to plunge lines and just makes it easier for bevel grinding in general. I'm working on making a knife currently and so far it's working out well.
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[@DavidParker]

Hopefully this video helps anyone seeking to modify a 4x36" sander for knifemaking! I ground my first bevels on it and everything mostly went fine but I did find hot metal filings were collecting and melting some of the plastic shrouds, so I have plans to modify the sander further, maybe replace some of the plastic with sheet metal, we'll see! I'm in the middle of making some knives currently but all going to plan I should have a video on that process soon.

[@Zuriel2089]

I think I'm going to try the same mod, or something similar. I'm having the same plunge line problem. What do you use for the grind angle jig? is it just a piece of wood cut on an angle?

[@DavidParker]

Zuriel2089 yeah I just worked out the angle I’d need for the knife and cut that on a piece of wood. It’s working well for me, you have to be careful about chips of hot metal collecting in places where they can melt plastic but otherwise I have had no issues! Works great on wood too!

[@roadking99jokerst60]

I built a 2x48 belt grinder from parts available thru Knifemaker Supply. Front stand , pulley, pillow blocks to have a shaft to carry a 2x8 tire. Last item is the tensioner/tracker . This was powered by a one horse motor and it all let me hollow grind tool steel into knives.

[@TakamiWoodshop]

Looks sweet ... so cool mods made and will be mint after you get rid of the plastic parts. I have a Ryobi one and a piece of old dried-up-in-the-tube silicone works amazingly at cleaning the disc/belt.

[@DavidParker]

Rob Trautvetter - Takami Woodshop I think I have one of those ‘real’ sander cleaner sticks somewhere... I should remember to use it sometime!

[@max88nielsen]

Hi Rob. Which model of Ryobi ? and is it capable of being adjusted to a vertical mode and include a little work rest ? Regards from Denmark .

[@frankcoleman9005]

When you use the hand tap, chuck it in the drill press you drilled your hole with to keep it true.

[@paulvirgo1213]

Hi David Thank you for posting the video which I found very informative in several ways. I particularly like the direct drive feature (no belts or gears) to minimise power loss, something I have not found in any other brands I’ve researched here in Australia. I could not find the brand on sale in Australia in any state, so contacted Allwin direct to see if they have a distributor in Australia, unfortunately they don’t. They have however offered to make one available to me on a direct basis from their company in China, which is tempting. As I intend to use the sander for the same purposes as you, and indeed to make the same modification to the platen for knife making, I would appreciate your comments/impressions on overall build quality and especially your experience with any reliability issues that have surfaced to date. Anything else you may care to add would also be valuable. Regards Paul Virgo

[@e-vd]

I purchased the same model for the same purpose. I ended up removing the plastic dust shroud altogether for knife grinding bc the shroud just got in the way. I would be very interested to see if there's a way to work with the dust shroud bc I do miss the dust collection feature. Question: how do you sand inside curves with this sander? I'm making a wider, wooden work table to attach above the stock table. I'm hoping this will enable me to turn the workpiece around the edge of the sanding belt to sand outside curve shapes. Curious to see if you have another solution...

[@DavidParker]

I just sand inside curves with my random orbital spindle sander or by hand

[@joshuacook3223]

What type of steel did you use for the platen insert?

[@countryexploring5878]

is there a way to reverse the direction this belt sander runs?

[@DavidParker]

Not as far as I’m aware

[@frankcoleman9005]

You would have to install a switch to reverse polarity on the motor.