The first question many people ask is “how long do belts last?” The better question is how fast you are cutting and how much material you’re removing. However hard you run them, good habits will get more life out of every belt.

The best practice is cleaning your grinder, wheels and platen regularly. Cleaning stops grinding dust from building up on the back of your belts. That build-up on your wheels and platen wears the back of the belt and the belt joint prematurely.

A sure telltale sign is the back of the belt: if the writing is gone or the backing is black, grinding dust is transferring onto it. That can cause belt slip and deposit dust on your wheels and glass platen, which hurts the quality of your flat grinding.

Steps to make your belts last longer

Simple maintenance habits that extend the life of your 2×72 grinder belts.

Use a dust extraction system

Run a dust extraction system with your grinder. Pulling grinding dust away before it settles is the single best thing you can do for belt life.

Clean the grinder daily

If you don’t have extraction, clean the grinder, platen and all aluminum wheels to remove dust on a daily basis — or more often if you are grinding a lot.

Clean the glass platen

The easiest way is acetone on the glass. A second option is a razor blade in a holder, lightly scraping the build-up at a 45-degree angle. Use caution and scrape slowly and safely.